Yesterday, representatives from 600 taxi driver associations held a protest at the Civic Centre here, calling for someone else for the post.
Amirudin said the assembly was a “very clear response” from those who continuously dealt with SPAD.
“If you want an institution to be respected, you must appoint someone who is respected as a head,” he told FMT.
“I think respect for an institution is very important but now the respect for SPAD is lost a little with the appointment of Isa Samad, which I think was done either for personal or political reasons.”
Isa was made acting chairman of SPAD on June 19 with the announcement by Prime Minister Najib Razak coming immediately after Isa had resigned as FGV chairman. The move was met with alarm by many Malaysians, including political party leaders, social activists and NGOs.
The former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar’s appointment to SPAD comes in the wake of FGV’s recent controversy which saw the board of the crude palm oil producer direct a few of its senior executives – including president and CEO Zakaria Arshad – to go on indefinite leave pending an internal investigation into delayed payments from a Dubai-based Afghan company, Safitex Trading, to FGV subsidiary, Delima Oil Products.
Amirudin started a poll on Twitter to gauge if Isa was fit to be SPAD chairman based on his record as the FGV chairman.
“I think the Twitter poll showed how people felt about Isa and his career,” he said.
“I put up the poll because I wanted to know the response of the people and, as suspected, the people have a very negative perception about him and feel it is dangerous to put him in charge of an important institution like SPAD.”