The New Straits
Times, 27 December 00, p2:
NO
IMPENDING CABINET RESHUFFLE
PM:
I am not the type of person who solves problems by sacking people
PUTRAJAYA,
Tues. -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamed said he was not planning a
reshuffle of his Cabinet in the near future.
"I don't think so," he said when asked to
respond to rumours of an impending Cabinet reshuffle."
Dr Mahathir said he did not understand why there was
an impression that some Ministers were not performing.
"I find that they have been given trust and
they are carrying out their tasks. So, I am not the kind of person who
solves problems by sacking people. I don't do that whether in my office or
in the Cabinet," he told Bernama here today.
This is the second time Dr Mahathit has made remarks
about a possible Cabinet reshuffle since Press reports on Dec. 18.
Dr Mahathir said if he found that the people who
were working with him did not perform, it would be his fault.
"If I don't get them to perform, then it is my
fault," he said.
Saying he knows his Ministers very well, the Prime
Minister said that they always had in depth discussions at each Cabinet
meeting.
"If I can't extract the maximum from each
Minister, then I will be failing in my work and if I fail in my work, you must see
in the whole country what happens," he said.
On calls within and outside UMNO that he should
change his style of leadership following Barisan Nasional's defeat in the recent
Lunas by-election, Dr Mahathir who is UMNO president said he did not know what was
the change that they expected from him.
Dr Mahathir said what he did know was that most of
the things that he did were not very well understood, especially in the decision
making process.
"Many people think that I make all the
decisions by myself. But they are not based on my own decisions. They
are made in the Cabinet."
In the case of UMNO, they were made by the supreme
council and there were full and unrestricted discussions before any decision was
made, he said.
"So even if I change my style of leadership, if
the others won't change, it's not going to make any difference."
The Prime Minister said he was disappointed with the
failed pivatisation of Malaysia Airlines through the sale of a strategic stake to
Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli but stated that the failure was not due to bad management.
He said any company that experienced what MAS had
gone through following the regional economic downturn would fail, especially with
the devaluation of the ringgit and the shrinking share market.
The airline business, he said, was sensitive to what
happened in the environment, the fluctuations in the demands by the market and the
rising fuel price.
Dr Mahathir said the Government had to buy back
Tajuddin's 29.09 per cent in the national carrier becaue no company could survive
under these conditions.
"It (MAS) failed not because it is badly
managed but when the share market has gone down by 90 per cent, any company will
fail," he said when asked to explain last week's sale to the MAS executive
chairman's stake in the Ministry of Finance Incorporated for RM1.79 billion or RM8
per share.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the Government
regarded MAS as not just a commercial entity, but also one with social
obligations.
He said domestic air fares were very low and yet the
Government did not subsidise the airline.
"So MAS keeps losing millions of dollars
because the Government doesn't want domestic fares to increase and because the
public doesn't want it.
"Any company would lose if you do that.
If you add to that, the fluctuation in the price of fuel, the
differentiation
in the value of our currency, RM2,000 fare now is not RM2,000 fare before the
depreciation.
"RM2,000 is now very cheap and yet if we raise
the fare, the people will object strongly."
Dr Mahathir said it was obvious that MAS could not
sustain this situation forever.
"That is why the Government has to take over
because no company can survive under that conditions.
"The Government has to take over. The
implication is that the Government will have to bear the costs. In a way it
is a subsidy."
The Prime Minister said if MAS were to be
privatised, the Government would have to allow a privatised company to fix its own
rates.
Asked about Press reports that some foreign airlines
were contemplating buying into MAS, he said: "In fact, if we were to
sell our shares of MAS to a foreigner or foreign company, the one thing that they
will insist is to have the freedom to determine what is good for the company.
"If yoiu tell them you must subsidise domestic
fares, then will say "No". We are a commercial enterprise and the
company cannot be asked to subsidise," said Dr Mahathir of the Government's
dilemma over MAS, the only Malaysian company which competes globally but flies to
loss-making
domestic routes.
The sale of Tajudin's stake in MAS has come under
fire from certain politicians and foreign analysts, with some suggesting that it
was a bailout because the sale price of RM8 per share represents a 121 per cent
premium to MAS share market price of RM3.60.
But other analysts have argued that the sale prie
was the same as when Tajudin had bought them from the Government.
Tajudin himself had rejected the idea that it was a
bailout, saying he did not hve the money to further invest in MAS and that his
public-listed Naluri Berhad was already losing substantially by buying the stake.
Tajudin's personal debt is said to amount to RM999.4
million.
During the interview, Dr Mahathir also said the
Government's privatisation plans had largely been successful and "only a few
had failed".
"As far as privatisation is concerned, most
people do not seem to understand that we have been very careful with
privatisation. Right from the start, we have aid that there will be
privatisation but it will be at the expense of the workers," he said.
Dr Mahathir said workers under privatised government
entities could not be sacked and ought to be offered new salary schemes and ought
to be offered new salary schemes that were better than the government scheme and
entitled to shares in such entities and all other conditions beneficial to them.
He denied suggestions that privatisation was his way
of doing things.
"It is not true that it's purely my style of
doing things. It is something that we discussed together and make the
decisions collectively."
He also said that Malaysia was studying ways to
counter the effects from a possible slowdown of the United States economy,
including increasing trade with no-traditional trading partners.
"We will, of course, be very much affected
because the US is our major trading partner."
His remarks came in the face of recent warnings from
US President-elect George W. Bush's team that the nation had to prepare for a
sharp downturn, possibly even a recession.
Last Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers
confirmed that a slowdown in the US economy was unavoidable, but he expected
steady economic growth next year.
Summers' remarks on the US was further reinforced by
the US Federal Reserve which said last Tuesday that it was now more worried about
economic weakness than about inflation in the US.
Dr Mahathir said if indeed the US economy was
experiencing a slowdown, Malaysia would have to increase trade and also barter
with non-traditional partners.
"We are studying the situation in order to find
ways to counter the effect on us," he said.
On the country's economic growth for this year, Dr
Mahathir said gross domestic product would exceed the projuected 5.2 per cent to
more than six per cent.
"We are going to perform must more than six per
cent this year."
On next year's GDP projection, the Prime Minister
said it would be "about 5.8 per cent, less than six per cent."
The economy grtew at 5.8 per cent last year.
Asked about the sluggish performance of the Kuala
Lumpur Stock Exchange and the lack of interest among foreign funds to invest in
the local bourse, Dr Mahathir said" "The stock market, in the
first place, is not the best index of a country's performance."
He said short term capital investors were only
interested in quick capital gains and not about about the good performance of the
company that they invest in.
Ends
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