Omar Ong continued to be bashed in bloggosphere

Ethos Consulting Supremo Omar Ong is being bantered again in the blogosphere. This time, it is about a strong rumour that he would be or want to be appointed as Petronas director.

Omar Ong, once closely linked to the much talked about ‘Level Four Boys’, was bashed by bloggers, which include Fourth Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. As far back as 2006, someone posted how Omar was ‘linked’ to former abuse-of-power convict Anwar Ibrahim. It was not a much of a surprise because of his close association with then Deputy Chief of Staff in PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s private office, Khairy Jamaluddin. Khairy, was said to have the desire to be the Malaysian Prime Minister by the age of forty. Omar and Khairy shared the same alma matta, Oxford University and both read philosophy, politics and conomics.

Not too long ago, Another Brick in the Wall warned about Omar ‘weaving’ his way into Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak’ private office. Slightly earlier than that, A Voice commented and dissected clinically on Omar’s and Rohanna’s statements (what he calls “nauseating!”) on The Edge’s 13 October 2008 write up of “Tapping private equity amid credit crunch”. Earlier in the month, A Voice dared Omar to publicly disavow his relationship with Khairy.  A few days earlier, A Voice 1429H Hari Raya Aidil Fitri’s ‘gift’ for Omar, “If Pak Lah is leaving, why is a ‘Level Four Boys’ still in command?”.

We are not sure how reliable this rumour about Omar’s ascension on the nation’s most prized vehicle, which provided taxes and dividends for the Government’s coffer in size more than majority of the under developed nations’ annual GDP, on behalf of the rakyat. But for A Voice to be consistent about his warnings, much like scandals he uncovered like Sime Darby taking over IJN, AirAsia’s LCCT, ECM Libra –Avenue merger, Malaysia Airlines’ inner workings of the new management and others, are developments worth to be watched.

As the say in Malay, “Kalau tiada beruk, masakan pohon bergoyang“. Regardless if A Voice’s expose’ is wholesomely true, partially true or otherwise, the other pertinent issue here is, ‘perception’. Perception is very important nowadays, especially when the rakyat demand more transparency on Government’s spending. As 55% of the Federal Government income comes from Petronas, it is important that its directors are of selfless (non opportunistic) character.