Different priorities for different people

Some 20 years ago, a part-time drummer-tutor told me he was with MAS orchestra and I was quite surprised that our airline has an in-house orchestra. Presumably, it had since been disbanded when the company faced financial difficulties. Among the extravagance made known, one stood out –millions were paid for some paintings to grace the Chairman’s office!

Common sense tells us that the financial situation of a company or individual starts to deteriorate when the expenses exceed income and if unchecked, the capital will be reduced until it becomes insolvent or bankrupt.

I have seen enough of those with easy money to start with. They went into business because it looks good to be a businessman or company director and even better if the office is posh and provided with a luxury car. All these, before the business is even established and earning good income, if any!

We have seen enough of CEOs in GLCs who would change the company’s logo when they first joined the company, in their egoistic display in stamping their management style. What a waste. If I am not mistaken, Exxon retained Esso trademark because of its well known brand and it would have been too costly to change to reflect its new name then.

Maybank had been on an acquisition trail overseas, ostensibly because of limited scope for expansion locally but actually paying through the nose, which caused its share price to take a beating. It has always been the top bank but lately I noticed Public Bank had taken over, based on market capitalization!

I wish those who are entrusted with public funds or in charge of corporations owned by government institutions would concentrate more on the business than being distracted by political interference or personal interests.

Petronas is in a class of its own, way above all other business entities because of its enormous income from oil. So far, it has been able to look good in maintaining its huge revenue and profits which our government had been relying on to cover up its huge development costs, mistakes and shortfalls in all kinds of ventures like Putra Jaya, Cyberjaya, Proton and so on.

When asked to finance the second bridge for Penang, it was a big NO, especially coming from an opposition government. Time to teach them a lesson, so it seems. It is not surprising that Lim Guan Eng pointed out its extravagance in financing our Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, at great expense, benefiting a majority of foreigners! How bizarre can it be? Just because Dr. Mahathir then was interested in classical music by foreigners?

I cannot help in thinking Francis Yeoh of YTL knew his fondness for opera singers and brought in Luciano Pavarotti to Pangkor Laut. It is one of the arts of persuasion of a good businessman to know what are the likes and dislikes of a man in power. But at least, he is acting for his own companies, and not a GLC and he is so successful at making money.

From The Sun:

MPO'S 'SOUND OF MUSIC' COSTS RM3.5M A MONTH
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Llew-Ann Phang

KUALA LUMPUR (May 13, 2008): The "sound of music" can sometimes be too excessive as in the case of Petronas’ Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) which costs RM3.5 million a month to sustain.

Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) pointed this out in his debate on the motion of thanks on the royal address in Parliament today, charging that these funds, spent on the orchestra that is only made up of 5% locals and 95% foreigners, could be utilised better.
"Where the Barisan Nasional (BN) government refuses to allow Petronas to share its profits with the people, this giant fuel company is wiling to pay its foreign musicians a monthly wage of between RM16,000 and RM28,000 a month.

"Each of them have two months paid leave. The conductor is paid RM130,000 a month and his assistant RM50,000. Since its 10 years of establishment, the orchestra has cost Petronas RM500 million," he said.

Lim, who is also Penang Chief Minister, questioned Petronas' willingness "to waste so much money but does not give any benefit to the local musicians", reiterating his call for its profits to be handed out to the people to help them cope with rising prices.

He said since 1997, Petronas had dished out gas subsidies amounting to RM58.2 billion of which RM48.8 billion was given to the energy sector and RM9.4 billion to the non-energy sector.

"Of the subsidies to the energy sector, the Independent Power Producers (IPP) enjoy more than Tenaga Nasional Bhd. As an example, in 2007 subsidies to the energy were RM15.6 billion where TNB only received RM5 billion, RM3.9 billion were given to the private sector and RM6.7 billion was handed to the IPPs," Lim said.

He called for a reduction of subsidies to IPPs, claiming that it was not fair for them to be enjoying high subsidies to be producing their billions in profits.

From our multi-datuk wong chun wai’s blog:

It’s not music to the ears

It's scandalous. DAP MP Lim Guan Eng has claimed that Petronas spent RM3.5mil a month to sustain the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) with the conductor paid RM130,000 a month.

If that's true, that means the conductor is better paid than the Prime Minister and most chief executive officers in town. According to the Penang Chief Minister, his assistant gets RM30,000.

Since its inception 10 years ago, Petronas has forked out RM500mil for the orchestra. This is serious stuff because only 10 per cent of the orchestra members are said to be locals. It is difficult for us to accept the fact that after 10 years, we are still unable to train enough musicians to take these roles. According to Guan Eng, the musicians are getting between RM16,000 and RM28,000 a month. I am not an expert but I think for top class act, these salaries are not that big. But still, we would like to see more Malaysians, not necessarily all Malaysians.

Surely a decade is a long time. Penang born Ooi Chean See is said to have left the MPO because she was unhappy. But that's not all, companies which support the MPO have found out that they cannot even claim tax deductions. Surely, it make sense to have some form of tax incentives to encourage the private sector to back the arts scene. No one will get the full details of the allegations as Petronas does not have to make public its financial status.