- Authorities must be open and professional when choosing tech agency CEOs.
- Respect the operation, honor the people picked to result to raise the bar on performance
.png "Serious roles demand professional processes and respect to the Chairmen/CEOs")
Leading government organizations in the engineering industry have always been popular button seats that required tenacity and experience as CEOs.
But the often calm, some would say, mysterious way of picking these leaders leaves lots of room for rumor mongering, up cutting, maneuvering and lobbying. Unsurprisingly, this then leaves a problem level over the appointed individuals. Was the ideal candidate chosen for the position?
Before their official announcements were made, it has also affected the employment of at least two leaders, who were identified by media as incoming CEOs of Digital Nasional Bhd ( in 2023 ) and Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd ( 2022 ). Both provides were secretly rejected by a furious govt. Because nothing was officially announced in the first place, the separate departments, the Ministry of Finance for Digital Nasional and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation for Cradle, were not required to make any presentations. However, one may picture the aggravation and suffering experienced by the affected functions.
One week before the official announcement on 8 October, Dr. Rais Hussin’s appointment as CEO of MRANTI ( now known as TiPM or Technology innovation Park Malaysia ) was also reported in the media. Thankfully, that did not have an impact on his appointment.
However, these appointments are currently being made in a major role that necessitates serious and transparent procedures.
Additionally, there is the lack of professional manner shown to some company managers when their treaties expire. The company market will explain to you in this situation that the Communication Ministry has been specifically at fault since the end of 2002. Nuraizah Abdul Halim, the president since 1998, requested an extension of her contract, but he only learned via telephone ( Gen Z visitors, Bing it please ) that she would not be renewed after 5 p.m. ( Gen Z visitors, Bing it!
On his last evening, Sharil Tarmizi, the then chairman and CEO of MCMC, was informed by email that he would not been renewed, which happened in December 2014. He was chosen in October 2011.
As a former MCMC chairman once said,” All meetings as president have a two-year time. The legislation allows for a maximum of five upgrades”.
All chairs arrive without the knowledge of when their last day in office will be. Your tenure ends naturally on the date specified, “until you get a new watikah ( as each appointment is referred to in the national language of Bahasa Melayu )”.
This president left on his final evening after 6 p.m. because he was unaware of any fresh watikah. He claimed that it was” really a regional service” that he did not get a notice thanking him for his services.
Finally, the Minister of Communications, Fahmi Fadzil, will raise the bar and make the procedure open and expert.
And there is at least one instance of such professionalism in 2015, when Irwan Serigar, the head of the MaGIC ( Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre ), announced publicly that they would be selecting a new MaGIC CEO to replace Cheryl Yeoh, who resigned before her contract was up. Serigar, who was also the ministry’s secretary-general, was also the secretary-general of the Ministry of Finance. The variety panel, which gave the government two names, ultimately chose Ashran Ghazi as the country’s majority first choice.
MDEC thrown out of control of its Director
And then I get to the major point of my remark. ( And yes, it has taken me a full 12 paras to do so. )
At least Mahadhir Aziz, the CEO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, received better treatment. The Ministry of Finance Inc. ( MDEC, a division of MOF Inc. ), sent a letter to the MDEC chairman last month to officially inform him that his contract, which expires on August 31, will not be renewed. An MDEC professional may hold an unexpected town hall on Wednesday to make the announcement and thank the MDEC staff for their assistance, or Mahadhir or Madeq as he prefers.
Many of these employees have been teetering for the past few months as rumors have been rifling privately about whether Madeq may receive a contract extension or who will remove him. The MDEC Board is pleased with his effectiveness, the Board is not pleased, and then the Board informed Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, under whose government MDEC reports to and MOF Inc. that it supports a contract extension for Madeq.
This has unavoidably sparked rumors of some internal and external candidates being considered, Madeq acting out of character with those visible internal candidates, and internal views regarding how he has performed as CEO over the course of his three years in charge.
Although I’m not going there, I am aware that such rumors, which can start as soon as six months before a CEO’s deal expire, are neither positive nor negative for an organization. Particularly, a significant organization like MDEC, which has a staff of about 750 ( mostly full-time employees and about 300 are deal employees hired to carry out specific projects ), is spearheading an aggressive push by the government to become a leader in the digital economy. Even Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim frequently mentions the need to advance in the digital economy as a pillar of the nation’s economic strength.
Allow Gobind be a significant factor in the next CEO.
As the new CEO will be working very closely with Gobind and the Digital Ministry, I hope that Gobind, who is a very serious person and is receiving high marks from business in his job as Digital Minister, has a solid state in who should direct MDEC second. It is MOF Inc. and, by extension, the Minister of Finance. Not the final say, as I understand that with how MDEC is incorporated, MOF Inc has that final say.
In terms of the current three names, there are familiar faces Dzuleira Abu Bakar, the former MRANTI CEO who is well-known in the startup ecosystem, Azizah Aziz, who is a rare breed of executive who has spent almost 27 years as the company’s COO, and Shah Sidek, who is a bit of a mystery as to why he is said to be in the running as well. His LinkedIN profile indicates that he is currently the Regional Director of ASEAN, the International Data Center Authority, and a Board member of Dataprep Holdings Bhd. His significant international experience might have caused his name to be suggested.
According to what I’ve been told, two of the three spoke with Gobind while one had an interview with MOF. One of them is also weighed down by their spouse’s negative online remarks about the government and Prime Minister Anwar.
Finally, I was informed that a decision should be made in the coming week and that it might not even be one of the three that is currently on display. So, your guess is as good as mine. And for such a significant role, we should n’t have to spend time looking up and making up rumors. Make the procedure clear and transparent. Enough of the rumors and undermining. Let’s get serious and professional.