BOOK REVIEW | Being a top banker in the nation’s most important government-owned bank is a privileged position.

Doors open as one wanders through the corridors of power, gourmet lunches served as the inner workings of politics and business are laid bare. A nod, a smile, or a calculated silence - what more a signature - can easily sway markets or dent fortunes. 

Belonging to a class and tribe of their own, banking insiders adhere to unwritten rules. Astute financiers willingly adopt intellectual constraints, turning a blind eye when the gears of power require it - knowing that defiance could exile them to the wilderness of the unprivileged masses.

Thus, more than a few eyebrows were raised when Maybank stalwart and former deputy president Mohammed Hussein, published his take on the nation’s historic journey in “How Malaysia Missed 7 Chances at Nation Building”.