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Rare insight into Syed Mokhtar

Listed as the seventh richest Malaysian with a net worth of US$3.3 billion, not much is known from the media-shy Syed Mokhtar.

Syed Mokhtar Albukhary

Syed Mokhtar Albukhary : A Biography

Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, A Biography
Author: Premilla Mohanlall
Publisher: PVM Communications

MY first meeting with tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary went off in a rather unusual way. The year was 2004 and he had wanted to meet someone from The Star to make known his views over his fight with another tycoon, the late Tan Sri Nasimuddin SM Amin, over DRB-Hicom.

Syed Mokhtar felt the media favoured the Naza Group boss over him and he wanted to give his side of the story.

Both were battling over a strategic 15.8% block of shares in DRB-Hicom held by three parties, including the estate of the late Tan Sri Yahaya Ahmad, and the rivalry was billed as the “Fight of The Big Boys.”

The series of newspaper headlines had forced the reclusive Syed Mokhtar to come out and talk to this writer to put the record straight.

Our meeting at the business centre of a five-star hotel at Jalan Sultan Ismail was fixed at 9pm but he only turned up near midnight. Although he was dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, I noticed that he only wore sandals. He was over two hours late.

His aides had warned me that he would probably be “waylaid” on the way there by businessmen and politicians, most of whom would ask for business deals or favours.

To avoid such disruptions, he shuttles between his house at affluent Bukit Tunku – which he bought since he became a millionaire bachelor – and the hotel to meet his associates and contacts. The other meeting point is the Islamic Arts Museum near the National Mosque.

The other rather unusual meeting spot is an Indian restaurant at Jalan Pahang. To this day, he carries with him a tumbler of tea, made by a particular waiter, from the eatery.

“If (the late Tan Sri) Loh Boon Siew can meet his friends at a coffeeshop every morning, I see no reason why I cannot enjoy my teh tarik at the shop, saya pun tong san mali, like him,” he told me, referring to Boon Siew’s ancestral roots from China. Syed Mokktar’s ancestral roots, on the other hand, can be traced to Central Asia.

By the time we finished our conversations, it was close to 2am. As I put down my pen and was about to close my note book, he suddenly told me that our discussions were entirely off the record and he was not to be quoted.

The publicity-shy businessman has never been at ease with journalists but I wasn’t going to allow Syed Mokhtar to have his way. I told him, in no uncertain terms, that if that were so, I would have wasted my entire evening with him, and whether he liked it or not, I was going to put him on record.

I must have made an impression on him because as we got to know each other better, he was prepared to share his private thoughts with me regularly – but still never on record.

But the media is still biting on Syed Mokhtar and, in some ways, he is to be blamed as he has never made himself available to journalists, preferring to let his aides do the talking. In fact, bankers also complain that he never meets them!

Interestingly enough, a whole chapter is devoted to his dealings with the media in his biography that has just hit the bookstores written by Premilla Mohanlall, a writer and a public relations practitioner.

“I wonder why I get bad press when others who have abused the system for personal gains have not been subjected to such media scrutiny. Perhaps it is time to come out and defend myself,” he said in the book.

The 180-page book is very readable, starting with his childhood days in a village attap house with no piped water and electricity, where the toilet was a pit latrine. It traces Syed Mokhtar’s first experience of doing business under his cattle trader father in Alor Star. His father migrated to Kedah from the Afghan region of Central Asia via India and Thailand.

The book gives a rare peek into his family life and how the family’s financial constraints forced Syed Mokhtar to stop schooling after Form Five, while his siblings were able to continue. There was also his early growing-up years with a soldier uncle in Johor Baru.

He takes pride calling himself a businessman with no diplomas, and his ability to speak the layman’s language is obvious in the book. Much space is dedicated to his early days as a travelling salesman, when he had to sleep in the lorries and on bug-infested beds in cheap hotels.

The point that Syed Mokhtar seems to want to tell his readers is that he did not get his wealth on a silver platter. While the affirmative action of the New Economic Policy had helped him, he worked hard and fought hard. He was not the type who cashed out after getting the pink forms.

In short, he went through the good and bad times, like many well-tested businessmen. The 1997 financial crisis saw his assets shrank from RM3bil to RM600mil.

“Eighty per cent of my market capitalisation was wiped out. There was a lot of pain and hardship. Many people thought I would pack up and leave. I am a fighter, with a strong will to survive.

“I lost countless nights of sleep, I lost hair, but I did not lose sight of one thing: my responsibility to safeguard strategic bumiputra assets and to protect the interests of my staff.”

Today, he has 110,000 staff under his payroll and indirectly about 250,000 other Malaysians, particularly vendors, since he acquired Proton this year.

Syed Mokhtar’s close ties with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is well documented but in this book, Syed Mokhtar spoke vividly, if not humorously, of their first encounter.

It was Thursday, Jan 16, 1997 and the time was 2.30pm – Syed Mokhtar entered the office of the former Prime Minister.

“I greeted him with a salam and he stood before me, with his hands folded across the chest. He did not wave for me to take a seat when he sat down. I was sweating, and decided to sit down to present the documents I had prepared to explain all my businesses in Kedah, Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

“It included building plans for a new project in Alor Star, a sprawling development with a mosque and a health and welfare facilities for the poor as well as an international university for disadvantaged communities around the world.

“The Prime Minister listened carefully, without saying a word. By the time I was done, it was an hour and ten minutes. Still, not a word. I left the documents on his desk and took leave.”

Not long later, Syed Mokthar, who was still asleep, received a call from Dr Mahathir himself with a simple message: “Your matter in Kedah is settled.” That is of course vintage Dr Mahathir, the man who has no time for small talk and offered few words.

Apart from his numerous business ventures, Syed Mokhtar also writes in detail of his numerous charitable works.

Almost every year, his Albukhary Foundation hosts two iftar or fast-breaking dinners for over 3,000 needy people. The foundation currently has a few flagship projects, including the Islamic Arts Museum built in 1998.

In 2001, the foundation launched the Albukhry Tuition Programme to help the underachieving rural school children pass their final high school examination. At the end of the programme, nine years later, about 80,000 students from 500 schools had benefited from these remedial classes.

His foundation has also extended help to survivors of earthquakes in China, Pakistan and Iran, and the tsunami in Indonesia. It has also built an AIDS hospital in Uganda and a girls’ school in Nepal as well as helped support the Sarajevo Science and Technology centre.

An interesting chapter is on his role as a family man. Syed Mokhtar has never touched on his private life in any interview, which has been rare, in any case.

The father of seven children, between the ages of two and 18, revealed how his typical meetings start at 10pm and finish at 3am “and is held seven days a week and has been a routine for more than 20 years.”

“Fortunately, my wife comes from a business family and understands this. Initially, I had to explain the arrangement to her, and she accepted it. Except for family holidays, in our 20 years of marriage, I don’t think I have spent many evenings at home after 10pm,” he wrote.

Syed Mokhtar married in 1992 at the age of 41 to then 24-year-old Sharifah Zarah. There are also rare pictures of his family in the book.

Although the book is, no doubt, a public relations exercise, the right questions have been posed by the writer, including the public’s perception of his many acquisitions and the common criticism that he has more than he can chew.

He also answered the issue of the shareholding structure of his companies that could not be traced to him, acknowledging “it is an old habit that has to change.”

Syed Mokhtar hasn’t changed much. He is rarely seen in public functions. He is still more at ease in short-sleeved shirts and sandals. The billionaire now travels on a private jet but in town, he still drives around in his old Proton Perdana. By WONG CHUN WAI

Chinese Opera

Hotshots [PIC]

Dr Mahathir

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Categories
Wonderful Malaysia

20 tips when buying a car in Malaysia

Things to keep in mind when buying a car in Malaysia

1. There are almost no reliable cars below the RM5000 mark. Cars that are sold below RM5k often need repairs which could easily add a couple of thousand ringgits. Be prepared to pay at least RM7.000 to RM10.000 for an old (10+ year old) car.

2. A new car easily costs over RM100.000 in Malaysia. If you want to drive an American or European brand then be prepared to fork up a few hundred thousand ringgits. Even a BW of at least 5 years old may cost well over RM150.000.

3. Most common brands in Malaysia are Proton, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai. Most common European cars are BW and Mercedes. Audi is currently gaining popularity (weird enough some locals have the impression that Audi is of less quality compared to BW and Mercedes).

4. Banks are usually eager to give out (new) loans. Expats usually have a bigger income compared to locals, though expats also often stay less long in Malaysia. Loans are available but there may be restrictions in place (like a shorter payback time which means higher monthly costs). When you take up a loan there is usually a down payment of at least 10%. To get the loan you need to bring along bank statements (that proves your income), your passport with work-permit and often a company letter. A general rule of thumb is that you must have a salary of at least 3 to 5 times the monthly payment in order to get a loan. The interest rates for a new car are usually between 2% and 4% per year (second hand cars between 4% and 8%). Loans that can be applied are typically for around 10 years in case of a new car.

5. Proton, the national car of Malaysia, is perhaps not the best or nicest car to drive; however it is a car that everybody drives in Malaysia. This means that there is much knowledge at repair garages and parts are also less expensive. If you are on a tight budget, you are probably best off with a Proton car.

6. Make sure you bring along a local that at least speaks Bahasa Malayu. Chinese is often even better (as the 2nd hand car market is mostly dominated by Chinese Malaysians).

7. Check the service record to verify the vehicle’s history and mileage.

8. Have the vehicle tested by an independent service/repair shop and use the outcome to haggle on the price.

9. Use places like Mudah.com.my to get an impression on prices for a certain type, year and model. If you see a car for sale for half the regular 2nd hand value then ask yourself the question what might be wrong with it. Believe it or not; it is not uncommon to see stolen cars offered for sale.

10. Don’t believe most of the unique selling points. In Malaysia every 2nd hand car only had 1 previous owner, who is always 76 years old and always used to be a school teacher that only drove 50.000 kilometers in all those years.

11. Take the car for a test drive. Check whether essential functions like brakes, tires, clutch, gearbox, visors, lights, doors, electric windows (if any), central door lock and air-condition are working.

12. Cars keep their value more in Malaysia then in other countries. If you buy a car for RM15.000 chances are that two years later the car is still worth around RM13.000. Brand new cars do lose value immediately after buying the car (around 30% max).

13. Please check that the vehicle is actually owned by the seller. This can be done at JPJ (Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan).

14. When you are buying the car you head over to JPJ near Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya just outside KL city center to have it registered under your name.

15. Only after you have registered the car under your name (and made sure up front that there are no outstanding loans, warrants and after the official car inspection) you will do the payment.

16. In Malaysia people can take up a loan (similar to a mortgage) on a car that is transferable after the sale. This means you can buy a car with an outstanding loan. Always check the background or history of the vehicle if possible before deciding to buy the vehicle for sale.

17. If you bring your car to a regular repair shop; always join the mechanic for a short drive to test the car. Our experiences are that they tend to fix the problem(s) at hand, but often do not look further than that. This means that there is a chance that you will run into new problems. Always be alert and always ask how many days of warranty come with the repairs.

18. If you run into trouble on the road be sure to have proper insurance. Our experience with Axa is pretty good. We ran into troubles a few times with our cheap car and we never had to wait for more than two hours for the towing company to arrive. Be sure to keep the number of your insurance company at hand.

19. Never rush into buying a car. Also try and find a trustworthy source first that has no ties with a dealer (or seller) whatsoever. Do not put too much trust in the advertisements you often see along the roads. Always make sure all the documents are in order and there has not been tampered with the car.

20. If you are selling your car (private sale) then always make sure payment is done in cash on delivery. There have been many cases of expats being fooled without any time left to actually solve the issues.

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Cuisine in Melaka

GREEN CARS FOR MELAKA STATE EXCO MEMBERS

MALACCA: Malacca state exco members and top officials could soon be cruising in eco-friendly hybrid cars.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said that the state had received a proposal from Honda to change its current fleet to cars using green technology.

“Honda is offering us a good deal and we are now waiting for the green light from the Federal Government,” he said after announcing new portfolios for the state executive council yesterday.

“We have also assessed the proposal by Proton on similar cars and will leave it to the Federal Government to decide.”

Mohd Ali has created a new portfolio – Green Technology – that comes under his purview.

It is learnt that the state government was offered Honda’s 2011 Insight hybrid model as state official cars.

Mohd Ali said that the state government was contemplating only electric-powered taxis and buses in the state to reduce smoke emissions and to create a greener Malacca.

“We are looking at the blueprints submitted by Proton and a heavy vehicle manufacturer from China to introduce electric taxis and buses in the state. The change will be carried out in stages,” he said.

Mohd Ali added he would also pursue plans to have more government department buildings and private homes in the state to use solar power panels for their energy supply.

“Malacca will move forward progressively to adopt green technology in urban and community development,” he said.

On the exco reshuffle, Mohd Ali said he has given key portfolios to the MCA and MIC representatives.

State MCA chief Datuk Gan Tian Loo, who previously chaired the Public Works and Infrastructure committee, now helms the Education, Youth and Sports committee to enable him to bring about a paradigm change in universities, secondary and primary schools in the state.

State MIC chief Datuk R. Perumal, formerly in charge of Transport, Information and Consumerism, has been given the Urban Development and Agriculture committee to turn Malacca into a major dairy producer, Mohd Ali said.

He also picked newly appointed exco man Datuk Ghazale Ahmad as chairman of the Transport, Information, Unity and Consumerism committee.

All changes will take effect from April 1.