Najib agreed to drop Azim as BSN chairman after Bank Negara objection

KUALA LUMPUR — Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi's contract was terminated prematurely due to conflicts with his political career in Umno.

The Malaysian Insider understands that Bank Negara does not favour politicians serving on the board of directors of banks and that the prime minister, who is also finance minister, agrees with this view.

BSN is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance and is regulated by Bank Negara.

According to Azim, he was supposed to serve until the end of this year but Bank Negara only allowed him to stay until the end of June, which is just after his term as vice-president of the World Savings Bank Institute ended in May.

Azim was Umno treasurer until April this year when he was replaced with Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah. He is also Bukit Bintang Umno division chief.

When contacted, Bank Negara said it does not comment on individual banks but that board appointments are governed by the Development Financial Institutions Act 2002.

The legislation does not explicitly say that the chairman cannot hold a political position but gives Bank Negara the discretion to prescribe additional criteria "as in its opinion expedient for the purpose of protecting the interests of the prescribed institution, its stakeholders and the general public."

When contacted, Azim said that Bank Negara's stand against politicians serving as bank directors is nothing new but he was not in favour of the policy. He was confident that without Bank Negara's intervention, he would have been able to serve as chairman for several more years.

"Bank Negara has been trying to get rid of me for quite some time but I managed to stay on. You should not penalise someone for being in politics," he told The Malaysian Insider.

"If you have someone with the experience, who is capable, who can discharge duties responsibly. You can ask Bank Negara to do an audit. I transformed BSN. I have not been involved in giving out contracts and all that. It is not whether a person is political or not. It should all rest on capabilities, whether that person can bring progress and change."

According to Azim, a banker since 1984, no successor has been named and that he was not asked by Bank Negara to choose between being a politician and continuing as chairman.

He also defended his record at the bank, pointing out that when he joined the bank in 1999, profits after tax were only RM9.5 million but over RM160 million last year.

Azim was appointed Umno treasurer by former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2004. He is also involved in a legal battle with civil activist Raja Petra Kamarudin over two articles written by the latter last year.

Azim was awarded RM1 million in libel damages by the Kuala Lumpur High Court after Raja Petra failed to appear in the civil proceedings to file a statement of defence.

He has also been named in the ongoing Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal as the chairman of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd, the main developer of the transshipment project. (TMI)