Are We OK? roasted SG4

Are We OK? co-hosts Peter Yong and Dr Ong Kian Ming roasted SG4 – the investment vehicle formed by the four states administered by Perikatan Nasional (PN) in their podcast last night.

“At first I thought it was Singapore 4. Is it a VC fund or something like that?” quipped Yong.

SG4 is made up of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu state governments. Its patron is former two time prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The SG4 had their meeting recently in Bangi, Selangor.

The four states would be sharing resources to invest in certain sectors.

“From optics it doesn’t look nice. It is led by four PN states. They are supposed to “memartabatkan bahasa kebangsaan” but they call their company SG4 – State Government 4.

“I mean they could have called it Kerajaan Negeri Empat (KN4) or Kerajaan Negeri Perikatan Nasional (KNPN4), not PN17,” said Ong.

PN17 refers to a company’s financial status on the brink of bankruptcy.

“Second thing, as you say… people look and say, Singapore. But Pas and PN would often use Singapore as a bogeyman but they call themselves SG4.

“The third optics problem is when you are not able to present a leader from the ranks of PN and you rely on former two time prime minister who is almost 100 years old as the face of the initiative.”

Yong chipped in, “The word initiative implies innovation and newness so Tun M leading it doesn’t gel well because his reputation in the market is not really synonymous with relevance, innovation, progress, technology.”

“You can’t find someone better in your party? If you can’t find, it also tells that you don’t have confidence of talents in your party and you are talking about wanting to run the country. You sure ah?

For the record, Dr Mahathir is not a member of parties in PN.