The Razak Reset
“This was the only place I saw my mother cry, after my father passed away.”
I am standing with Tan Sri Nazir Razak on a balcony off the master bedroom in Seri Taman. Across the lawn, over a tangle of rainforest, rises the CIMB headquarters. It is a poignant moment. Standing in his childhood home looking at the conglomerate he grew into one of the region’s leading universal banks. His late father was of course Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia’s second Prime Minister, and the nation’s Father of Development. Part of the Tun Abdul Razak Memorial Complex today, Seri Taman with its graceful geometric columns and classic ’60s architecture, is open to the public as a museum.
There isn’t much sentimentality in Nazir’s musings about his old home but there is obviously much affection. “If I could turn back time I’d absorb it all more.” He points to the old slide-door television in his father’s study where they watched Germany win the 1974 Football World Cup together. “We were rooting for the other
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