KUALA LUMPUR: Khairy Jamaluddin has voiced his concern over the possibility that government-linked companies (GLC) could be broken up and sold off.
In a series of tweets following Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s announcement that its board of directors had offered their resignations, the Rembau Member of Parliament said he was not surprised by the development.
“Not surprising. Apparently PM (Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) has yet to even grant MD (Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar) an appointment at the office. BoD meeting cannot be called. Even with upcoming changes, I hope present GLC model will be continued. GLC transformation is a success story. Need tweaks for sure.
“For instance, GLCs have (in some sectors) crowded out private business. This was a long-standing issue. That was probably the spirit of PM’s comments that GLCs deviated from Bumi agenda. So tweak needed there,” he wrote.
Khairy however stressed that there was need for Khazanah to continue serving as the government’s strategic investment arm.
Khazanah, he noted, is now a “very different entity” from what it was at the end of Dr Mahathir’s first tenure as the prime minister, where is was “essentially a holding entity” for the government’s stake in companies, with no strategic role.
“Post PM, Khazanah was transformed from just a holding entity to a strategic investment arm with a mandate to not just increase asset value but also make investments into sectors that would benefit the nation,” he said.
He said it would be regrettable if Khazanah was dismantled and replaced with an outdated business model.
“Khazanah recruited the best and brightest Malaysians to do this. It would be a shame to dismantle everything that has been built only to replace it with the business mode of the 1990s.
“My fear: GLCs will be broken up and flogged off to a new set of 1990-esque businessmen. We all know how that ended,” he said.
Khazanah, in a statement on Thursday, announced that nine of its board directors, including Azman as well as chief executive Tan Sri Nor Md Yusof had offered to resign to enable the new government to decide on the entity’s direction and leadership.
It is understood that the directors had signed their resignation letters, which were undated, at a meeting on Tuesday.
Other directors who had also tendered their resignations included Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, Datuk Dr Nirmala Menon, Tan Sri Mohamed Azman Yahya, Datuk Mohammed Azlan Hashim, Yeo Kar Peng, Tan Sri Andrew Sheng Len Tao and Raja Tan Sri Arshad Raja Uda.
The decision came weeks after Dr Mahathir had criticised Khazanah for having allegedly deviated from its original purpose, which was to help the Bumiputera.