This is an open letter regarding MDeC’s incoming CEO, which I hope will be published by EITN.
The local industry’s biggest open secret is already becoming stale.
Currently, the grapevine is teeming with news that Yasmin Mahmood has accepted the MDeC CEO-ship and that even the Prime Minister has approved it. But no official announcement has been released.
Why delay for so long?
Maybe Yasmin is weighing the pros and cons like all the rest of us are? Having second thoughts?
MDeC has been ‘lembik’ overall, compared to other peer government agencies. But it is the agency that is tasked with driving the nation’s digital economy, a potential 17% contribution to Malaysia’s GDP in 2020, from 9.8% in 2010. The deadline looms in another 6 short years.
Yasmin’s achievements in the corporate field – top country positions in top tech MNCs like Dell, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard – doesn’t mean she will be THE rainmaker for our Digital Malaysia initiative.
A fellow industry observer fascinated by the corridors of power, also sees that Yasmin is no Blue Blood like the previous CEO. Badlisham has relatives in high places.
According to my concerned fellow observer, MDeC, might fall even lower in the pecking order while hotshot new agencies like MAGiC will be on the ascendancy.
What then?
In my humble opinion, the sight of more good people jumping from the MDeC ship will not be pretty.
IT BYTES BACK! Says: While it’s likely Yasmin is having second thoughts, it is just as likely her MNC-based results-oriented training has her rolling up her sleeves, rallying more good folks to join her inner circle around the MDeC strategy table.
If that is true, then the OTHER rumour that half of MDeC will resign when she comes into power…might be for the better?
