PETRONAS- the Empire strikes back?

will the PM remove the posts please?

I thought the PETRONAS issue has come to an end. Someone told me to sudah sudah lah. Stop demonizing TDM.

The issue is still alive. Tun Dr Mahathir has just published an account of the monies received by the government over a number of years. During his tenure as PM, the government received RM168 billion. From 2004 to 2009, PETRONAS gave 253 billion. The upshot of his argument: Pak Lah received more money and was not able to account for the application. Mana itu wang pergi?

Tun Dr Mahathir speaks in the capacity as PETRONAS advisor. It is essentially a ceremonial post. It was meant as a goodwill post for retired PMs to spend their time. If anyone were to occupy it, other than TDM, that post would be inconsequential. If an ex minister were to occupy it for instance, the effect will be so too.

But TDM was PM of Malaysia for 22 years and he is a larger than life figure. For 22 years PETRONAS was directly under him. The PETRONAS president reports to him directly and when they do meet there were 4-eyes meeting. The PETRONAS president will go back and brief the board; this is what the PM wants. If he says, I had a meeting with the PM, and he wants two of you to jump off the sky bridge, there is no way anyone can verify what were actually said. In other words there is no check and balance.

The current PM now wants a check and balance. Hassan Merican has been PETRONAS boss for 15 years. The PM wants to balance the seemingly wide powers enjoyed by the PETRONAS president by modifying the profile of the board. But the CABINET of PETRONAS thinks this as interference in its domestic affairs. It is now carrying a rear guard action and will carry out a protracted battle.

Enter TDM- the larger than life figure. The de facto numero uno of PETRONAS. From fortress PETRONAS which is essentially behaving like a government, the board becomes emboldened because it has TDM as protector. The PETRONAS board knows the present government is not that strong. It also knows that DS Najib is loathed to clash with TDM.

For TDM, PETRONAS is his last bastion to flex similar 'prime ministerial powers'. If PETRONAS likens itself as a government, that analogy confers on TDM a surreal sense of speaking as another PM.

Hence, speaking as PM of PETRONAS, he asks, how did you people spend the 253 billion in 6 years compared to how I spent 183 billion over a period of 22 years? Only an overseer asks another who he sees as subordinate, the latter's conduct. By asking the provocative question, TDM makes it out that our government is answerable to PETRONAS. Perhaps this sense of omnipotent powers derives from the knowledge that PETRONAS has been saving this country. It does so by paying out dividends, royalties, taxes and other forms of payments. Perhaps it is also thinking, it is better at managing its financial affairs than its 'rival' government.

Let us see how it is in PETRONAS land. TDM has been PM for PETRONAS for 28 years. (1981-2009). Maybe the problem which DS Najib is facing with PETRONAS now could have been solved, if he had written to TDM instead of Hassan Merican. I do not think that TDM would give this Omar Mustapha Ong a second glance. But the character of this Omar Ong has assumed larger proportions because he is made out to be seen as a challenge to the autonomy of PETRONAS. This autonomous region in Malaysia called PETRONAS has a PM named Tun Dr Mahathir, the man who made Malaysia what she is today. That simply can't be tolerated. It is impertinence of the highest order.

So, the seemingly simple and as a matter of fact asking how we have spent the PETRONAS money, is highly provocative. TDM doesn't do things without intending to influence the outcome.

PETRONAS with TDM stand in one corner. At the other corner is the current PM. Omar Ong is just the water boy.

We are currently witnessing an ongoing power play on PETRONAS stage. This is what it is actually. The PETRONAS board of directors whose security of tenure depends on the judgment of the PM is playing hardball. When they are doing is to make the PM lose face. The outcome is obvious.

This whole thing about Omar Ong is just a rear guard action by the Hassan Merican and the Board. First to save his own job, having served 15 years as PETRONAS President having the power over death and taxes just like the PM. Heck! He may even think he is the other DPM to PM Mahathir. The real PM wants to balance things up and place his representative there. Why he likes Omar, we don't know. Maybe he sees Omar all the time and sees nothing wrong with this chap. On the other hand he sees good talent.

It seems the PM wrote to the PETRONAS president sometime in May this year appointing Omar Ong to the board. The letter wasn't meant for further deliberations. The president must have taken this matter to the board and the board dutifully said no. We are not privy about the way he conveyed the message. Perhaps it was more like this: - 'guys I hear the PM wants to appoint our friend Omar Mustapha Ong as board member. If we are not careful, you people will be put out to pasture. It will be the end of the world as we know it. Unfettered, unencumbered, we are the other government'.

Imagine the horrors of the other members of the board upon hearing these words. No more first class travel, fat allowances, maybe some business deals, no more cavorting in the Petroleum Club. No more free access to PETRONAS Philharmonic performances.

Hassan Merican has been called twice to see the PM and asked to explain why the appointment has not taken place. He is likely to say, it wasn't his decision, but this board..Dato Sri…

PETRONAS has only one shareholder. It must listen to the shareholder which is the PM who represents the country. Sure PETRONAS is our largest taxpayer, contributor etc etc, but never forget you are not a supra government body.

The other PM, Tun Dr Mahathir has just now posted a provocative article on the amounts of money received over the years.

How was the money applied? During Dr Mahathir's time we see it applied to tangibles. KLCC, Putrajaya, bailing out Bank Bumi, bailing out businesses here and there and undertaking hig profile public relations mega projects. Whether they are frivolous or not, we can debate about the money spent. During Pak Lah's time, where the money went, no one knows. We have nothing to show. Maybe they have been taken up by the intangibles- Islam Hadhari and human capital.

One thing I know, during the good times when the price of oil was good and our earnings were high, we forfeited the chance to balance our budget. We kept on returning deficit budgets year after year. Now, the price of oil isn't that good, the world economy is reeling from recession; we don't have the money to sustain our standard of living.

What happened to the PETRONAS money? The board of directors know. Now, it is said, the BOD must exercise its independent mind and act in the best interests of the country. This is a fallacious argument. It was never 'independent' previously during the tenure of Dr Mahathir and Pak Lah. It has absolute no say, in the matter of how money given to the government was being spent.

Now, if we follow the drift of those supporting that the PETRONAS BOD must be free from interference, are these people suggesting that PETRONAS now enters into a period of activism and will now supervise how money it gives to the government is being spent? I think PETRONAS is not a supra government having jurisdiction as to how its money given to the government is being spent. PETRONAS supervises its own coffers. It answers to its shareholder- the government.

The government on the other hand is answerable as to how it spends the money given them. It answers in parliament and answers to those public spirited and civic minded citizens of this country.

During those times it managed its own coffers were there interferences into their affairs? If there were, then PETRONAS must tell us. If there were, then it is mischievous to insist that NOW PETRONAS must remain independent. It has never been. Now because we have a new PM who is about to embark on his own journey, we adopt this holier than thou attitude. Suddenly we become sanctimonious about it.

Why now, under Najib, the PETRONAS BOD must be endowed with a quality of independence? Well, it wasn't independent those years under Dr Mahathir and 5 years under Pak Lah.

This raises several issues. Are these people telling us that the present PM stays out of PETRONAS but previous PMs were allowed to? That would suggest that DS Najib is not sufficiently competent to supervise PETRONAS but previous PMs were. Well, to most people, Dr Mahathir when he was PM was competent and therefore allowed to determine the BOD. Pak Lah was a mistake and now the present PM is deemed to be the company of Pak Lah. Indeed, it would seem that DS Najib is even worse off- he isn't allowed to come near PETRONAS at all. Somehow, it would seem that DS Najib in terms of managing PETRONAS business is less endowed than say Dr Mahathir?

I think PETRONAS has misdirected itself if it thinks it can be the conscience of this country. That role lies with political parties and is decided in parliament. I don't think we are deficient in the numbers of those wanting to be the voices of conscience for this country. There is no need for PETRONAS to arrogate upon itself such role.