KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has lashed out at Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for claiming that national sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd had deviated from its original purpose of helping the Bumiputera.
Najib said Khazanah was not created to look after the interests of individuals or select groups; instead, it was built to generate wealth for the country.
Khazanah, he said, was different from institutions such as the Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) and Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Bhd (PUNB), which were set up to spur Bumiputera involvement in business.
“Khazanah’s vision was to become an investment institution to create wealth for the country and return the dividends to the people.
He said Khazanah created new companies which competed in the international market and to strengthen the country's talent base, which is necessary for a country to prosper.
“However, if these talents are not given the opportunity, they will go elsewhere. Once Malaysia loses these talents, we will be left with mediocre talents in the management of this country.
“I fear for the future of the corporate sector in Malaysia,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby on Thursday.
Najib was commenting on the resignations of Khazanah’s board of directors, including its managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, chief executive Tan Sri Nor Md Yusof, who had offered to step down to enable the new government to decide on the entity’s direction and leadership.
Other directors who had also tendered their resignations included Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, Datuk Dr Nirmala Menon, Tan Sri Mohamed Azman Yahya, Datuk Mohammed Azlan Hashim, Yeo Kar Peng, Tan Sri Andrew Sheng Len Tao and Raja Tan Sri Arshad Raja Uda.