Bakke’s mission at Sime

Nowadays I am less inclined to needle Musa Hitam for the debacle at Sime. His position is ceremonial anyway. He isn't at the driver's seat. Sime is Zubir's Sime not Musa's Sime. Most of the calls urging Musa to resign came from quarters who still think Dr Mahathir is PM of Malaysia. When I first wrote about this matter, immediately after Musa held his forum with bloggers- I asked the entire board to resign. Not just Musa. Musa can't be made to carry the burden alone.

So we can't be selective as to who we want to resign. If Musa resigns, the entire board must also do so. It's the moral thing to do. Zubir, because he is head of the management committee or team, should be joined by the entire management team. That includes Azhar who succeeded him briefly and right down the front-line managers who are part of Sime's business that fumbled big time.

Sure, Tun Musa is not going to escape unscathed from this fiasco. The board has already done the right thing by asking Zubir to go. He was head of management. It was he who manages the company. The board's role was supervisory and only acted based on the information the management committee provides. They take a foolish stand if the management provides them with silly input.

I am going to repeat my best wishes to Dato Bakke who has assumed the post of CEO for Sime Darby. He has been endorsed by the PM and Musa accepted this endorsement. I also wrote that we shall have to wait whether Bakke can do a good job. His part is also checkered- Tabung Haji also lost money and Felda lost a lot of cash by going into silly spending binges. We must support him as long as his capabilities do extend beyond expediting Hajj pilgrimage tickets and placements for senior ministers. I happened to be in front of someone a long time ago, when Bakke phone in to tell the Hajj tickets and documents are ready.

I am not inclined to be too harsh over Tun Musa Hitam. That despite knowing he flies here and there on first class on chartered planes. Most government ministers and heads of GLCs do that too. If we want to be consistent- ask everyone to fly business class on normal airplanes. Then we can hantam Musa Hitam for flying the way he does. He is after all a former DPM. When Sime agrees to fly him the way he does, they acknowledged his stature as a former DPM and chairman of Sime Darby. Sime Darby makes millions and you want its chairman to fly economy? What do you call that? Pompous humility?

But no one discusses the role of the management committee, that manages the company and front line managers on a day to day basis. What have they been doing? We should be scalping their heads too.

One thing Bakke must do is not to constraint himself at looking at Sime's failure in the Energy and Utilities division only. He must take this opportunity to look at everything across the board. Look at Sime's core business- the plantations. Without this core business, Sime is nothing.

He must begin by placing those really talented in that field to head Sime's plantations unit. I hear fruits remain un-harvested because of labor shortages. That translates in lost revenues. Lots of them. He must looked at the reasons behind the dismissal of people like Razidan Ghazali, Mohan Abudllah and Anhar Suki. If these people were kicked out by the gone-on-extended leave Zubir's for lame reasons he must reconsider them for re employment. They probably can add value to the plantation business. I am not sure their dismissal was with merits because if I remember correctly, they brought Sime to court and Sime was made to pay compensation. That can only suggest the dismissals were without merits other than Zubir wanting to create his own fiefdom.

It was all Zubir's management. Not Musa Hitam. It was Zubir's Sime and not Musa.

MOhd Bakke should seize the initiative and set up his own technical audit answerable to him to look into Sime's questionable business deals. For example who ordered and approved the RM 250,000,000 renovations at KLGCC? Bakke should ask Tengku Badli from Property Division to explain. Then, look into Sime Property Business too.