Pemandu rep failed to meet Pemandu's criteria

At the recent Invest Malaysia conference last week June 13th, NST [read here] reported Prime Minister Dato Najib Tun Abdul Razak stressed on the need to be market friendly and meritocratic to face the challenges ahead.

Off course, the way ahead is his baby, Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) as champion by Pemandu.

As reported, ETP is the definitive vision of the kind of economy Malaysia intend to create including stimulating foreign investment, boosting domestic demand and ensuring the rewards of sustainable growth are made available to all Malaysians.

Much so that he said something conflicting:

"In the medium term, we must make our affirmative action programmes more market-friendly and meritocratic."

When applied to the supposedly upcoming CEO of Felda Global Venture Berhad (FGV), Dr Emir Mavani as seconded from Pemandu, one wonder where was the market friendliness and meritocratic criteria placed?

Bigdogdotcom has been on a roll on this CEO designate of FGV from Pemandu. After three postings [read here, here and here], we realised there are six major issues that does not show him as a choice consistent with PM's and Pemandu's aspiration for  market friendly and meritocratic economy.

1. It is inconsistent with PM's statement for "home grown talent" or in other word, internal sucessors. One can understand the rationale is for meritocrasy. Internal succession plan could better groom technically competent with hands-on experience and leadership qualities.

2. Dr Emir Mavani has limited familiarisation with the businesses, let alone operations of FGV. He was only a Director since 2011.

At Pemandu, his area of focus is oil and gas. Certainly Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is not oil one dig from deep under the ground or sea but grown in plantation. Neither does he has sufficient time to acquire working knowledge of CPO, nor does he on other businesses of FGV.

3. Dr Emir will not have the sensitivity to the participants of Felda scheme, which is the downstream activity or base of Felda whole operations. Pemandu prefer to ‘head hunt’ CEOs based on the primary deliverables of Return on Investment (ROI) and it is adhered to the letter.

If that is the spirit of his appointment, then he is doom to fail should he takes an attitude of indifference to the social objective attached to Felda. The blame here is on Pemandu's linearly rigid, template and text book thinking.

4. Then there is the issue of integrity. Dr Emir have been found to have faked his credential. It means his meritocratic consisdertation is suspect. he claimed to earn his doctorate degree from a non existing Warnborough College in the United Kingdom.

5. Another issue of integrity cropped up. Dr Emir was said to have cut a questionable deal to give subsidy for RBD Olein with a pig rearing company in China. Why the unnecessary discount? Should we be market friendly and sell in accordance to the market?

6. Another twst to this is the suspicion that discount could have been shared and pocketed. Maybe it is acceptable in Middle East, but in Malaysia, it is corruption. Not only it is not meritocratic, it is of questionable integrity and finally it is a crime.

Wonder, who selected him to be CEO of FGV? Who appointed him on the Board of Directors of FGV? And who hired him to be in the Pemandu's team?

On all three accounts, the person or persons must be really short in many departments of meritocrasy.

How is Pemandu going to steer the transformation if their own people are not consistent with Pemandu's market friendly and meritocratic criteria?