Maybank's Change of Heart

Watching the TV3's midnite news and heard the first news - Malayan Banking Berhad will revise its latest requirement (Bernama News) prior to be selected into Maybank's panel of lawyers. The new ruling was announced few days back where it required 50% of the partnership interest of each legal firm be held by bumiputra lawyers. New legal firms intending to be selected were required to have this ruling in place while existing legal firms in their panel were given 1 year's reprieve.

In a change of mind NOW, Maybank said that performance/capability will be the main criteria/measurement in selecting legal firms to be in their panel of lawyers. News floated around that this issue was even brought up to the cabinet. What a waste of public funds/time.

In the first, where was the Board of Directors' brains when this new ruling was pondered upon before it was decided. After getting hammering from all walks of life, the Bar Council, practising lawyers, political parties (BN or opposition) and plenty of bloggers, sense came back into their mind. It's just plain racial discrimination. Racists!!

I agreed with one scenario; what if Public Bank Berhad or Hong Leong Bank Berhad starts to implement a ruling requiring all legal firms in their panel or those intending to be selected to have a minimum number of chinese lawyers and/or majority of partnership interests must be held by non-malays. I would also protest in this case as it's not fair for those who did their works well. Imagine that legal firms were forced to accept mediocre lawyers as partners just to meet the banks' requirements.

Wondering if there would be any other companies in other industries that would implement such ridiculous racial rulings in a supposedly multi-racial nation.
Tags: Malayan Banking Berhad, MBB, Maybank, Lawyer, Legal Firm, Racial Discrimination, Racist, Bumiputra, Malaysia, Bar Council