Banker donates RM15m to build gallery
Published on: Thursday, October 08, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Amcorp Executive Chairman and Ambank Chairman Tan Sri Azman Hashim has donated RM15 million through his Yayasan Azman Hashim to build Azman Hashim UMS Gallery. A signing ceremony was held at Universiti Malaysia Sabah's (UMS) Chancellor Hall here, Wednesday, with UMS Vice Chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Harun Abdullah, witnessed by Chairman of the UMS Board of Directors Tun Zaki Tun Azmi.The groundbreaking ceremony for the gallery was held on Wednesday afternoon after the signing of the memorandum of agreement to formalise the partnership with UMS.
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The unique circular gallery featuring Sabah's unique nature and cultural elements would be a tourist attraction where it will serve as a centre to display and promote the artistic creations of local and international artists.The gallery would be facing the Likas Bay overlooking the South China Sea with a view of the city centre, surrounded by lush greenery on hilltop with some 100 metres of beachfront. Construction of the gallery is expected to be completed in two years.Meanwhile, in his public 'Kinabalu Lecture' in conjunction with the event, entitled 'The Journey of an Entrepreneur Banker: Tan Sri Azman Hashim' at the packed hall, Azman opined that corruption has worsened in Malaysia."Corruption has grown worse in this country. The 'buaya' (crocodiles) have become bigger. They are swallowing even bigger amounts. It's terrible. Even among university students and graduates also. So we need to instil this in our young people in the schools and universities."
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He cited Singapore's example of a country not plagued by corruption and how its leaders went about it."A Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia survey on public perception of corruption in 2002 saw 30.5 per cent of students saying they would accept bribes. Similarly several years ago, the Corruption Prevention Secretariat conducted a survey among public university students and a majority of the 1,800 students interviewed saw no harm in offering or accepting bribes," Azman said.
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"So one of the ways is to ensure that the subject of good values and ethics be made compulsory, not only for MBAs, but for all degrees. Because, indeed this will make everybody more balanced. Not just paper qualifications. That's not enough. You have to be a balanced personality with good values. Otherwise you would end up like the people in Wall Street, clever but ruthless, cheating people, because they don't have the values."Azman said there was a need to look at leadership in a new perspective after the subprime mortgage fiasco crisis in 2008 in Wall Street, US. The crisis was caused by very smart and important key people, heads of the largest financial institutions in the world, in fact classified as too big to fail. The government had to put in billions of dollars to save them because if they failed, the whole system fails. Investors lost billions and trillions of dollars, including pension funds."People lost their pensions. Why? Because these smart people were not only selling rubbish but with nothing to back them up. Then the house prices collapsed and the whole scheme collapsed. And people are suffering until today. And the banks because they were too big to fail were bailed out by the government, costing billions of dollars of public monies. The individuals, the culprits got away and still collected their big bonuses. So here clearly, something's wrong."I think what is lacking is good values among these leaders. They knowingly resold worthless subprime instruments. Even when they were selling, they were short selling knowing very well it was going to collapse in making unethical and even criminal profits. That is this culture of cut- throat competition. In fact, this crisis gave bankers a very bad name."Perhaps good values should be made compulsory in the syllabus of MBAs and other similar qualifications especially in the financial service industry, with a formal Code of Ethics and Conduct that encompass good values."We need to have leaders with good values – integrity, honesty, humility accountability, responsibility, good ethics and conduct - leadership with heart and soul.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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