‘CLEARING THE DECK FOR KHAZANAH’
PRIME Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the resignation of Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s managing director and board members will allow the government to restructure the national sovereign wealth fund, in line with policies of the new administration.
PM: THE RM2 BILLION PAPER LOSS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE RM1 TRILLION DEBT INHERITED FROM THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION
The government is not on a witch hunt... will not accept obvious wrongdoings.
THE resignation of Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s managing director and board members will enable the government to restructure the sovereign wealth fund accordingly.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in welcoming the offers of resignation from the board, said the board members’ resignation was a move to “clear the deck to allow the government to restructure it” in line with policies of the new administration.
Dr Mahathir said it was the prime minister’s prerogative to appoint the fund’s new board members, re-designate some to other entities and retain some of them to allow for continuity.
The government, he said, was not on a witch hunt.
“We do not regard everyone as guilty of everything, but this administration will not accept obvious wrongdoings.
“This action of clearing the deck will allow restructuring as our policies are now different. While we believe in paying good salaries, we cannot all the time base it on commercial rates.
“We would rather focus on rewarding with good bonuses tied to performance as some companies may not perform as they should,” Dr Mahathir said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
On reports that RM2 billion had been wiped out from Bursa Malaysia, Dr Mahathir said the amount of “paper loss” was nothing compared with the burden of RM1 trillion debt that had been inherited and now shouldered by the current government.
“The amount of debt is real, the amount needed to service the debt is real.
“And most of the amount ‘invested’ by the previous administration has yet to be recovered as we do not know where they have been invested.”
Khazanah, in a statement on Thursday, announced that nine of its board directors, including managing director Tan Sri Azman Hashim and chief executive Tan Sri Nor Md Yusof, had offered to resign to enable the new government to decide on the entity’s direction and leadership.
Other directors who tendered their resignations included Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, Datuk Dr Nirmala Menon, Tan Sri Mohamed Azman Yahya, Datuk Mohammed Azlan Hashim, Yeo Kar Peng, Tan Sri Andrew Sheng Len Tao and Raja Tan Sri Arshad Raja Uda.
The decision came weeks after Dr Mahathir criticised Khazanah for having allegedly deviated from its original purpose, which was to help Bumiputeras.
Najib, in response, had refuted Dr Mahathir’s claim, and said Khazanah was not created to look after the interests of individuals or select groups, and instead, to generate wealth for the country.