H.E. Dato Seri Dr. Ibrahim Saad - Malaysia's Ambassador to the Philippines

Through our segment on Business & Leisure, the television show, we have started to introduce the distinguished batch of ambassadors currently deployed in the country. We are thankful for the response and courtesy that the embassies have accorded us in helping us realize this “mission” of giving a face to a friendly country that maintains a cordial and mutually beneficial relation with the Philippines.

This segment titled Embassy Row features a one-on-one interview with the sitting ambassadors, delving briefly into their persona, their families and background, education and accomplishments before we segue into our trade and commerce relations as well as tourism potentials and cultural relations.

Although quite a few embassies have responded positively, the matter of synchronizing schedules for some still have to be resolved. Clearly and firmly establishing our credentials took some time too, though I can understand the cautious stance of all the embassies, given the current uncertainties in global diplomacy.

In a previous column, we have featured our extensive interview with the current Ambassador of Spain to the Philippines, His Excellency Ambassador Jorge Domecq and that was most timely for us as my family and I were embarking on a two-week tour of Spain. Most recently, we interviewed the Ambassador of Malaysia, His Excellency Dato Seri Dr. Ibrahim Saad, which I am delighted to share with you.

Dr. Ibrahim Saad is from the northern state of Penang, a highly developed city also known as the Silicon City of Malaysia. Industrialized as it may be now, it is curious to note that Penang is also a recognized UNESCO Heritage Site, much like our own Vigan, as the Ambassador pointed out.

He stressed that he has one wife with whom he has two sons and three daughters and he is currently doting on his four grandchildren. Though the family members are based in Malaysia, they make it a point to come once in a while as they love the surfing and diving in the country. In fact, he says, they just love the Philippines. 

Dr. Ibrahim Saad, unlike many of his colleagues in foreign service, is not a career diplomat. In fact, he started out in the academe, graduating with a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Wisconsin in America. He later on joined the government as a member of the State Assembly, became a deputy chief minister of and vice governor of Penang before he moved to a higher post in the Prime Minister’s department. Perhaps the call of the academe proved stronger then, because he left politics again and went back to the world of academe, becoming vice chancellor and president of a prestigious university in his beloved city until the government recalled him into active service and he accepted the post of Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines in 2010.

Somewhat of an oddity in the diplomats’ row, the Malaysian ambassador is not a certified golfer. Chuckling, he said that the Malaysian prime minister does not fancy the game himself, and virtually none of his cabinet got seriously into the game, which isn’t to say that he wasn’t into sports at all because when he eventually left the academe, he had a brief foray into the world of sports, which got him seriously interested. He became, in fact, a member of the Olympic Council, and his involvement in sports led him to unofficially form some sort of global networking on the non-diplomatic side. Malaysia has produced world champions in badminton and squash (the current lady champion here is Malaysian), and they are a force to reckon with in Asian football. The Asian Football Confederation is formally based in Kuala Lumpur for instance, and though he recognizes that the Philippines is decidedly a basketball nation, he says that the Philippines is in his sports network and he has met up with local sports leaders like PNOC chairman Peping Cojuangco. He is pleased to know that football has taken on a much stronger foothold here.

Then we touched on the Sepang Formula 1 Circuit which initially met up with strong dissent from Malaysians who felt that badminton and soccer were more popular sports in Malaysia than racing. But then Prime Minister Mahatir was convinced of the huge potentials and implications of the vision he has nurtured for Malaysia through the Formula 1 circuit, and he was proven right as Singapore, Turkey, Korea and India followed suit. The Ambassador says tourism has more than tripled, quadrupled, over the years after the circuit was established. More importantly, it has put them in the map of Formula 1 which is a billion-dollar global industry and has established the country as a major player in the motor industry. In the Middle East, he shared, some of the circuits were built by Malaysians after their success in Sepang.

On the tourism side, he concedes that the Philippines has more to offer in terms of destinations, so it would be a daunting task to market his country as such to Filipinos. Malaysia is essentially a highly industrialized and developed country, and many tourists come to their shores to shop at high-end stores. They recently launched Luxury Malaysia in the country which extols their relatively cheap shopping because only gas, glasses, drinks, cigarettes and chocolates are taxed. He is also working at packaging Malaysia and the Philippines together as one destination: to Malaysia for high-end shopping and luxury hotels and the Philippines for exciting and adventurous destinations. Though the country has a strong presence in Europe, he admits that this isn’t the case in America, so he hopes they can market our two countries together as one great Asian destination.

On the commerce side, he is pleased to note that in recent years, Malaysian investments in the Philippines have substantially increased. The single biggest Malaysian investment here is Resorts World, and the Malaysian company Star Cruises has moved its headquarters here due to their heavy recruitment of sea farers. They have also bought one of the banks in the San Miguel stable while San Miguel has bought ESSO Malaysia. They are also into toll ways development in the country, and the current administration has invited them to go into some of PPP projects.

Did you know that they introduced wheat grass here?

Malaysia is currently deep into palm oil, and in two months time, their minister of palm oil is coming over to check out the country’s potentials in this commodity, specifically in the southern part. This could really be big, he pointed out, as the African palm oil industry started out with Malaysian palm oil. Now, too, Malaysian businessmen are buying into a lot of manufacturing concerns.

With a population of 25 million people and an economy that is steadfastly registering a double-digit growth (they have a per capita income of US$8,000), Malaysia needs a lot of manpower which the Philippines can provide. Currently, they have one million foreigners with work permits in Malaysia, and they are in the process of regularizing another one million workers.

He says he hopes to see more Filipinos invest in real estate in Malaysia as they have since relaxed their rules on property ownership. To protect their own marginalized citizens, they have low-cost houses which only locals can acquire.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

For comments: (e-mail) [email protected]