Sunday 6 May 2012

Will Ismail stay?

It may still be early days to know if there will be a new chief executive at Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda), but talks were already circulating that the current CE Ismail Ibrahim may not have his contract renewed when it expires on Jan 1 next year.


Personally, I hope these talks are not true. Ismail is after all the third CE of Irda in five years when he took over from Harun Johari on Jan 1, 2010. Changing the CE too many times may not be good for Irda and Iskandar Malaysia in the long run.

I know that Ismail's application to renew his contract had been submitted and now at the Johor MB's office. Johor MB and the PM are joint-chairman of Irda. I do wonder when will it go to the PMO for final approval.

With the impending departure of Johor MB Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman after the next general election, it would be crucial for Ismail to have his contract renewal being confirmed now. A new MB may naturally want his own man to head Irda and steer it according to the soon new ways of things at Kota Iskandar.

To me, Ismail's tenure so far, may not be exceptional but it was not too bad either. But some others think that it has been quite bad and that Irda itself has become irrelevant. And these others are quite powerful people in the State government.

Well, that I think is up for the PM and Johor MB to decide.

Whatever it is, as far as Ismail is concerned, I believe there will always be room for improvements.

For instance, I'm hopeful for Ismail to clean up things which may create doubts about Irda's integrity such as questions on the processes of awarding contracts, which arise from suspicions that there could be some manipulations favouring certain contractors. Let's not wait until an independent audit team need to be sent in to clear up such nonsense.

Really Encik Mail, go and check la on that one and do the right thing. Trust me, you will not regret it.

Another thing which I wish Ismail would do is to trim down the fat at Irda. I am not trying to teach him how to do his job but really la, my personal opinion is that there are too many passengers riding on the Irda gravy train. How many senior vice-presidents in Irda? Some are not even qualified to be there in the first place.  And their big fat salaries were paid using tax payers money. I am writing this with nothing but good  intention. So I rather not elaborate on that. It's up to Ismail to decide. This is just a suggestion to make him look effective as a big boss, ok?

Oh, by the way, please la don't take the easy way out by hiving off those useless free loaders to another outfit and burdening them with crappy officers.  If they are of no use in Irda, how do you expect them to be useful in similar set-ups elsewhere?

And once more, I'm still hoping that Irda would put some effort to be more relevant to the people down here, like being involved with the locals on a more regular basis and engaging the local community leaders so that you people can be clued in to what makes the locals tick.  Have you ever wondered why community leaders simply don't recognise you in a crowd and went looking for the Mayor, YDP, District Officers, even Heads of Government Departments to voice their problems and opinions about the development within Iskandar Malaysia?

Just to remind you that Irda is a regional authority, not a corporate entity.  So Encik Mail, you and your people should make yourselves relevant by emulating the DO and YDP Majlis who can deal with not only government agencies, investors, contractors, and businesses, but also the public.

One last thing, I have been getting some funny emails accusing Irda's management as practicing a "caste system" of some sorts when it comes to treating their employees. I think the word "caste" may be a bit extreme, but it would be good if Ismail can do something to see what's wrong and make the necessary corrections if such accusations were found to be true.

p.s To all commentators, especially Irda staff,  please refrain from making wild personal attacks such as calling your colleagues janda puaka or kungfu panda like last time. Please don't get me in trouble again, ok?

12 comments:

  1. Ismail Ibrahim should go. He doesn't have the X-factor to sell Iskandar Malaysia to potential investors, locally or internationally.

    He's only good at parroting statistical figures...billion dollars here, billion dollars there...meaningless to kampung people like those in Tg Kupang.

    Government candidates should only be considered for administration job, not marketing and bringing in investment.

    As weird as it sounds, I think the CE Irda should be offered to Dato Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim (WAWI) the current CEO of UEMLand. He's been around long enough here in Iskandar M'sia and he's a marketing man with a knowledge of how to carry out development on vast track of land. He'll be good for Irda and Johor.

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  2. Why can't you put a Chinaman there as head of IRDA ? The developers are mostly Chinaman developers - SP Setia, Dijaya, YTL Land, AP Land, etc, so why not have a Chinaman as head of regulation ? Can Talent Malaysia source such a person or are we stuck on "reserved" positions for bumis only ?

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  3. Ismail Ibrahim should go. But since IRDA is becoming so irrelevant after 6 years in operation, IRDA should go too.

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  4. Dalam hal contract ini, boleh ke IRDA beritahu pada rakyat bagaimana kontrak mengurus Rumah Iskandar Malaysia di beri tanpa tender terbuka. Tidak kah ini tidak bercanggah dengan polisi kerajaan.

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  5. Tak salah Ismail beri peluang ciput macam ni kepada orang kampung. Yang buat kerja orang kampung, nak dapat untungpun bukan orang tertentu sahaja tetapi koperasi orang kampung. Ini bukan projek juta-juta yang perlu guna tender Bro. IRDA nak tolongpun korang banyak komplen. Apa nak jadi orang melayu ni. Cukup2 la dgn PHD awak tu.

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    Replies
    1. Hahaha!!!! Tolong orang kampung ke atau Ahli politik belakang koperasi itu? Ada udang disebalik batu ke, pejuang orang kampung.....kononnya!

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  6. Ms BC
    The only thing I look forward to , among all the hullabaloo of Iskandar, is the Legoland. In fact just bought the adv. tickets for the missus, me and cucu. Cuma doa ramai Melayu Johor dapat beli condo condo RM 1.2 mil keatas. Kalau tidak oghang Melayu JB dongak ke langit je la!

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    1. JohorMali,

      Thanks for your support in Legoloand buy buying the adnace tickets. Orang Melayu juga harus berfikir dan berdaya saing. Mereka harus bekerja keras dan mempunyai kemampuan untuk beli. Kita tidak bolih salahkan sesiapa dalam hal ini. Bila harga tanah dan rumah meningkat, ini satu petanda yang amat baik. Orang Melayu pula harus sedar dan bekerja lebih kuat sepertimana masyarakat Tiong Hua. Whoe ever works hard, they deserve the rewards.

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  7. BC,

    Harapan seluruh rakyat Johor supaya Iskandar Malaysia tidak menjadi `makanan` kepada Singapura. Keduanya, jangan suntik pemikiran dan agenda pembangkang terutama DAP dengan menjadikan Iskandar Malaysia sebagai tempat dan alat untuk menyebar dakyah pembangkang di bumi Johor, negeri yang terus menjadi kubu kuat dan benteng kerajaan BN dan UMNO.

    Apa yang berlaku inisiatif pembangunan Iskandar Malaysia yang niatnya begitu murni untuk membela rakyat tempatan, kini telah mula dijadikan alat untuk menghentam pemberintah.

    Iskandar Malaysia bukan untuk diwariskan kepada pembangkang seperti mana yang berlaku kepada kebanyakan kawasan bandar di negara ini terutama di Selangor, Kuala Lumpur dan Perak.

    Peringatan kepada rakyat Johor, pembangkang didalangi DAP sedang berusaha menangguk di air keruh, menggunakan isu pembangunan di koridor ekonomi ini untuk menghentam dan melemahkan kerajaan.

    Pakyat Johor perlu menolak sebarang usaha di peringkat dalaman yang boleh disifatkan sebagai duri dalam daging untuk melemahkan Johor yang menjadi penyumbang besar kepada pengukuhan pembentukan Kerajaan Persekutuan.

    sempoi

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  8. Some heads of dept and senior staff should go. They are not contributing at all......tunggu fat pay akhir bulan. Waste of rakyat money. Some of them is a disgrace. How can IRDA let this people meet investors!!!! Cant even carry themselves well. They are becoming so demanding & crude with their stakeholders.

    Wanabe Investor.

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    1. Yes bad PR skills. Most of them dont have corporate experience but have been thrust to do corporate work. Embarrassment....... How to deal with private sector? they are so shy to learn. No improvement after so many years. All their work done by consultant. Pay them for what? Oooi ini duit rakyat.

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