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Tag: Shafie Shamsuddin

  • Commentary: Why Did Malay Candidates Who Qualified Refused To Challenge Halimah Yacob?

    Commentary: Why Did Malay Candidates Who Qualified Refused To Challenge Halimah Yacob?

    Dear Editors,

    Everyone is now visibly upset with the Presidential walkover but I am more upset with the passive nature of our malay candidates. Apart from Salleh Marican and Farid Khan who did not make the cut, there were high profile business persons who automatically qualified like Bank Of Singapore CEO Bahren Shaari and the CEO of PT Trans Retail Shafie Shamsuddin. Why did they not stand up and be counted for our Malay community and stop this farce of an election walkover?
    For PR Trans Retail CEO Shafie Shamsuddin, Singapore’s GIC invested 5.2 trillion rupiah (SGD$387 million) for a 17% stake in PT Trans Retail. If you extrapolate that to the full value of PT Trans Retail, it would be over SGD$2200 million. This would have allowed him to qualify without any problems.

    Same for Bank of Singapore CEO Bahren Shaari, BOS managed more than 79 billion dollars worth of assets, surely that qualifies him automatically as well.

    So why did these two upstanding individuals from our community not step up to challenge Halimah Yacob who did serve in public service but sadly has not have the experience in managing huge amounts of money like the Singapore reserves.

    Are they more concerned with making more money for themselves? Why did they not take the opportunity to give back to our community and to show Singapore that we the Malays have good candidates as well? We don’t need any special treatment to qualify for the 500 million benchmark, we have successful people who can qualify on our own merit.

    The PAP planned everything nicely and Halimah got a comfortable smooth sailing ride because our Malay representatives refused to step up to the challenge. This is a shame our community, where has the spirit of serving gone to? With too much money, people forget about their roots?

    Abdul Raheem

     

    Source: everyday sg

  • Prominent Malays Named As Potential Candidates For Elected President

    Prominent Malays Named As Potential Candidates For Elected President

    Mr Mohamed Salleh Marican’s declaration of his interest in running in the upcoming presidential election is not a total surprise.

    As a prominent, successful Malay entrepreneur, his name is among several talked about in recent weeks as a possible presidential hopeful for the September election.

    Meanwhile, two other figures seen as potential candidates – former minister Abdullah Tarmugi and Bank of Singapore chief executive officer Bahren Shaari – told The Straits Times they were not keen on standing for the election.

    Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, 62, who is widely considered a front runner, did not respond to queries from The Straits Times.

    Mr Mohamad Salleh, explaining his intentions, told The Straits Times in an e-mail yesterday: “I believe I have done well for myself in business and would like to step up and give back to society in a much larger way.”

     

    When contacted, two other prominent individuals from the Malay community touted as potential candidates confirmed they were not eyeing the election.

    Mr Bahren, 54, told The Straits Times in an e-mail: “I am humbled to have my name mentioned as a potential candidate for this year’s presidential election by various media. It is always a privilege and honour to serve the nation.

    “At the moment, my focus is on growing the business of Bank of Singapore with my team and deriving the synergies from our recent acquisition of the wealth and investment management business of Barclays Bank PLC.”

    Mr Abdullah, 72, said it is “unlikely” he will run in the election.

    “I had considered contesting earlier and many had in fact encouraged me to do so. But it is unlikely that I will contest. I have my reasons,” he said, declining to elaborate.

    Other names that have been mentioned include Mr Shafie Shamsuddin, 46, the chief executive officer of PT Trans Retail, which operates Carrefour supermarkets in Indonesia.

    Mr Shafie, who could not be reached for comment, was named outstanding overseas chief/senior executive of the year at last year’s Singapore Business Awards.

    He is the first non-Frenchman named in 2011 as an executive director of the global supermarket giant Carrefour, taking charge of talent management and organisational development.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com