Ex-minister appointed TNB chairman

KUALA LUMPUR: Former energy, communications and multimedia minister Datuk Amar Leo Moggie has been appointed non-executive chairman of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd. 

The appointment was made following the resignation of Datuk Dr Awang Adek Husin on March 31 after he was appointed as Deputy Minister for Rural and Regional Development. 

A statement from TNB yesterday said that Moggie’s appointment was for a three-year period and is effective from April 12. 

Moggie obtained his Master of Arts from the University of Otago, New Zealand in 1966 and Master in Business Administration from the Pennsylvania State University in the United States in 1973. 

He served in the Sarawak civil service from 1966 to 1976 before becoming the state welfare services minister in 1976. A year later, he became state local government minister.  

Moggie became a federal minister when he was appointed energy, telecommunications and post minister in 1978. He held the post until 1989 when he was appointed works minister. He served in this post until 1995. 

Subsequently he was re-appointed energy, telecommunications and post minister and the ministry was renamed energy, communications and multimedia on Nov 1, 1998.  

He held the post until the recent Cabinet reshuffle. Moggie did not seek re-election as Kanowit MP, a seat he had held since 1974, in the recent general election.  

The 63-year-old Iban leader surprised many in June last year when he quit as president of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), which he co-founded in 1983 as a splinter party of the Sarawak National Party. He had said he wanted to quit politics. 

Commenting on the appointment, Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Joseph Salang, who is a close ally of Moggie, said the latter was just the right man for the job. 

“He was not only for years the head of the ministry which governed Tenaga but it was also during his tenure as the minister that Tenaga was corporatised,” he said.  

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