Guest Editorial: Once premier Think Tank now headed by a Keropok Seller?
By Ismail Mohamed Ali
You know something has gone terribly wrong when a once-premier think tank is headed by a Keropok (deep fried crackers) seller. The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), once the go-to institution for economic insights, is teetering on the brink. Sources close to the Prime Minister whisper that he’s trying to distance himself from MIER, an institute that has failed to live up to its former glory. Those on MIER's Board, once friendly with the PM, are now seen as opportunists by him.
In a twist that would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic, MIER now operates with just two research staff and seven support staff. It boasts a bizarre distinction: a 2:6 ratio of researchers to Board members—a world first for any think tank. And who’s running the show? A little-known economist, Dr. Anthony Das, whose name hardly echoes in academic halls or policy circles. A retired director from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) noted that Dr. Das was merely a part of the secretariat, taking notes and making calls, certainly not the advisor he claims to be. The civil servant was quick to add, “He got the CEO job because of his closeness to the Bersatu elites—Muhyiddin, Tok Pah, and Azmin Ali.”
He quipped, “That is how he got the CEO job at MIER. MIER’s Board has some people who used to hang on to the Bersatu strong men.”
A professor from USM weighed in, astonished at how someone with no research credentials, no academic publications, no books, no book chapters, in other words — no scholarly footprint could helm a national think tank. Meanwhile, a bank economist pointed out that the current CEO even has a sausage business on the side. “Can someone running a factory also run MIER? Well, you can if you’re part of the right political circle,” the economist quipped.
In just four years, MIER has cycled through four CEOs, none lasting long enough to leave a mark. One prominent intellectual lamented, “This man is no economic thinker, not even a notable economist —how did he get the top job?” The real issue, critics say, lies with the Board of Trustees, who seem to have handed the reins to an unqualified, unknown figure, tarnishing MIER's legacy.
Something is terribly amiss if the Board of Trustees is putting an “unheard, incompetent man with no credentials as a scholar for the top job,” he emphasized.
Adding insult to injury, MIER’s Board is largely composed of individuals nearing 80, seemingly out of touch with the institute's mission. Sources from within the Establishment suggest that there’s a growing effort to distance MIER from its status as a national think tank, fearing it’s doing more harm than good to Malaysia's image.
And in the midst of this downfall, both the Ministry of Economics and Ministry of Finance have no representation on MIER's Board, completely in the dark about the mess unraveling at the once-revered institution. As for whether the Prime Minister’s office is considering removing “Malaysian” from MIER’s name? The silence from the Companies Commission of Malaysia speaks volumes.
Ismail Mohamed Ali is a Scholar Of Southeast Asian Studies.
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A keropok seller. My my what a crime. Some of the world's most inspiring leaders arose from very humble backgrounds.
Take Benjamin Franklin, for example. Here’s a man who was the son of a candlemaker and the 15th of 17 children. He had only two years of formal education. At the age of 17, Franklin left home and traveled to Philadelphia where he created an enormously successful printing business. He went on to publish Poor Richard’s Almanac—a book filled with proverbs preaching industry and prudence. It was publish continuously for 25 years and became one of the most popular publications in colonial America, selling an average of 10,000 copies a year. Add inventor, thinker, scientist and statesman to Franklin’s resume as well.
The granddaughter of slaves, Rosa Parks attended a small, segregated school in Pine Level, AL. She dropped out of high school to care for her mother and granddaughter. In 1943, she joined the NAACP and served as secretary to NAACP President until 1957. Parks is most famously known for her refusal to surrender her bus seat, sparking a 381 day long bus boycott in Montgomery, AL. She helped launch a nationwide effort to end segregation of public facilities.
Mao even though a Chinaman was also a great leader of even lesser social pedigree. He lay the roots to what today is arguably the most impressive nation of the modern world. So too with Deng Xiao Peng and Xi Jin Peng.
Winston Churchill on the other hand Through his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, the meteoric Tory politician, was directly descended from John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough, the hero of the wars against Louis XIV of France in the early 18th century. His mother, Jennie Jerome, a noted beauty, was the daughter of a New York financier and horse racing enthusiast, Leonard W. Jerom. NOnetheless he was an opium addict, an alcoholic (from his mother) a womanizer, rapits and syphillitic . Add to that one of the greatest mass murderers in modern history.
Churchill against all good advise was responsible for some off the worst massacres of genocidal proportions in the colonies. The Bengal famine which he ordered, cost over 5,000,000 Indian lives. The consequential deaths rose to more than twice that number. He attempted to wipe out the people of Mesopotamia with mustard gasbut was thwarted.
So why judge a keropok seller so harshly? It is not as if this report is some erudite work of seminal scholarship. It is after all the feeble scribbling of an anti government self hating Malay likely in the payroll and dog leash of some Chinese political group of the Kuomintang variety.
To the author and publisher of this embarrassment, I say "minum kenching anging".
"Once premier Think Tank.."
The premier ain't got no "Think Tank", he's just incapable of thinking through anything.
The premier has a large gas tank, though, and full of marsh gas giving wind to his excessive holy bullock shiite.