KUALA LUMPUR: Corporate business may not be the forte of MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek but he will probably not allow that to put him off the track in his single-minded drive to inject more professionalism and expertise in the management of his party’s assets, including a majority stake in Malaysia’s leading English language newspaper company, Star Publications.
It is reliably learnt that Chua has highly recommended former banker Kuah Hun Liang to helm Star Publications. Huaren Holdings, MCA’s financial arm, met on Thursday, presumably to discuss the recommendation.
Star Publications will have a shareholders’ meeting this Monday and will probably endorse Kuah as board chairman.
Kuah, 49, has a degree in Applied Economics from the University of East London. He was the CEO and managing director of Deutsche Bank until September 2006 and is now an independent non-executive director for both Loh & Loh Corporation Bhd and Putrajaya Perdana Bhd. He is also in the Quality Assurance Committee for the Malaysian Institute of Bankers’ Financial Sector Talent Enrichment Programme.
The current talk about Kuah’s imminent takeover of the Star chairmanship has effectively silenced earlier speculation that Managing Director Yong Poh Kon of Royal Selangor International was going to be the man.
Chua’s decision to appoint a former banker and a non-politician to helm the Star is not surprising since he has promised to provide a professional setting for the growth of the newspaper’s managerial independence and editorial autonomy.
Scoring his own goal in this sense is not a bad thing. The MCA president is poised to soften public criticism and perhaps blur the villain image of the Star as MCA’s propaganda tool.
At the very least, he is making sure not to repeat the bad judgement of his predecessors in appointing political watchdogs to Star’s management and editorial.
Chua’s recommendation of Kuah follows hot on the heels of leaked news that The Edge’s Ho Kay Tat, a professional journalist for the past 24 years, would shortly be joining the Star as executive director, with some saying it was a move to edge out Sarawakian Clement Hii, who is noted as a founder of Segi College and is currently executive deputy chairman.
Ho is considered a prize catch because of his wide experience. He started his career with the New Straits Times and was Kuala Lumpur Bureau Chief for Reuters way back 1990. In 1994, he joined the Singapore-based Business Times.
Clement Hii and executive director Ng Beng Lye, who were both appointed by former MCA president Ong Tee Keat, are expected to step down next week at the shareholders’ meeting.
Two other corporate names tipped to be joining the board are former Arab-Malaysian Securities managing director Lee Siang Chin, 61, and Foetus International founder Vincent Lee, 56. Siang Chin has been a member of the Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA) since 1975 and Vincent was recently appointed as board member of Huaren Holdings.
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