My own article on Nazir and the NEP is still in the midst of construction but I would let this praiseworthy article by Tay Tian Yan go first.
This is what the Malays should write about him instead of ridiculing him for baring the truth about the NEP.
Insteads of calling him anak bangsawan, born with a golden spoon and a product of the NEP we should admire his capability as a rising star in the corporate world who has taken a bank from the gutter to what it is today.
Nazir Razak wouldn't have brought CIMB to become a respectable name in the region if he hadn't got it up there.Imagine if he is stuck to the Ibrahim Ali's mindset, insecure, myopic, medieval and feudalistic and one who still live in cloud cuckoo land.The Malays are better off without the likes of Ibrahim Ali.
Nazir Razak would not have succeeded if he had let himself be drawn to employing homogeneous management in his bank which was exactly what BBMB was before, mired in Malay monism.He has made full use of the talents of our pluralistic society and I agree with him the NEP was bastardised.
I quote what he said.
"As a personal example, when I took over the helm at CIMB, I resisted the tendency to surround myself with people who thought the same way as I did or with whom I was socially comfortable. Instead, I selected a very diverse management team, in age, race and gender, so that I could draw from our varied perspectives and arrive at better solutions than a homogenous team could have achieved."
The Malays need to do away with the "dengki'" culture if they want to progress.Below is what one appreciative Chinaman wrote.
Nazir Razak — Tay Tian Yan
AUG 19 — Some say if he were not Najib’s brother, he couldn’t have achieved this much today.
But some also say if he were not Najib’s brother, he could have achieved even more.
I have an inclination towards the second saying.
Nazir Razak is the youngest brother of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and the youngest son of the country’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak.
Nazir is the chief executive officer of CIMB. About 10 years ago, he was instrumental in the merger between Bank Bumiputra and the Bank of Commerce in what everyone believed was a bailout for the ailing BBMB.
Not many viewed the merged entity’s future with favour. The fiscal conditions of BBMB back then, along with its modus operandi and personnel issues were tacky enough for anyone to fix.
Nazir’s challenge was to transform the government-sponsored bank plagued by a severe lack of competitiveness, rigidity and corruption into a highly efficient, market-oriented and profitable business entity.
Upon taking over the bank, Nazir embarked on a slew of ambitious restructuring policies.
He succeeded in convincing the board to lure elite bankers with attractive remuneration and bring in many non-Bumiputera managers. With the power in his hands, he reorganised the internal operations of the bank, weeded out connections, optimised the businesses and established a set of governance guidelines.
At the same time, he reinvented the bank’s branding position in a bid to reinstate customer confidence. He launched an array of financial services and products to meet the market needs. He even brought the company’s businesses overseas in an ambitious expansion programme.
This erstwhile dying bank has now received a new lease of life over the years, with capitalisation and profit margin both among the country’s top three.
Nazir’s competence is beyond doubt, and the corporate sector generally agrees that he is not merely an outstanding banker, but one of the country’s most capable CEOs too.
But Nazir is more than just a top-rated manager, he is also an initiator and advocate of open and progressive ideas.
He has since Mahathir’s time been making proposals to the government to reform the country’s economic structure, saying that it should further liberalise the economy and implement free market principles while uprooting antiquated and stale policies in a bid to create a more equitable and competitive business environment.
Among his most controversial proposals was the one calling for the abolition of the New Economic Policy.
He argued that the NEP had not helped the Malays in general, but had instead shut the majority of Malays out of the country’s economic activities while denying non-Malays access to the mainstream national economy, jeopardising the country’s overall economic performance in so doing.
His did not make the remarks to please foreign investors or non-Malays. He unapologetically hit out at the NEP during an exclusive interview with Utusan Malaysia some two months ago.
Nazir’s achievements had nothing much to do with his family, upbringing or his Bumiputera status, but his own wisdom and input.
His progressive psyche testifies that the Malays can still get plugged to the world so long as they are willing to deliver themselves out of the “kampung mentality” cocoon.
Some say he makes the most ideal candidate for finance minister, but the prime minister has been reluctant to bring his younger brother into the government or politics.
Having said that, there are voices calling for Nazir to play a bigger role so that he can change the largely conservative mindset of the Malays and help steer the nation towards greater progress. — mysinchew.com
Malaysian Insider
7 comments:
salam,
while we, the malays keep arguing about who's who, many capable bodies are leaving the country because their expertise is not appreciate here. we need more people like nazir...
mengenangbudi
I was just talking with my wife concerning NEP last night. Even thought it does not concern us, we felt for the Malays in the pretense of 'helping them'.
I am a Bumi and my wife a Chinese. I know that I am second class bumi.
Personally, the Chinese and Indians doesn't care if NEP applied to them or not. What they are asking for is equality. There are poor people among Malay, Chinese, Indians and more among the Kadazandusun/Iban/Murut etc...Everyone knows the Chinese pays tax the most.
Many of my Chinese, Indians and Malay friends are doing alright. I think my wife and me are doing well, working hard and being honest. I think the Malays should rethink of NEP for themselves.
We have interviewed many Malay graduates with bachelor degree with local university asking for job which pays RM600/month (Clark, office boy, admin stuffs). Most of them do not know how to speak English. When ask what they are doing now? Tolong makcik jaga kedai runcit...belum ada kerja...direct selling...
In other words, Nazir Razak is a perfect example of a "Towering Malay" and fully deserving of that title. You can be sure he will be able to hold his own and compete effectively against the best from the Caucasians, Chinese, or Indians, anywhere in the world.
In fact, there are many more of such admirably competent and capable Malays such as Datuk Seri Abdul Wahib Omar of Maybank, Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz of Bank Negara, plus others too numerous to mention here.
Then on the flip side are those intellectual light-weights whose only outstanding attribute is a big mouth which they use to sow dissension, disunity, jealousy, and race hate. These kind of small-minded people are inflicting the nation untold damage with their negative actions and speech. In fact, they should be looked upon as traitors to the country and to the law-abiding, hardworking citizens of all races.
Unfortunately, unsophisticated, simple-minded folks are often beguiled by these types of characters, who are mostly self-serving conmen, and support them mindlessly despite the negativism they espouse, or maybe because of the negativism they espouse. And the country pays a price in the loss of dynamism and global competitiveness.
A nation cannot advance and compete on an international stage if the incompetent, lazy, and intellectually inferior part of its population insists on dragging the competent and the capable down to their level.
Hi,
Don't know much about nazir but it seems like people seems to forget what is the best solution for this chaos. Please don't talk about economy while the single most important thing to unite the races is education. SSS is the current solution, najib should focus on that and enforce 1 single school system so that the pool of the younger generation is leveled and liberate the education sector before start liberating the economic sector. each of the race must be willing to sacrifice their rights in the education sector. Then only we can open up the economic sector. I am a kampong boy that cam to kl and just get whatever opportunity till i got a position as a senior consultant in the private non Bumi IT sector with only my guts my degree and brains within a short term. But merits only is not enough because in private sector race still count. to brake this barrier the first thing is to liberalize the education. stop funding for chinese/indian school and in return the entry to the uni should be based on merit.
sebenarnya dalam fikiran bukan melayu...melayu ini bangsa lemah yang perlu dibantu...kemudian ada pulak melayu yang dah berjaya lupa diri mengiyakan pulak mcm anon august 20, 2010 1.25pm.adakah dia faham kenapa budak2 tu cakap B.Inggeris broken?Cuba tanya budak2 bkn melayu,sama saja brokennya.Hanya mereka hentam saja.Cuba lah fahami kenapa pemimpin terdahulu buat dasar NEP ini.Ada kebaikannya,hanya kita saja tak mahu mengakuinya sebab EGO. Jika Nazir boleh memperaktik dasar terbuka dalam pentadbirannya, boleh kah lain2 sykt milik bukan melayu ikut sepertinya?Hakikatnya tidak ada,jika boleh semuanya nak dikaut.Sila buat semakan di organisasi mana2 pun.Jika pun ada melayu yang diangkat tinggi dlm organisasi mereka,tentu bersebab dan punyai kepentingan.Itu lah hakikatnya. Kenapa bila Tok Him dan Tun M sebut berkaitan kepentingan melayu disebut racis? Walhal CSL pun dah akui bahawa dia tidak boleh tak memperjuangkan kepentingan bangsanya kerana itu tujuan partinya ditubuhkan.Adakah dengan sikap toleransi melayu ini boleh diperbodohkan?Adakah ingatan Tan Sri Mahyuddin berkaitan 13Mei itu berupa ugutan? Samasekali tidak...bilamana pihak parti pemerintah mengingatkan kisah silam,mereka dikatakan mengugut rakyat...tetapi adakah pihak yang satu lagi berfikiran positif? Tidak jugak, mereka hanya fikirkan negetif.Bagi saya yang seusia Nazir berkata bahawa tanpa NEP mungkin saya tidak terdaya berada seperti kini, punyai perniagaan sendiri. Dulu saya hanyalah budak kampung yang miskin dan bapa hanya penoreh getah upahan manakala ibu surirumah.Tanpa ada dasar NEP mungkin saya tak dapat mengubah nasib keluarga saya.Saya amat berterima kasih kepada pemimpin yang mencadangkan idea NEP ini. Seperti idea Tun Razak tubuhkan Felda, mungkin tiada peneroka yang berjaya seperti kini. Maka jika Nazir berkata dasar NEP itu tak bagus, mungkin ianya tak sesuai dengan taraf dia,tp bagi saya yang miskin ni amatlah memerlukan dasar NEP itu.
Bro,
1. I have nothing personal against Nazir, besides being a son of an aristocrat family brother of the PM and son of a great PM he is not the only successful Malay banker in town.
There are many more successful self made bankers in Malaysia like Arab Malaysian Tan Sri Azman and the Banker's Boss Bank Negara's Zeti Aziz, but as a CEO of one of the biggest banks in Malaysia I think Nazir has much to learn on how to articulate what he thinks to the public without sounding too condescending especially in the hyper sensitive subject of the NEP. The SP Setia Boss Tan Sri Liew articulated his thoughts quite well a lot better in the same MCA Economic Congress.
2. Melayu jati 4:40pm expressed his thoughts on the NEP more clearly than Nazir.
3. I agree with Anon 3:23pm that the Ruling Government should prioritise and look to liberalising our Education system first with the introduction of the satu Sekolah Untuk Semua system so that everybody can finally begin to speak, read and write fluently in the National language and English and perhaps then there would not be this nonsense talk about Malay, Chinese or Indian local graduates not speaking good english and so cannot get good jobs myths, before we completely liberalise our economy.
TQ.
Anon. August 20, 3:23 PM, dan
eddy,
Your proposal to have Satu Sekolah untuk Semua will likely face resistance from many - not only from the non-Malays but even from some Malays themselves.
Just a few days ago there was a news report of a Malay lady headmistress of a Sekolah Kebangsaan in Johor who allegedly made some hurtful, insulting remarks to her non-Malay students, something more or less like this: "Poorah, go away, get lost! You are not welcome here. Go and study in your vernacular schools."
This type of discriminatory attitude may be quite widespread but not reported in the press. So, I am not surprised if the non-Malay students are reluctant to go to a Sekolah Kebangsaan because of fears that they could be subjected to this type of hostile treatment and harassment.
Ish
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