Nazir Razak and Tony Fernandes spend an hour in candid conversation on Clubhouse talking about Malaysia’s education system, Government Linked Companies (GLCs), and ultimately how it links to money and value.

What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse or CH is an audio platform where people can have audio conversations and anyone can listen in. It is the fastest growing new social media platform including well-known people such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Gary Vee, Jared Leto, Kevin Hart, and Drake.

In my foray into the platform, I was recently at a Clubhouse dinner party hosted by Felicia Horowitz with Terry Crews, Vlad Tenev (Robinhood founder), and 5k other folks talking about various topics, including GameStop ($GME).

As part of the Malaysian personal finance community, we are exploring #clubhouse as a potential platform to hold chats and discussion sessions for our local community. In fact, myself as @stevyong (founder of MyPF – this site) recently moderated a personal finance session on early retirement (aka FIRE) with @marhsallwong (founder of PlanNerd) and @idham (co-founder of Wealth Vantage Advisory).

For now, Clubhouse is for Apple (iOS) users only and on a by-invite-only basis. If you’re looking to join and need an invite, do drop a comment in our MyPF Facebook community.

The Conversation

One conversation of note that recently happened on Clubhouse on February 12th, 2021 involved the following persons.

  • Nazir Razak (Moderator; CIMB Group Chairman)
  • Tony Fernandes (Moderator; AirAsia CEO)
  • Ruben Gnanalingam (Westports Malaysia CEO)
  • Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (MP Setiawangsa)
  • Afzal Rahim (Time dotCom CEO)
  • ShuQi Wong (MP Kluang)

While only 1 hour long, yet several important topics were touched. Notes edited for clarity. [Editor: views expressed are personal views and may  not represent their organisations]

On Malaysia’s Education System

Nazri: Does our education system need to change and be streamline?

Tony: Our schools need to change to look into a singular school system. We need to improve our national school system. Bahasa Melayu needs to be the main language like how every student in Japan learn Japanese. A strong command of English is needed to be competitive globally.

Ruben: We spend so much time trying to divide ourselves.

If our school system makes multiple languages compulsory, Malaysians would be valued and paid higher from the CIA to companies.

YB Nik: We have not made national schools the schools of choice. Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore did not close vernacular schools but made national schools the popular choice.

Afzal: We need to use both a stick or carrot. But I am not sure if we can still change in Malaysia as there is an entrenched cultural tradition.

YB ShuQi : Education is for our children to learn and be kind. I do not think we should abolish any stream of education but to let our schools blossom. We need to let our national education system blossom in both urban and rural areas. Today I see my Malaysian identity much stronger than a lot of my counterparts though I pursued my studies in SJK and in Taiwan. We should provide many opportunities for our children to learn. Many parents send children to Chinese schools because of the quality for education.

Chinese schools are not the best compared to private schools but the cost is lower.

Afzal: Children will grow up and identify with cultures they grow up in. I completely respect the academic rigour in Chinese schools. But as a country can we continue to have schools without having our nation being fractured.

Nazir: Humans are tribal by nature. At the end of the day, it is natural instinct who look and talk like you.

The only way to get diversity was to insist people MUST have diversity. Intervention to create integration must come naturally.

 

On GLCs

Tony: What are your thoughts on GLCs (Government-Linked Companies)?

Ruben: Governments should be investors/shareholders and make money. But let the (company’s) board do it’s job.

Afzal: Sometimes Time gets mislabelled as a GLC. And there is an advantage to be thought of as a GLC. But it’s time we move away from it. With that said, GLCs are important and there is enough regulatory oversight in place.

LOL Moments

Nazri: How do I make you a moderator?

Tony: I don’t know. You’re the chairman of a bank. You can figure it out.

 

Tony: What happened after talking about changes in GLCs?

Ruben: (pause) nothing happened lar. Talk good good. But no action.

 

Beyond 60 Minutes

(Or 10mins for you guys reading this). According to Tony, the 60 minute chat was only an experiment. Yet more than 1k+ people tuned in to watch on a Chinese New Year day. He did mention he likes how people can be candid and talk directly on various matters (and may be a good alternative platform since Tony quit Facebook).

Will we see more of Tony, Nazir and many others including Khairy, Syed Saddiq, and Jalil Rasheed actively having discourse and discussion on the Clubhouse platform? We certainly hope so.

 

Share with us your thoughts on the conversation. What would you have liked to ask Nazir, Tony, and the other participants?

 

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