Omar Ong slipped into Petronas?

This news just came in on Rocky Bru's today here and his Malay Mail is publishing the story here.

Words leaked today that the controversial and member of the Oxford mafia, Omar Ong will be appointed as Petronas Director. The announcement will be soon.

It seemed that the decision was already made in early August. Despite the strong resistance expressed by Independent Directors of Petronas, Prime Minister, Dato Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak vehemently insisted on the appointment beleived to be at the behest of Omar Ong.

Words are his appointment would pave the way for his eventual appointment as President/CEO of Petronas. Hasan Merican is due for retirement.

The general concern of those in the know of Omar Ong's background and affiliation is that he is being assigned a position beyond his own capacity and capability. His past tendency to tinker and introduce his yet to be proven successful consultancy templates.

Omar Ong is untested and should be tried to run a smaller organisation elsewhere. The succession plan in Petronas should be respected.

Why are we ready to gamble Petronas in his hand?

Petronas is a major asset of the nation and manges the nation's oil reserve and foreign exploration. It has a wealth of human resources and experiance within its fold. It has its own succssion plan and there should not be any queue jumping from outside the organisation.

The problem with the worldview of people like Omar Ong is their tendency to be fascinated with what's fashionable of the day and not ready to defy convention and norms.

When Petronas was established by Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah, Malaysia defied the norms set by the Seven Sisters Oil Companies of the world. The country resisted the pressure to follow the rules and terms laid down by the major oil companies and its backing superpower. That brevity and strong sense of patriotism had enabled Malaysia to have "real ownership" of its oil wealth and the money plowed back to develop the nation. Otherwise, Petronas would be in the boondogs like Indonesia's Pertamina today.

Placing personalities like Omar Ong, with linked and association with Khairy, Tingkat 4 and their network of corporate freeloaders pervading every Government linked Companies in the country, is that they are devoid of any sense of patiotism and over awed with the western corporate thinking without pondering a glimpse of the bigger national agenda.

The presence of Omar Ong was attributed to the high dependence of the Government and GLCs with wasteful brand named Corporate Consultant. Lost are the building of creativity and capacity to think and plan put our own solutions to problems and our own thinking in development.

The irony is that the presence of graduates from such branded prestigous Universities does not translate into independent thinking but becoming more dependent nore on foreigh brains. Petronas will eventually be run by outside consultants rather by from capacity and capability from within.

The most scary part is Omar will have access to confidential and important numbers that is not reported. This blogger see Omar as a security risk just like Khairy and his Tingkat 4.

Omar is dangerous because he has his own personal cause and agenda that will not be congruent with the historical social, political and economic fabric of the party and nation.

Beyond the sight of the Prime Minister, Omar Ong is not as personable to others to enable him to command the respect and loyalty from his underlings to be an effective leader is such an important organisation.

His appointment will have a discouraging effect on the sizable number of Petronas employee who has been loyal to the organisation. Omar was a Petronas scholar who did not honour his commitment to serve with Petronas and on many occasion have repeatedly rescinded in his agreement with his scholarship provider.

All due respect to the prerogative of the Prime Minister to choose and in the spirit of 1Malaysia and his call to listen to the rakyat, this rakyat plead the PM to reconsider. Also this rakyat wish to remind the PM that he had gave a commitment not emulate Pak Lah's practise of having a wunder boy and a West Wing style Tingkat 4.

This is one appointment this blogger strongly feel the PM made a mistake and this honest view is expressed without any malice but out of concern for his own Premiership. In fact, the appointment will become a political liability to Najib. This is one burden he does not need.

The PM may have confidence in Omar Ong but not those who knows Omar Ong beyond the confine of the PM's office and a natural kow tow to the number 1 of the country.

Can 1Malaysia please listen to what the fear and concern of the people?