KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — In the face of a crisis, decisions made must be strategic, not tactical or short-term that only soothe the symptoms but not the underlining fundamental ills, former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin said.

He said although Malaysia is not in a crisis yet, it would serve the nation well to pay attention to investigate what a crisis “looks and sounds” like and come up with the best possible response.

“It will be foolish and near-sighted if our responses are merely knee-jerk reactions, cavalier posturing or unconvincing.

“We must think outside the box and resist conventional approaches, and instead realise that the situation or times around us may be an opportunity to make changes or decisions that are strategic and bear long-term and long-lasting effects,” he said at Affin Hwang Capital Conference Series 2015 here today.

He said Malaysia’s unorthodox approach to the Asian financial crisis (AFC) showed great courage and grit in the midst of pressures for conformity and conditionality.

Daim said in a crisis, there are four key principles for any leader of a nation or organisation — sense making, meaning making, decision making and coordination.

He said under these four principles, a leader must correctly diagnose confusing, contested, fast moving and changing situations before explaining the situation and providing persuasive public accounts of the situation.

A leader must then make strategic policy decisions under conditions of time pressure, uncertainty and collective stress, and forge effective communication and collaboration between existing and ad hoc networks of public, private and international actors, he added.

Daim said there is no short cut to weathering a crisis and there must be patience and perseverance to ride through the storm.

“Be a strategist rather than a tactician. It takes courage and grit to ignore the conventional and go for what is truly transformational,” he said.

The one-day conference organised by Affin Hwang Capital featured speakers from global institutions such as the Economist Corporate Network, the Economist Intelligence Unit, TEDXKL, and Daiwa Securities Group. — Bernama