A man of many hats, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam has made it his life's calling to serve his country. Unafraid to voice his opinions, he speaks to Jacqueline Toyad about the past and current state of affairs in Malaysia as well as his hopes for the future.

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam wears many hats. He is first and foremost group corporate adviser to The Sunway Group and deputy chairman of Sunway College. He is also director of Monash University Malaysia, director of the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) and non-independent executive director of Sunway Construction Bhd. He was elected president of Transparency International Malaysia in 2006 and is a member of the National Unity Advisory Panel of the Ministry of National Unity and Social Development, a member of the court and council of the Malaysian Institute of Management. Most recently, he was appointed chairman of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s panel on consultation and prevention of corruption.

But it isn’t just the various positions he currently holds that make him an interesting personality, it’s also the fact that he had dedicated a good 30 years of his life to the civil service before joining Corporate Malaysia at 54, an age when most men are mapping out their twilight years with plans of travel, spending time with grandchildren, weekly if not daily golf games, tending to the garden and organising coffee shop councils.

For 27 years, he was an economist with the Malaysian Treasury, where he rose to become secretary-general. During that time, he also served as alternate director on the board of directors of the World Bank in Washington DC. In 1986, he was made secretary-general of the Ministry of Transport, where he stayed until retiring from the civil service in 1989.

“Do you know how old I am?” he challenges me during our chat in his office on the 18th floor of Menara Sunway. If I were to venture a guess based on appearance alone, I would’ve said mid-sixties at best. Of course, he proudly declares he’s 74 and thanks God for his “relatively good health”.

For those who know him, Navaratnam is not one to mince his words. Don’t ask him “What do you think?” if you’re not ready to hear an opinion different than yours. He may or may not share your views but he sure loves a good debate.

“I’m going to be frank,” Navaratnam warns before the interview begins. “It’s up to you whether you want to censor or not. I trust you to use your judgement… otherwise I’ll feel inhibited, and I’m not the type.”

He sure isn’t, having been known to ruffle a few feathers, sometimes unwittingly, with his words.

“I have always taken pride in being honest, being sincere, with no bad motive or malice. Why not tell the truth? Shame the devil, so to speak,” he muses.

“Although,” he says in the manner of revealing a secret, “there is something I learnt from my years in the civil service, that when you make your statement, always be proper and polite. I notice that if I react badly, people will remember me for having lost my cool rather than the righteousness of my argument. They’ll always say that this fellow lost his temper. They will not say why he lost his temper. If you retaliate ‘Kurang ajar!’ or something, they will remember that. They will not remember you were provoked to do it. But I’ve learnt — why do you need to shout?”

The current topics over teh tarik these days are corruption in government and the National Economic Policy (NEP). It’s no surprise that Navaratnam has plenty to say about the two, given the fact that he’s seen the ins and outs of the government, having worked within it and was one of the officials in the Treasury who helped draft the NEP with the officials at the Economic Planning Unit in 1969.

“The NEP is still valid,” he says. “It is intrinsically good. How could you argue against helping all the poor regardless of race? You can’t. Of course, in practice, it got distorted. A lot of officials concentrated on Malay poverty, poverty in the rural areas. Times have changed; half the people live in towns, and there are poor people in town. And most of them are not Malays.

“This is a big problem in our country. The institutions, like our civil service, are focusing on the government’s interest, which may not coincide with public interest. It’s a very interesting point I’m making. Because it’s a Barisan government, you will have the Malays, some Chinese, some Indians, at the elitist level particularly. At mass level, there are problems with implementation because the civil servants are Malay. So they are caught up in this conflict — helping the Malays first, helping the Muslims, helping the politically aligned states. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say, all the institutions of our government now, because they’re so Malay-centric, have become conditioned to give priority to Malay interest first before considering others. Take the judiciary, the police, education… take any field. 

“This is a basic fundamental problem and can contribute to a great deal of disunity and divisiveness. In the 1980s, I did make a statement. I was asked to give a talk on the quality of civil service at Intan. I made my speech in which I said, ‘There is a sense of alienation among the non-Malays in the civil service today.’ Then, people never made these kinds of statements and here I was making it, and it wasn’t even a public statement. It was said within the confines of Intan. I had asked beforehand — can I be frank? And they said, go ahead, be frank. It got out and the authorities investigated… some even wanted me pulled up for sedition. Others said, don’t make a martyr of this insignificant man. But I was given a letter of warning by the Public Services Department.”

He pauses a while before adding, “I have been a bit berani but on the other hand, I’m sincerely motivated. I’ve no axe to grind. I’m not asking for contracts and I’m not asking for political favours. I’m not a politician.”

• • •

A week before the interview, Navaratnam had sent over to The Edge office his memoir, My Life And Times, which was published in 2005. It was to “help with the interview” so that I wouldn’t have to start from square one. There are many interesting moments from his life in this book, including his witnessing the first Japanese air raid on his way back from school in Ipoh to being one of those in Stadium Merdeka watching “the Duke of Kent with his high plumed cock hat, hand over the instrument [of sovereignty and nationhood] to the Tunku, while the whole crowd held their breath as they witnessed this great moment of history. The solemnity and silence were suddenly shattered by the thunderous shouts of ‘Merdeka! Merdeka!’ 17 times, led by Tunku with his raised right hand and open palm. The jubilant people roared back Tunku’s shouts of Merdeka spontaneously. It was like an electrical impulse travelling around the stadium in waves.”

According to him, this was the moment that inspired him to dedicate his life to the service of the new nationalist government of independent Malaya, where, like his father and grandfather, he would serve his community and country to the best of his ability.

Navaratnam was born in Kuala Lumpur, where he would go on to spend most of his schooling and working life. Finishing his secondary education at Victoria Institution, he went on to University of Malaya in Singapore and graduated with a degree in economics.

He says, “My father was doing general clerical services in the civil service; because of him I had that want to work in civil service, in terms of serving the country and serving the people, and the challenge and excitement at that time. We’d just achieved independence and there was a strong fervour of nationalism. It was the greatest thing to join the civil service; to take over from the ‘white man’ and prove that you are as good if not better than he was. You’re working not for personal gain or glory, or profit — you were working for a bigger, greater cause. That was the thinking at the time.

“Furthermore, the private sector was nothing to talk about. There were the Sime Darbys, the Guthries, but they were all British agency houses and there was no corporate sector as you see today. The private sector then was primarily retail and business trading, made up by the Malayan Chinese community. Also, the public sector provided the kind of security and greater opportunities for locals. Then, the premier was work in the public sector.”

We move to a discussion of how careers in the civil service today are deemed as lacklustre. I mention that the young ones today look to the corporate sector first before considering a job in the civil service, with many thinking that there is no future for them in the government.

Navaratnam smiles.

“Actually, it depends. If you talk to a Malay boy who gets in, he would see a future, if he were not interested purely in monetary gain and financial benefits. Because the civil service, at graduate level, still pays reasonably well and gives you a comfortable way of life. Do you know that the only people who are not worried about the recession today are those in the civil service? Think about it — corporate people are biting their nails — what do I do now? Are my sales going to go down? Are my exports being affected because of no external demand? How do I cope?” he muses. “That uncertainty is not on the minds of the civil servants. Why? The guy who does his job regularly will hardly be sacked. There is no retrenchment in government, that I’ve heard of. He knows he’s got his pension at the end of the day. And he has no anxieties, no worries. If I were a young man in the private sector, I would worry, wondering if my company was going to survive. And if it survived, would there be retrenchment?”

Navaratnam observes: “The problem with the civil service is that they have basically forgotten the word ‘meritocracy’. Basically, when you have people in the civil service who are not up to standard, when you have them mainly of one race, there’s a lot of inbreeding. There’s no competitive spirit. There’s little incentive to excel and provide your best or achieve your full potential because the culture is ‘Why work so hard?’ If you try, your peers will resent you for trying to ‘raise standards’ and make things difficult. Promotion in the civil service is more or less by time. It’s changing a bit now but not enough. They don’t have to compete the way people do in the private sector.”

Navaratnam feels that those who’ve been given more allowances end up with a bigger disadvantage than those who’ve had to work doubly hard to prove themselves or better in order to be regarded as equal. He says even those with the best qualifications and the best education will lose their competitive edge if they’re given an easy ride all their lives.

He shares with me his Escalator Theory, something he illustrates in his memoir as well. Based on the affirmative-action policies, he asks to envision two men at the bottom of a set of escalators — one ascending and the other descending. A judge waits at the top to see who arrives first.

At the blow of a whistle, the two men set off. One merely steps onto the ascending one and enjoys a slow and steady ride to the top. If he wanted to move faster, an extra two or three steps will put him in the lead. Meanwhile, the other man is on the descending escalator, running against the downward movement. He has to work extra hard if he wants to beat the other guy.

Finally, they both reach the top at the same time. One is calm and collected. The other is panting and sweating. The judge confesses that he has a problem in choosing the winner and finally awards it to the one with the easy ride.

Navaratnam says this is how many Malaysians view their efforts in academics and their careers, all with much frustration. A differential treatment exists and it promotes nothing but disunity, and it “spoils the Malays”.
“Everyone was enthused when I started,” he recalls. “There was a great sense of excitement, of challenge and Malaysianess. We were so proud to be the pioneers in the civil service; to be Malaysians or rather Malayans first. Ethnicity came second. We worked together as a team regardless of our religious and racial backgrounds. We looked at things from a Malayan perspective and not a racial or religious one. I can’t say this about civil servants today.”

His biggest concern is the “declining sense of unity”.

“I’m concerned with the concept that many share about ketuanan. I’m disturbed by this feeling of alienation and the divergence between the rich and poor of all races. And I think we have to address these issues sooner rather than later. It is not difficult to resolve these issues of nationality, meritocracy and progress and development that would benefit all races, all religions. We’ve got the resources. What we seem to be lacking is the will — at political and at electorate level. We lack semangat. If we all commit ourselves, have faith in our country, we have faith in ourselves and are determined to put our shoulders to the wheel and work for the common good, and not for our own self interest, according to the Merdeka spirit as set by Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, up until Tun Hussein Onn — because after that it became more racial — then I think we can succeed.

“Provided we do the following. Firstly, we should follow the spirit of the NEP — help the poor regardless of race. We need restructuring; we have achieved much of the corporate equity and ownership targets. We should concentrate on the development of human resources. There is no point in a Malay controlling a company with high bumiputera equity if it is not properly managed by the best people. And if you can’t get the best people, then there is something wrong with our education system. Something is wrong with our human resource development. Now, we should concentrate more on resource development and diminish emphasis on equity ownership and the 30%, much of which has been abused. For example, why should you give 30% preference for house ownership to bumiputeras when in fact at the lower end, the government can provide subsidised housing. Why should the rich bumiputeras get a 5% to 7% discount on their houses when they’re building so many?

“Help the poor by all means. Make sure there is merit and competitiveness, that those who come out of universities are employable. You don’t need billions of dollars to do that. You just need to readjust the policies. Why don’t we be fair and explain to all that their future lies in competition, in a world of globalisation?

“The future of our country is precious and cannot be left purely to politicians, many of whom appear to be corrupt, selfish, rather than selfless. It’s time that the people get their voices heard more clearly. Register to vote and throw out politicians who do not perform. Then we have a much better prospect of having a better Malaysia. The challenge is on our side. We have to grasp it and overcome our problems for it to succeed. I think we will succeed. We have to work at it. And I wish us all luck in that endeavour, and it is a noble endeavour.”

• • •

I’ll risk a cliché and say that honesty is Navaratnam’s best policy. Like every citizen of this nation, he wants to be heard. He also listens for he knows that open dialogues can only lead to solutions.

Navaratnam offers his uninhibited views, and you may even think that they are clouded with ideals, but you can’t argue with his perspectives because they are based on his truths, shaped from what he’s seen of the nation’s past and present.

He admits: “I’ve got pretty strong views, but that is part of my upbringing, my culture, the days I went through.” Indeed. The fact that he’s unafraid to make enemies when he declares them is admirable. But rarely does he offer a criticism without a solution. This is evident in the few books he’s authored — Managing the Malaysian Economy: Challenges & Prospects (1997), Strengthening the Malaysian Economy: Changes & Reforms (1998), Healing the Wounded Tiger: How the Turmoil is Reshaping Malaysia (1999), Malaysia’s Economic Recovery: Policy Reforms for Economic Sustainability (2001), Malaysia’s Economic Sustainability: Confronting New Challenges Amidst Global Realities (2002), Malaysia’s Socioeconomic Challenges: Public Policy Issues Debated (2003) and Winds of Change: Malaysia’s Socioeconomic Transition from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2004).

“You know… I am a proud nationalist. I will criticise what’s wrong but I can’t stand for unfair criticism of us, as if we are the only country in the world with problems,” says Navaratnam. “I am quite positive about this country during a time when there is a lot of pessimism, negativeness and depression, particularly among the young people. I’ve got three boys… thank God they’re all here. One is a corporate accountant and economist, the second is a lawyer and physics graduate, while the third is an engineer. They all studied overseas, at Monash, and of course, when they were finished with their studies, there were questions: Do I find a job here or come back home? These are natural thoughts.

“I said, come back here and find a job here. If you can’t get a good job here or you don’t like what you get, and you feel strongly, go on and do what you like. They came back, they liked it and now they’re doing quite well for themselves. Of course, now they worry about their children, but every generation will do that.

“The important thing is to keep your children as long as you can at home to make sure they don’t lose their cultural values, loyalty to their country, their family, community and society. If you imbue in them enough sense of service, they will come back and serve their own people. Why do our good people go and work for the British and the Australians?

“This country is one of the best countries in the world, from all aspects. One, the weather — you can go out in singlet and shorts anytime. Two, there are no hurricanes or typhoons. Three, we are a resource-blessed country — rubber, tin, oil palm, tropical hard woods, petroleum, gas… how many countries have got so much? We don’t have desert land like Australia. Here, anything you want to grow will grow because we’ve got sunshine, rain, pretty good soil… I’d say we are a God-blessed country. Unfortunately, I cannot say that many of our leaders recognise that they must fulfil God’s trust in them.

“If we are not doing well today, it’s man-made. We have ourselves to blame. We have tolerated some — I won’t say all — or many bad leaders who have been corrupt and self-serving, who’ve been narrowly concerned with their own welfare rather than that of the public. And we have kept them in power for so long. Only March 8 gave a lot of hope, that we could have an alternative government, or a two-party government. And yet, about five million Malaysians eligible to vote have not registered to do so. And these are the very Malaysians who go to coffee shops and cocktail parties and grumble and gripe and emigrate to other countries. But they don’t do anything.

“So I say, the challenge is to get these people, mostly young people, to register, then talk. Otherwise, don’t talk. People have to remember — it takes time. Of course in the process, we are making a lot of blunders, aggravating the situation through corruption. A World Bank study indicates that in most countries, even the rich ones, have corruption or leakage of public funds of 10% to 30% of their budget, capital budget especially. That’s a human failing. We have to put our foot down. We need to report on corruption issues.”

He pauses for a bit watching me scribble in my notebook. When I look up, he smiles and says, “Okay, I’d better stop and you’d better ask questions. If not, I’ll be riding my own hobby horse.”

• • •

I decide to ask Navaratnam why he accepted his current position from Sunway Group chairman Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah. He says it is because of his admiration for Cheah, whom he feels shares the same ideals as he does and allows him to participate in the different organisations and causes he believes in.

“If not, what am I going to do at home? Drive my wife up the wall… and she may drive me up the wall in the process,” he jokes.

Navaratnam feels that one way he can contribute to developing the nation’s human resources is through the work he does with the Sunway Education Group, which is a non-profit foundation.

“The emphasis here is quality, standards and performance. When you run an academic institution for profit, you tend to focus on costs and you end up cutting corners and decreasing expenditure in terms of staffing, facilities and equipment. The students will suffer then. That’s why I like working at Sunway Group, which has a lot of the ideals I had working in the government, where you don’t work for profit but for a sense of calling and dedication and commitment,” he reveals. “I’m interested in so many things because Tan Sri Jeffrey allows me to be. I think he recognises the CSR (corporate social responsibility) in people. His vision of Sunway is not solely one of a business venture. I admire his determination to return to the people what he gained from them. No company can survive without public support no matter how good the product.”

Navaratnam says he has been deeply inspired by a book entitled The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren. “You should read it,” he says excitedly. “In a nutshell, it tells you that you’ve been put on earth by God for a special purpose. Identify that purpose and do your best to glorify his name through the fulfilment of your role, your purpose. I happen to believe in that. Look, I continue to work because there is a purpose. If there was no purpose for me, maybe he would have made me ill or knocked me out somewhere and said ‘Look, you’ve done enough harm already’ and get me out of the way.”

In his spare time, Navaratnam is deeply involved in charity work. He is president of the Children’s Wish Society of Malaysia, an organisation that works to better the last days of poor children with terminal diseases. He is also president of Habitat for Humanity Malaysia, an organisation that helps to build houses for the less fortunate.

“I keep soldiering on for the future, for my grandchildren,” says the grandfather of four. “I am happy for the opportunities I’ve been given and I will continue until I’m physically unable to. If I do retire, I will keep myself occupied, hopefully with more church work, more charity work. If anything, I’m a realist. I’m pragmatic. Today I’m blessed. I don’t worry that my assets have gone down so much, that I’ve lost in the stock market. I’ve got a little bit but I’m not in debt. I have my house, my children have done well. I’m happy… relatively, you can’t get syurga here on earth.

“You don’t like me, fine. You want to fire me from my job, fine. You want to put me in jail, fine — I’ve done nothing wrong. I just live by my motto: Every day I do my best and to God I leave the rest; I can’t do better than my best so I’ll do what I can — and rest.”

This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 751, April 20-26, 2009