Wahid bid Sayonara; Samy smiled!

In July 2005, Professor Datuk Dr Wahid Omar (he is now Datuk Seri) succeeded Tan Sri Zaini Omar as the Director-General of PWD (Jabatan Kerja Raya, Malaysia).

I was so excited and wrote about it here.

The government has finally brought in a humble, unpretentious but a visionary leader to shakeup the system - the system that manages our roads, public assets, and government development projects. This is the only man who could bring in a new era, an era of radical change for the better; a change badly needed - the change that should wake up the sleeping giant of the construction industry and reshape the industry.

Dr Wahid was already 54+ and will have less than 1 1/2 year to cause the change, a mammoth task beyond ordinary human being. The moment he set foot on the D-G's desk, he had set his mission and vision with clarity. He wants JKR to be enabled with competencies in project management and contract management. He wants the system to be capable to manage and delegate, that the people in JKR will ultimately be capable to carry out their tasks with competencies and with a right attitude.

There were tremendous resistance and just too many dead woods. There is also those who have live in comfort with the sub-optimum system and they felt there is nothing to change or that change is irrelevant.

One and a half year passed quickly. Today was the last day for Dr Wahid Omar. He finally retired but unfortunately, he did not fully accomplished the goals and vision. There were empirical change for the better; the people, the engineers are better equipped with the necessary knowledge but the system as a whole is still sub-optimum. There still exist those who refused the change and would had been glad that "Hercules" is gone for good.

I can only wish Dr Wahid the best and that may he continue to contribute to the construction industry and serve the country in another capacity. He is the best of the best in project management. He fought the system administrator head-to-head. He feared not his master. His master hate him and wouldn't even clamour to extend his contract by another year which would have done more good for JKR had he stayed on for another year. With another year, Wahid could have fulfilled his mission and vision. Now it's left to the new Director-general to continue what he had left behind but the task is onerous, particularly with the fact that the Works Ministry is, but, remain incompetent.

Welcome Datuk Razali, the new PWD D-G. Datuk Razali is the former Deputy Director-General (2) in-charge of Roads. He is a nice man and hardworking. But I fear he may not be able to thwart and resist the intrusion and undue influence by his political masters. If JKR allowed the politicians to influence their decisions and award of contracts, corruption will be insidiously enhanced and calcified within. I have hope that Razali will be able to carry out his task and continue with the unfinished mission of his mentor.

I also hope that Datuk Dr Judin will be able to assist the new D-G with the task of change, to promote change for the better along the journey of competency building, designing and installing quality and meritocracy within the system that had been sub-optimum and calcified. It's no easy task of which will be made worse with the current political patronages and political interferences - the system of crony-ism and nepotism.

We will have to continue to observe... lets have hope with the new D-G; he's a good man.