Throughout the years, Dr Mahathir allowed Tan Sri Azizan Zainul Abidin and Tan Sri Hassan Marican to have sufficient freedom in making their business decisions while ensuring that Petroliam Nasional continuously backed the Government's Budget and economic plans.
It was more like a win-win and "you happy, I happy" concept between the Government and Petronas.The political interference began with the Omar Mustapha saga. The BOD, whose confidence lies with TS Hassan, initially rejected the "appointment" of Omar Mustapha to the Board.
The Prime Minister's office was not willing to budge and in the end, Omar Mustapha was "reluctantly" accepted as Director of Petronas.
Of course, this drew unhappiness among several mainstream bloggers (source: Rockybru ; related : BDDC). TS Hassan Marican lost Round 1 there.
But TS Hassan Marican won Round 2 when he made a "purely business" decision to sponsor Mercedes F1 team instead of Lotus F1, a project led by Tony Fernandes and Co.
Finally, TS Hassan Marican lost Round 3 when his contract was not renewed and his "in house" succession plan was snubbed.
After saying all these, the Petroleum Development Act 1974 should be amended I feel. At the moment, Petronas is answerable solely to the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
I would prefer to see a collective decision making system which involves
- the Advisor of Petronas,
- the Management and Board of Directors as well as
- the Prime Minister himself.
This triangular form of organization - Advisory panel, Management as well as the Prime Minister's Office - will be a better "Government - Business" model.
Whatever it is, I am irritated to see how Najib's Administration sidelined Tan Sri Hassan Marican and his management team lately.
There was actually a succession plan laid by Tan Sri Hassan Marican but by now, we all know it has been "shredded".
In fact, a new succession plan is rumoured to be formulated and prepared by Najib and Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas.The last time Dr Mahathir lost his cool, our Statesman blasted Abdullah Badawi for not renewing Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel Ariff's contract with Proton which had strong financial standing under him. The end result saw tePak Lah'snure as PM "shortened" than intended.
I am interested to hear Tun M's comments on the latest revelations in Petronas. Before this, there were reports that Tun M backed the renewal of TS Hassan Marican's contract
Datuk Shamsul will be under pressure to maintain the trust placed in him by Najib. But I doubt that the stakes are high though.
Any failure on his side will only further substantiate a greater plan.
The "soon-to-be-groomed" successor in the new succession plan should be "ready" to be appointed by Najib as Chairman and CEO of Petronas then, right ?
The way TS Hassan Marican's exit was handled showed great disrespect to his contributions and commitment to Petronas all these years.Surely, his "retirement" looked like a forced one. It is unfair to the man who continued the legacy of Tan Sri Azizan and dynamically reinvented Petronas into a global Fortune 500 company which some of us agreed to describe as a Malay corporate success.
I believe the staff in Petronas share similar opinions with me too.
Whatever it is, thank you Tan Sri Hassan Marican for transforming Petronas into a strong and profitable company that benefited Malaysians in all forms of subsidies, fiscal policies and economic plans YEAR AFTER YEAR !
12 comments:
should appointed TS Hassan as Chairman of Petronas and Board of Director
Good post Bro, I share your disbelief in how the Najib Government had mistreated TS Merican who had directly done much to the nation. He is a towering icon of what Malaysians could do without political interference.
The least Najib could do is to offer him a cabinet post where his talents can be further used to take the nation forward. TS Merican is one Malaysian who the Malays, The Chinese, the Indians and other Malaysians and even foreigners have high respect for. Respect which he has TRULY earned not by position but by sheer hard work. Such a waste of talent when you compare with idiots like the Defence Minister who cannot keep his mouth quiet. That idiot should be replaced by TS Merican, a true patriot who will make our defence a professional endeavour in defence of the country.
Anyway, a heartfelt thank you from the bottom of my heart to TS Merican, you are a true national hero and patriot.
- quality and tireless leader.
- strong clear vision and the ability to convey it.
- understanding where he wants to lead his people.
- planning to get them there.
- always a very modest and down-to-earth man
i believe not only the staff of petronas will missed his leadership.
the people that the organisation do business missed him too!!!
thank you.
may Allah blessed you & family
kak miah
ex-petronas
ha~ malay corporate success. give a bengali the oil concession and he can turn it into a bengali success story too.
ha : ha: malay corp success. give an indian the oil monopoly & he can turn it into a keling success story too.
Tuan,
Terima kasih diatas lontaran pandangan yang begitu baik.
Kepada Tan Sri, terima kasih diatas usaha gigih yang kini tersergam dihadapan mata PETRONAS yang bukan sahaja menjadikan Malaysia masih bernafas sahingga kini, malah mennjadikan nama Malaysia dikenali dunia.
Semoga Allah memberikan balasan yang terbaik diatas budi Tan Sri.
"After saying all these, the Petroleum Development Act 1974 should be amended I feel. At the moment, Petronas is answerable solely to the Prime Minister of Malaysia."
I'm pretty sure Dr. M would not share the same view as you. How do you think Dr. M got his Petronas Twin Towers and the Sepang F1 circuit?
Petronas' refusal to fund Najib's Lotus F1 idea is probably a good indicator of the reason for the removal of Hassan Merican.
Najib needs someone he can depend on to support him in Petronas. Petronas is the cornerstone of Malaysia's wealth. Najib can't afford to have someone who may act independent of his directions.
{Najib needs someone he can depend on to support him in Petronas. Petronas is the cornerstone of Malaysia's wealth.}}}
WRONG. Petronas is the cornerstone for UMNO warchest. Like their ATM card.
You are not quite right if u say any race can do it if they are given the concessions. Have u checked the Pertamina or Sudapet?
If you compare their returns on revenues, Petronas is placed in the top quartile.
In that area, China (CNPC & SINOPEC), india (ONGC), even Exxon and Shell cant match Petronas. go ahead and check.
yeah stupid to say that anyone can run petronas and become successful. petronas ranked 1st in the most profitable companies in the world as before anyone argue with me check ur fact 1st wat is the difference between most profitable and rich companies. even forbes put hassan marican in forbes top 100 most influential bussinessman in the world on do you think any benggali or indian as u said can do that easily. stupid, stupid and stupid + ignorance of you, dun ever write again please
a slowpoke comment.
when i was in school,a motivator of some sort told us about how he first saw hassan merican in person.
it was a Friday,muslims were filling up the as-syakirin,n suddenly frm his place,he saw a man,with white facial hair,in rather a rather weird outfit.he wore an office shirt tucked in kain pelikat.?
n when he almost laughed,a petronas staff told him thats the CEO of petronas,tan sri hassan merican!apparently went straight away frm his office to the mosque.
to me,thats some kind of humbleness,n perhaps an idiosyncratic image of a great man.
im a non malay working at petronas, and people should just give credit where credit is due, and stop all that nonsense bout race la. Tan Sri Marican was and is an excellent leader, well respected by all in Petronas and in the O&G industry.
The fact that some bring lame racial thoughts into this just goes to show how low and sad are thinking capacity is.
We need to be more level headed when making comments.
Long way for this country to move ahead, more ppl like Mr. Marican are needed. Folks who walk the talk.
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