COMMENT | Two days from now, the great debate on whether to save controversial Sapura Energy will take place between PKR president and Pakatan Harapan head Anwar Ibrahim and former PM Najib Abdul Razak. It will be interesting to see how they justify their respective positions.

Anwar is expected to be against saving Sapura Energy to conserve funds to be put to better use and for wider benefit, while Najib is expected to be for its saving mainly to preserve a vital industry presence for bumiputeras and to save jobs.

So far, the initial sparring has been between PKR vice-president and aspiring deputy president Rafizi Ramli who said that an executive director, referring to former CEO Shahril Shamsuddin, had received nearly RM1.1 billion in pay and benefits between 2009 and 2021.

The issue, however, is much more complicated and should involve questions of how exactly the energy services provider will be saved, what will be the new business model, what chances of survival they have and who will be saved at the end of the day. Not exactly stuff that can be debated easily.

It becomes more complex because national unit trust operator Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) which operates funds of RM337 billion, became the major shareholder of Sapura Energy...