What Happens When Giants Get Tired
If PETRONAS were a person,
he’d be that guy who walks into a room
and everyone straightens up
not because he asked them to,
but because they owe him… a lot.
He doesn’t brag.
He doesn’t tweet.
He doesn’t have to.
He is the tweet people argue over every quarter.
In the 80s, he was that whiz kid from Terengganu
who got sent to global oilfields
and came back talking about upstream, downstream, and capex
like he invented the alphabet.
By the 90s,
he wore suits sewn from crude oil profits.
He funded scholarships, sports teams, theatre troops,
even that fancy toilet at R&R Rawang.
He was Malaysia’s rich uncle
the one you roll your eyes at during open house,
but still queue for when PTPTN fails.
Now?
He’s pushing 50.
His knees are creaky, inbox flooded,
his kids asking him what hydrogen is,
and Sarawak saying,
“We got this, boss. You rest.”
He sighs.
Not because he’s weak
but because he’s tired of proving he still matters
in a world chasing ESG, AI, and renewable dreams
while still being expected to play the same old political tune.
Every step he takes,
there are extra hands adjusting his collar,
rewriting his script,
asking him to smile for a camera he didn’t set up.
Sometimes he wonders:
Is this still his story…
or is he just the logo on someone else’s agenda?
Then one day, he lets 5,000 go.
Headlines explode.
“Heartless.”
“Cold.”
“Tak patriotik.”
No one asks how he cried in the boardroom
because the people he’s letting go
were the same ones who built the platform he now stands on.
But this isn’t about cruelty.
It’s about surviving a system
where expectations rise but freedom shrinks.
Sometimes, to keep the ship afloat,
you have to let go of your favourite anchor …
even when someone else keeps changing the map….
Now they say he’s outdated.
Washed out.
Too slow.
Funny.
The same people still fill up at his pumps
every festive season
while complaining about him from their Myvi on TikTok.
If you’ve ever worked with him,
you’d know:
He’s not perfect.
But he’s never been absent.
And Malaysia is still wearing the shoes he bought.
Let’s not wait to write his eulogy
before we admit:
without him,
a lot of us wouldn’t have made it this far.
He’s still a giant.
Just a tired one.
Trying to keep the lights on
for a house that’s forgetting who paid the deposit ..
..and who’s been holding the wires together all this time…
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