Outstanding leadership guided by trust

Born on September 16, 1938 in Tapah, Perak to Abdul Hamid Mohd Aroop and Mahani Mohd Sidek, Tun Ahmad Sarji had a happy childhood. He recalls, “I was born in my maternal grandmother’s house, 4.8km north of Tapah town. The house was just a few metres away from the mosque, so I heard the call to prayers from the time I was born. I had no memory of this, of course, but it made an impression.”

He was unaware of his entry into this world but his parents and relatives had vivid memories of his birth. “I caught my entire clan’s attention as I arrived with a primal wail!” grins Tun Ahmad Sarji. “My mother’s labour had taken longer than normal and she suffered considerable loss of blood. I was delivered not by a doctor but a ‘bidan’ (village midwife). My mother had an epic struggle to bring me into existence and the facts of my difficult birth have been related to me again and again by my aunts and uncles! That my teenage mother suffered greatly to bring her firstborn child into this world is indisputable.”

When his mother married, she was only 18. His father lost his first wife Safiah, a Bidor girl, three years before he married Ahmad Sarji’s mother.

His grandfather died from an attack by labourers. “The ring he wore was of great reverence to his sons. Since my father was the eldest, it went to him. In my teens, he gave the ring to me and it has been on my finger ever since. On my death, this ring will be handed to my son Ariff Tuah and I hope he will pass it to his son and so on thereafter.

“My earliest days were spent in an extended family, consisting of my parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and elder cousins. I was never alone and soon became a favourite son of the kampung and earned the affectionate nickname of ‘blanja belikot’. ‘Blanja’ came from ‘manja’ (pampered child) and ‘belikot’ is ‘one and only’.”

Having started his career in the civil service in 1961, Ahmad Sarji scaled the stellar heights to reach the pinnacle as Chief Secretary to the Government in 1990 and held the post until 1996. Upon retirement he was appointed as the chairman of PNB, Malaysia’s most powerful and richest holder of unit trusts. Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) manages a staggering RM132 billion of unit trusts on behalf of Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras. However, despite his raucous hullabaloo of a delivery, Tun is the opposite in real life, maintaining a low profile while ensuring his duties are carried out.

His mother Mahani Sidek was thrifty to a fault. “She spoke no English and read no books. She had simple ideas about what she wanted for her children— she just wanted us to achieve happiness and success in our life,” says Ahmad Sarji. “She often told us, ‘I wish to see my family admitted to Paradise in the hereafter.’ She helped us by telling us to read the Quran. When we felt sleepy we would ask mother to sprinkle water on our faces. If the water proved ineffective, we were occasionally given some slaps. Brother Ahmad Rathi was the victim always.”
Ahmad Rathi was a good artist and retired as assistant principal of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Sungkai. Tragically, he and his wife died in a car accident in 2004. Tun’s sister Ghazimah also retired as assistant principal of Tarcisian Convent in Ipoh. Asnah retired as lecturer at Institut Aminuddin Baki while Zarham retired as teacher at Sekolah Tunku Durah. Tyibah, the youngest, retired as administrative officer at the Foreign Ministry.

“My brother Ahmad Sarkawi died aged three of diarrhoea and Zamrah the infant girl between Zarham and Tyibah, died a few days after birth,” says Tun. His father died in 1990 and his mother, now 92, is immobile after three strokes.

‘Does it really interest people to know about my love life?” asks Tun when I query about his wife.

When I reply it is mandatory, he grins, “In March 1961, I was with my friend Yahaya Talib who was driving his Hillman Minx and I saw a very sweet girl pushing her bicycle down Watson Road in Klang. I was the deputy assistant district officer then. I said to Yahaya, “That’s a lovely girl, looks like Dolores Hart.”

It was love at first sight and Ahmad Sarji was smitten and remains so to this day!

“I discovered she was a teacher and I went to hear her participate in the National Language Month contest. I swung into action to devise a plan to meet this lady. I beseeched Yahaya to appoint Sagiyah as polling clerk for the forthcoming Klang and Port Swettenham Town Council elections, so I could visit her! At the end of the polling, I was invit ed to her home!”

The first few meetings established an understanding and he took her to dinners and movies, all “done within the bounds of religious propriety” of course. They m arried on Dec 7, 1962.

He cites his 5ft tall, petite wife as his anchor. “The Holy Prophet said the most precious thing a man can have is a righteous wife and I am lucky to have Sagiyah.”

Their eldest daughter Dr Sazilah is Professor of Radiology at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre. Farah Salizah and Farah Suhanah are non-identical twins. The first is principal of Seri Cempaka School and the latter runs a legal practice. Suryani was an accounts executive with Petronas Carigali and is now with Chopard. Their youngest and only son is Ariff Tuah (in honour of Hang Tuah, one of Ahmad Sarji’s heroes), a golf champion though the handsome 38-year-old bachelor and is a professional golfer.

“Sagiyah and I now have 12 grandchildren, six boys and six girls,” beams the proud grandfather. “The best times of my life are with my family, listening to them talk and engaging in friendly banter. Once we attended a wedding and Ariff Tuah and his sisters were talking about what they would inherit from me. Ariff said he wanted my sports car, house and all properties. Suhanah the lawyer put a dampener by declaring, ‘The properties can go to you but do you know Babah also has debts and mortgages and these will go to you too?’ ”
After being a District Officer, he was awarded a federal scholarship in 1966 to pursue a Diploma in Public Administration at The Hague, Netherlands. After graduation, he returned to work in the Federation Establishment Office as assistant secretary and so began his climb to the top!

Never before has a civil servant scaled such dazzling heights, yet Ahmad Ahmad Sarji is known for his humility, decorum and sense of duty. T he re is a slight military air about Ahmad Sarji since he is tall, well-built and dignified. I feel almost compelled to stand and salute him. However, he stares at me in mounting astonishment as I enter his SPPK office which he goes to every Friday.  He points at my gold snake necklace, jewelled snake head buckle, monstrous-sized rings, bangle and shoes with my face painted on them.

“I was born in Tapah at the foot of Cameron Highlands in 1938 and became District Officer of Rembau, Negeri Sembilan in October 1963. It was beyond a dream come true!” recalls Tun Ahmad Sarji. “I was 53 when I became Chief Secretary to the Government on Feb 1, 1990 which was the culmination of my civil service career. A position given to me in trust by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It was a huge honour for me to serve the country in this capacity. I had no inkling I would be made Chief Secretary nor expected it.”
His achievements he was most proud of during his tenure as Chief Secretary?

“I improved the administration, initiated client charter, installed performance indicators, launched quality service movement and introduced ISO 9000,” beams the ex-Chief Secretary to the Government with justifiable pride. “I introduce many innovations and of course cut red tape and changed certain rules and regulations. I eliminated unproductive practices and campaigned to clear backlog of work. My term was extended twice and I retired aged 58 in 1996.” In 2008, he was made Tun by the King of Malaysia. He has been pro-chancellor of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak since 2003 and is also a pro translator of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Outstanding Leadership

He had no idea he would be appointed chairman of Malaysia’s mightiest institutional investor, PNB. He had spent over three decades in the civil service and being put out to pasture was anathema to this dynamic and go-getting veteran.

Ahmad Sarji, renowned for his sense of justice and a reputation untainted by any slander or scandal, admits blithely, “Yes, I am quite embarrassed to tell you that I still had a big housing loan when I retired. My gratuity was small, so I was keen to take up offers from the private sector so that I could continue working and paying the instalments. But Tun Dr Mahathir recommended me to Tun Ismail Ali, so I was appointed chairman of PNB a month after retirement. I was lucky I would be getting an income to pay for my house.”

His chairmanship was not alien. “I was already a member of the PNB board for five years and served a year as deputy chairman, so I was not thrown into the deep end. It was not a new or strange experience and I have been chairman for 15 years now.

“From an initial RM200 million in 1978, PNB now manages RM132 billion. We look after the money of 10.6 million holders and we have paid dividends and bonus of RM83 billion since 1981. Ours are statutory funds invested in over 200 companies, mostly local though we are allowed to invest overseas.

“The original intention of PNB is to look after the welfare of Bumiputeras and give a reasonable return to their investments. Now 11% are non-Bumis who know a good deal when they see one! For instance, the Amanah 1Malaysia is highly recommended to non-Bumis which give a decent 6% interest. As of August 31, 2011, 1.229 million non-Bumis had invested RM23.4 billion while 9.317 million Bumiputeras had invested RM108.134 billion so proportionately, the non-Bumis have invested a higher ratio.”

Still, to step into Tun Ismail Ali’s giant shoes was a formidable challenge. “I never dreamed I would be succeeding such an icon and there were many other worthy contenders.
The two vastly different hats he has worn seem polar opposites but he points out various similarities.

“As head of civil service, I was the guardian not only of administrative work but moral ethics as I was in charge of discipline, morale, ethics and quality of work. At PNB, it is all about business, investing, buying and selling of stocks though we are primarily a long-term holder of equities. We buy properties on a large scale and are more concerned about capital gains and dividends from our investments than making a fast buck by buying and selling quickly. We are concerned about the bottomline and subscribe to high fiscal discipline and fiduciary responsibility. These are the dissimilarities.

“However, our governing principles are the same. We are prudent yet visionary as we cannot buy a stake and be permanent sleeping partner. In PNB, it is easy to see how we perform due to our annual reports and balance sheets, so anyone knows our profit and loss figures.

“Some assume it is tougher as Chief Secretary to produce demonstrative reports but there are tangible results. For instance, the World Competitive Report from Geneva listed Malaysia as the 4th Best Civil Service in the world! This is a huge accolade as our delivery of services has met international benchmarks. Transparency International has lauded us for introducing and adapting ISO 9000 and our measures to eradicate corruption.”

Remarkably for a busy man, Ahmad Sarji finds time to play lawn bowls. I am bowled over by this revelation and foolishly blurt, “But who plays lawn bowls these days? Sounds so old fashioned and Victorian!”

Ahmad Sarji bristles and walks to his desk to retrieve a book. He sniffs indignantly, “I shall give you a book I wrote called ‘Lawn Bowls In Malaysia’. You really suffer from a lack of information!” he admonishes sternly as I hang my head.

“I have been president of the Malaysian Lawn Bowls Federation since 1997 and president of  the Asia Lawn Bowls Federation since 2000. Our lawn bowlers have done Malaysia proud by winning a gold and silver in the Commonwealth Games, gold medal at the Comonwealth Under-18 Games and emerged champion for Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia and Asia! At the World Bowls Championship in 2008, Safuan Said became world champion and Malaysia came out third in the world behind New Zealand and Australia. Tun Ahmad Sarji is also president of the Malaysian Malays Cricket Associations and chairman of professional golf of Malaysia.
Man of diverse interests
His fondness of movie legend P.Ramlee is legendary and he has co-written five books on this icon! To prove I am not suffering from a lack of information this time, I remark “I am one of the few who know the ‘P’ in P.Ramlee stands for ‘Puteh’.

He seems amused. “I have three heroes in my life; Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hang Tuah and P.Ramlee. I started admiring Tunku from Form Three in 1953 when I took History as a subject. We met on two occasions by chance. Once onboard a MAS flight from KL to Penang in 1986 and another on MAS flight from Hong Kong to KL where he went for eye treatment in the late Eighties. I kissed his hand and took photos with him.”
Ahmad Sarji also received letters from Tunku Abdul Rahman after becoming Chief Secretary. Did Tunku ask for special favours to benefit certain cronies? Yes, he did. But for his lowly staff!
Ahmad Sarji shakes his head in admiration. Tunku did not ask for some grand or valuable concessions or favours that would benefit him financially. He was only concerned about his staff getting a pension when he was gone. He asked me if I could extend his clerk/stenographer Bernadette Lee’s contract service for two more years, hire K.Markandan, the son of his long-term driver to be his chauffeur, extend the contract of his secretary Cheah Phee Cheok and two gardeners and grant an allowance for his part-time driver. He was only concerned about his staff’s welfare! I was stunned and inspired by the humility of Bapa Merdeka. I was only too happy to grant all his requests.

Ahmad Sarji visited Tunku five times in hospital and reported to Dr Mahathir. On Dec 6, 1990 the prime minister arrived at 9pm and stood with Ahmad Sarji by the great Tunku’s bedside as his life ebbed away. “Dr Mahathir ordered me to announce Tunku’s death which I did at 10.50pm.”

As for Hang Tuah, Tun Sarji did not name his only son and youngest child Ariff Tuah for nothing. His book ‘Hang Tuah – Tokoh Epik Nasional’ was written at the behest of his wife Toh Puan Sagiyah as a present for Ariff Tuah.

“Hang Tuah is the embodiment of the feudal age of absolute power when disobedience to the Sultan was an unforgivable crime (derhaka). Hang Tuah showed his absolute loyalty to the Sultan by killing his friend Hang Jebat who had been disobedient to the Sultan in his determination to serve another ideal – faithfulness to one’s friend.” says Ahmad Sarji. “It was Hang Tuah who uttered the immortal words, ‘Tak Melayu hilang di dunia’ (the Malays will never be gone from this world).”

Ahmad Sarji waxes lyrical over contemporary hero P.Ramlee. “Who else but P.Ramlee could simultaneously be a singer, composer, actor, director, song writer and script writer? There are always social messages in his movies even if they were comedies. He was a genius and a legend in his own lifetime and justly so!”

He has seen all of P.Ramlee’s movies countless times and it appears Ahmad Sarji is on a covert mission—to recover the three missing P.Ramlee movies! “Few know there are three P.Ramlee movies that are lost though hopefully not destroyed. I have seen searching for ‘Bakti’, ‘Noor Asmara’ and ‘Si Tora Harimau Jadian’. Yes, they had been made but no one can find any reels. I even went to Hong Kong to check with Shaw Brothers but to no avail. The studio’s basement in Singapore was once flooded so maybe they were lost for good. But hope is eternal! I am very fond of his Labu-Labi and Bujang Lapok series.”

Guardian of heritage

As the president of Heritage of Malaysia Trust or Badan Warisan Malaysia (BWN) from 1995 till now, Ahmad Sarji is heavily involved in the preservation, restoration and conservation of heritage buildings and sites.

These include Rumah Penghulu Abu Seman which is now in the gardens of 2 Jalan Stonor in KL, KL Heritage Trails, 8 Heeren Street in Malacca and Rubber Smokehouse in Lunas, Kedah. “As a child, I used to admire such buildings and now I am in a position to help conserve our heritage,” said Ahmad Sarji.

His list of accomplishments runs for miles and fans are advised to purchase his multi-kilo book ‘Given in Trust’. “I am not running for office, so I am free to speak my mind although I always maintain a low profile. I avoid being the cynosure of attention and the title of my book, ‘Given in Trust’ is my motto and philosophy in a nutshell,” he exclaims. “Everything in my life has been given in trust. As son of my parents, I am given in trust. Ditto as husband to my wife, father to my children, grandfather to grandchildren, Chief Secretary to the Malaysian Government and chairman of PNB. All my positions have been given to me in trust.”

Ahmad Sarji is a picture of robust health. “The secret of my health and stamina is a gift from God. Some say it is my genes but surely that is God’s gift too? Oh, I also take the multi-vitamins Proviton.

“I play golf regularly, walk a lot and have no inner secrets. I am grateful to God’s blessings and don’t complain. Perhaps my sense of gratitude to the Almighty radiates from inside me and contribute to my well-being. This is my self-analysis!

“I am so blessed as I have my wife, Toh Puan Sagiyah Salikin, five kids and 12 grandchildren. They provide endless joy and contentment for me. On Dec 8, 2011, my wife and I celebrated 49 years of marriage and this year will be 50 glorious years.”