Just retired communications and multimedia chief regulator Datuk Dr Halim Shafie has been appointed the new Telekom Malaysia Bhd chairman as the Najib Administration continues revamping the top leadership in government-linked-companies (GLCs).
The 60-year-old career civil servant replaces Tan Sri Muhammad Radzi Mansor, who retired on July 12, 2009 after serving 10 years as the utility’s non-executive chairman.
The Malaysian Insider understands that Halim was chosen over a younger slate of candidates as main shareholder Khazanah Nasional Berhad wanted experience over youth in the dominant telecoms company that is focusing on delivering high-speed broadband access in the country.
Halim was Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman for three years until last April. He has been savaged by critics for being soft on mobile phone companies and scam text messaging contests apart from slammed by the opposition for ordering private television stations not to air opposition leaders news in June 2007.
He was earlier secretary-general of the Energy, Telecommunications and Water ministry until he retired in 2006.
“The Finance Ministry has sent a letter to Telekom Malaysia naming Halim as new chairman. It should be official by now,” a company source told The Malaysian Insider.
The source said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also finance minister, had agreed with Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar’s recommendation to appoint Halim over several other candidates.
Khazanah, the state asset manager, owns nearly 40 per cent of Telekom after spinning off its various mobile operations in the Asia-Pacific region into TM International which was later renamed Axiata.
“It is a cozy arrangement to have an ex-civil servant and ex-regulator as chairman. It is a way for government to reward its top civil servants and ensure Telekom gets it easy with the regulators,” a telecommunications analyst told The Malaysian Insider.
Halim, who was educated in the premier Malay College Kuala Kangsar, graduated with a Bachelors of Economics (Hons) degree at University of Malaya (l972) and later joined the Education Ministry followed by appointments at the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN) (1976-1978,1980-1983), Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) in the Prime Minister’s Department (1987-1994) and INTAN (1994-1999).
Halim later took on the position of Deputy Secretary General I, Communications and Multimedia Sector (1999-2000), and Secretary General, Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (2000-2006).
Recognised as a contributor to the growth of the Communications and Multimedia sector, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission on 3 April 2006.
He also obtained a Masters Degree in Economic Development (1980) from the University of Pittsburgh. This was followed with the Gaylord Brothers Scholarship Award from Syracuse University where he obtained a Ph.D in Information Transfer (1988).
His predecessor as chairman, Muhammad Radzi was a 22-year veteran in various engineering and management capacities in the former Jabatan Telekom Malaysia (JTM) who retired as Director-General of Telecommunications upon JTM’s corporatisation on 1 January 1987, and was subsequently appointed as Director of Operations at TM.
The 67-year-old served as Director of Marketing and Customer Services from 1989 to 1995 and later as Director of Regulatory Management and External Affairs before retiring in July 1996. From 1997 to 1999, he was retained as a Consultant/Advisor on multimedia flagship application projects for the Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDeC).
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