For close to half a decade now, the voice of the small men, once poised to lead a cohort of young Malaysians away from the insidious past of the domestic market, has been consumed by nihilism.
A dog — and a watchdog, at that — should not be consumed by infighting over where its loyalty and voice truly belong.
One suspects it was not even a Hobson’s choice dilemma for the Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSWG), which has clearly traded the art of logic for the opportunity to make hay while the sun shines.
Consider the following: Why has MSWG remained silent at the macro level on the question of how independent our independent directors really are?
It is the regulators who have failed us when director independence is compromised and regulatory standards fail so grossly to detect the broken cogs.
Failed us, because it is pointless to regulate when one is not schooled in the art of detection. As the saying goes, one cannot fight what one cannot see.
Why hasn’t the anointed voice for the minor men and women turned its back on the common people by taking the Securities Commission and Bursa Malaysia to task over the need for a purge of this new-age Scrooge?
This lack of common sense, fair play and righteousness has allowed market regulators the leisurely pleasure of avoiding this burden while, at the same time, missing not a single privilege of being the watchdog on the regulatory front.
A front with no defensive or offensive vision, ability or even know-how in detecting wrongdoing.
Faced with such mediocrity, we are left paying top dollar across too many regulatory fronts for a force that only knows how to react after the violators have had their way and become too entrenched in their comfort zones to be called out for a regulatory chat.
It happened in Datasonic/NEXG, where all the blame was spin-doctored in a media-savvy manner and heaped on the heads of a supposedly secretive union of businessmen and high-flying underworld figures known as the Corporate Mafia.
Not a single voice in a nation of 34.4 million people stopped to ask the question that must be asked — point-blank, and not through a song.
Isn’t it the role of a regulator and a watchdog to prevent mischief in order to keep investors safe?
The role of a regulator has never been to report breaches exposed by the media back to the media, so that the latter can inform the public that the regulator has now sprung into action.
What we do not say is that the leap is always taken after the milk has turned sour.
NexG/Datasonic is not a black swan event. Before the calendar year can even close its books, we have yet another recalcitrant Goliath on our hands.
Her name is ZETRIX, where independent directors have given Malaysia a masterclass in how to be anything but independent inside the boardroom, while following every guideline to the letter outside it — all for the sake of the regulator.
Pointing no fingers here … just a small lesson in Latin. Mediocrity has its roots in the Latin word mediocris.
Mediocris means “of medium size” or “halfway up the mountain”, which some might say is the same as “half past six”.
The klever question is: Now that we know who the shoe fits, will they wear it?
Written by Francis Fernandez, a former news editor with Business Times and Malay Mail.
The writer's views expressed here are his own.