HIDE behind a wide ranging slogan that is easy to understand, but almost impossible for the average investor to derive mathematically, how the scores were derived and what was achieved to derive those scores.
WHICH is why , the Fortune Magazine's editorial this week that READ : ESG is dead. Long live E, S, and G is extremely relevant if we are to promote a Corporate ESG Madani platform, that delivers on the nut and bolt issues and not merely on the semantics.
ONE of the most popular semantics which, Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission loves to lash on like a flee to hoodwink Malaysians that the environmental, social and governance practise is working is READ : that the women board representatives in Malaysian public listed companies now stand at 22 per cent.
BUT is that what ESG is all about, to promote people who may not have what it takes, just because they are from a certain gender, a certain colour or even a certain religion?
NO, is not. Which is why in the Western World they are breaking down ESG to the specifics on what they have done in the E, the S and the G.
BASICALLY, they are bringing down ESG to the operational level, or to the nuts and bolts to understand, learn and measure what they have really achieved.
WITH this in mind, we should ask ourselves what a serious investor would be looking at if he or her were to invest in our stock market.
WILL thier number one priority be that this is an exchange that boast 22 per cent women representation at the board level, or this is an exchange filled with regulators with a long history of taking bungs, sitting on their fat backsides even when possible drug money are being channeled into public listed company.
THE world's biggest boy, Blackrock themselves are afraid to be caught up in a situation where they could be fined heavily in America and Europe for being guilty by virtue of association, what more the smaller funds?.
