By Koon Yew Yin
I was secretary-general of the Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) for nine years about 30 years ago. As such, I am always interested in the welfare of the association.
The association’s AGM was held on June 23 and I was shocked to know that the past deputy president, AK Nathan, was not elected to be one of the 26 central committee members, who will then choose leaders for the association.
He was knocked out by a coup led by some unscrupulous people.
I would like to take this opportunity to record what Nathan has done for the association.
While he was MBAM Building chairman, he donated RM300,000 and gave a RM500,000 interest-free loan to buy a 0.4ha plot of land to build the MBAM headquarters’ building.
His committee organised a building design competition and selected the architect who submitted the best design.
He plans to complete the MBAM building project by end of 2021. I doubt it can be done without him.
Nathan has been the past deputy president and a committee member for the last 15 years.
But all of a sudden, he is a nobody in the association.
I suspect a group of unscrupulous Chinese contractors did not vote for him because he is an Indian.
If he was elected president, he would have been the first non-Chinese president in the history of MBAM.
Nathan is the organising chairman of the 44th International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors’ Associations (IFAWPCA) Convention to be held at KLCC, Kuala Lumpur, from Nov 12-16.
He is a good organiser and a successful entrepreneur. He is highly respected locally and internationally.
For the first time in its history, Nathan has revised the overall programme to have the conference over one-and-a-half days and an exhibition with 320 booths.
Most of the speakers and two of the moderators have agreed to participate due to his personal relationship with them.
Nathan also established MBAM Onebuild Sdn Bhd to embark on the exhibition business, creating a joint venture between MBAM and Onebuild International.
Last November, he organised the inaugural Building and Construction Conference and Exhibition 2017 and made RM360,000 profit for MBAM. This would be a yearly event creating recurring yearly income for MBAM going forward.
Eversendai Corporation Bhd
Nathan is the controlling shareholder, founder and group managing director of Eversendai Corporation Bhd. About 90% of Eversendai’s business is overseas, flying the Malaysian flag high.
The company has very good profit growth prospects, which is the most powerful catalyst for moving its share price higher and higher. This is my golden rule in investing in equities.
I have been watching and investing in the stock market for more than 50 years. Currently, I cannot find any good construction contracting company which has good profit growth prospects for me to buy their shares. But I am now the second largest shareholder of Eversendai.
I was told the whole voting process was very well planned and orchestrated by a few people within the council for their individual benefit and aspiration to remove Nathan.
Many ignorant members supported these unscrupulous people blindly.
If all the 26 council members honestly examine their track record, they must realise that they have not been able to beat Nathan’s amazing track record, as I mentioned above.
How dare they vote out Nathan?
Can MBAM manage the coming 44th IFAWPCA Convention without Nathan?
Now, the best way to improve MBAM’s image is for the 26 council members to invite Nathan to be the president. Otherwise, I can foresee MBAM going downhill.
Koon Yew Yin is a retired chartered civil engineer and one of the founders of IJM Corporation Bhd and Gamuda Bhd.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.