KUALA LUMPUR – Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s (TNB) largest union has expressed concern over the fate of the national utility giant’s chief executive as rumour of his ouster is currently the subject of market talk.
In a statement today, the 13,000-strong Amalgamated Union of TNB Employees (KPPPTNB) said it has decided to throw its weight behind Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan as the group’s chief executive, and urged members to treat any rumours of his resignation as “speculation”.
The Vibes understands that there is a power tussle at TNB with its executive union, TNB Executives’ Association (PETNB), pushing for Amir Hamzah’s resignation, citing the hiring of 20 external staff, which one source said did not make sense as that cohort is less than 0.1% of the group’s 27,000-strong workforce, excluding subsidiaries.
The concern, according to people familiar with the matter, is that PETNB might have the backing of TNB chairman Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, an Umno warlord.
The Padang Terap MP was appointed to the job as part of Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s policy to placate loyalists with plum posts in government-linked companies (GLCs).
TNB chief retail officer Megat Jalaluddin Hassan has been earmarked as Amir Hamzah’s successor, but no official announcement has been made yet as talks are still in progress.
KPPPTNB president Othman Alias said the union is not disputing whether there should be a change in leadership, but that such changes “have to be done according to standard operating procedures and not by using the media”.
The non-executive union, deemed the largest in TNB, added that there were many positive improvements under Amir Hamzah, such as resolving high-profile disciplinary issues in Perak and Kelantan, being open to discussing company matters and revising upwards the non-executive pay scale.
It is understood that TNB’s largest shareholders – sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd (33.9%), pension fund Employees Provident Fund (23%) and asset manager Permodalan Nasional Bhd (22.1%) – have so far remained silent over this development.
They are expected to be acquiescent as each of them is ultimately answerable to either the prime minister or finance minister.
The board is also heavily politicised. Aside from Mahdzir, two Barisan Nasional (BN) men have been appointed to the TNB board – Umno’s Datuk Nawawi Ahmad and MIC’s Datuk Rawisandran Narayanan – as independent non-executive directors in October.
Nawawi is Langkawi Umno chief while Rawisandran was Selangor MIC secretary from 2016 to 2018. Both are also said to be on good terms with Mahdzir, especially Nawawi, who served as a Kedah executive councillor when Mahdzir was menteri besar from 2005 to 2008.
TNB is among the largest stocks on Bursa Malaysia, with a market value of RM61.61 billion. – The Vibes, December 15, 2020
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