MESSAGE FROM
TAN SRI AZMAN HASHIM,
CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
PERDANA LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION
Perdana Leadership
Foundation
H O N O R A RY P R E S I D E N T
YABhg Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
At the time I write this, Malaysians are
still on tenterhooks as to when the
next elections will be held - will it be in
March, or April, or after Hari Raya? Your
guess is as good as mine! up to the present 11th Malaysia Plan,
under Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun
Razak. The information is housed under
our Visual Timeline Series that’s avail-
able for free on our website.
But the positive thing about upcom-
ing elections is the interest it stirs in
national policies, particularly economic
policies, with writers and analysts
providing numbers and opinions on the
past, present, and future of the Malay-
sian economy. Not many Malaysians
appreciate Malaysia’s extensive eco-
nomic plans. Since 1956, when the First
Malaya Plan was formulated, our nation
has faithfully adhered to the five-year
economic planning model, and added
to it longer-term policy frameworks
such as the Outline Perspective Plans
and the New Economic Model. While
plans are subject to change, and ours
are no exception, Malaysia’s economic
plans have served us well in guiding
major policies as well as setting big-
picture directions and targets. PLF also engaged with other leaders to
add to our repository of knowledge. One
such leader is former Minister, Tan Sri Leo
Moggie, and our conversation with him
is now published in a book, simply titled
“A Conversation with Tan Sri Leo Mog-
gie”. I encourage Malaysians to read this
slim volume for a wider appreciation of
Sarawak politics and what the Malaysian
political landscape was like in the 60s and
70s. We will continue to publish tran-
scripts under our Oral History series, and
three upcoming ones will be our conver-
sations with Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, Tan Sri
Arshad Ayub, and Tan Sri Ambrin Buang.
Will five-year economic plans still be as
relevant in a decade’s time?
It’s difficult to say. Technology has in-
creased the rate of change, and shorter
planning horizons may be the order
of the day as our data-crunching and
analytical abilities increase. But even if the
definitions of “long-term” and “medium-
term” change, a nation will still need to
rely on plans and projections, and for
these, past data are necessary references.
To aid researchers and policy planners,
Perdana Leadership Foundation has
gathered together data for all of the na-
tion’s economic plans, beginning from
the First Malaya Plan of 1956 under the
leadership of Tunku Abdul Rahman Pu-
tra Al-Haj, our Bapa Kemerdekaan, right
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PERDANA MAGAZINE 2017
Our resident fellows, too, have com-
pleted their work and we can look
forward to reading up on Islamic Bank-
ing policies as well as Malay views of
the West by Professor Dr Abdul Ghafar
Ismail and Professor Dato’ Dr Ahmad
Murad Merican, respectively.
As of December 2017, our Perdana
Library holdings number more than half
a million digitised records, with more
than half of them available online, con-
sisting of speeches of our past Prime
Ministers, book excerpts, and news clip-
pings, as well as 11,000 physical titles.
We build this archive with an eye to the
future, with the hope that the archive
we are building will also serve as a use-
ful resource for present and potential
leaders of the country.
I leave you to enjoy this issue of Perdana
Magazine, and invite you to connect with
PLF via social media, our website, and
our lakeside enclave in Putrajaya.
B OA R D O F T R U S T E E S
YBhg Tan Sri Azman Hashim
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Seri AP Arumugam
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Francis Yeoh
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah
Fook Ling
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Lee Kim Yew
YBhg Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin
YBhg Dato’ Seri Syed Faisal Albar Syed Ali
Rethza Albar
YBhg Tan Sri Datuk Hj Mustapha Kamal
YBhg Tan Sri Datuk Tee Hock Seng
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Teh Hong Piow
YBhg Dato’ Sri Robin Tan
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Shahril Shamsuddin
YBhg Tan Sri Lee Oi Hian
YBhg Dato’ Soam Heng Choon
YBhg Tan Sri Datuk G. Gnanalingam
YBhg Tan Sri Dr Azmil Khalili Dato’ Khalid
YBhg Tan Sri Nik Mohamed Nik Yaacob
EXECUTIVE COMMIT TEE
YBhg Tan Sri Azman Hashim
(Chairman)
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Shahril Shamsuddin
(Honorary Treasurer)
YBhg Tan Sri Datuk Tee Hock Seng
(Joint Honorary Treasurer)
YBhg Tan Sri Nik Mohamed Nik Yaacob
(Executive Director)
YBhg Dato’ Seri Syed Faisal Albar Syed Ali
Rethza Albar
YBhg Dato’ Soam Heng Choon
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Lee Kim Yew
YBhg Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin
YBhg Dato’ Sri Robin Tan
Editorial Team
EDITOR
Zarina Abu Bakar
A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R S
Nurul Humaira Kamarulzaman
Mohammad Faridzuan Abd Rahman
CONTRIBUTORS
Datuk Dr A Murad Merican
Dr Abdul Ghafar Ismail
Maizatul Kartini Kamaruldin
Adnan Haris
Suriyana Mohd Noor
Nabilah Rozali
P H O T O S BY
Mohammad Faridzuan Abd Rahman
Roymax Sebastian
Chan Chun Yin
Chan Kin Hou
L AYO U T & D E S I G N
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