HARD work and perseverance have been the key to success for journalist-turned-businessman Tan Sri Clement Hii Chii Kok (pix).
“I was a news contributor to the then weekly Borneo Bulletin when I was in Form Four and Form Five. On completing my SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia), the then editor Hugh Mabbett came to Sibu and offered me a reporter’s job,” he said in a recent interview with theSun.
“After hardly a year attached to the Bulletin’s Brunei office, I was headhunted to be chief editor of the now-defunct Sarawak Herald in Sibu. Six months later, See Hua Daily News wanted to start an English daily The Borneo Post, and at age 19, I became its founding chief editor.
“Sibu was then earmarked as a security zone under Rascom (Rajang Area Security Command) and I felt I hardly had the maturity and expertise to run a news daily, but it was a great experience,” he said.
Recounting the days of electric typewriters and cut-and-paste design of pages, Hii shared that editing work began at noon and ended after midnight.
“The media industry has transformed so much that there is hardly any resemblance to how we plied our trade in those bygone days.”
Decades later, armed with a deeper knowledge of the industry, he became the executive chairman of Star Publications (now Star Media Group).
“I saw the shift towards digitalisation then and set up a couple of MSC companies, with the intention to eventually push digital platforms to the fore. I understand the plan did not pan out after I left.
“I still believe print media will always be there, although in a different format and probably serving different niches. But we can all see that social media is capturing most of the eyeballs, and that is not about to change for the foreseeable future.”
At 32, he returned to school to study law, and after graduation, he took over an institution of higher education in Kuching.
“(I’ve since) become known as ‘Hii who bought his college’. It had six students then. I grew it and it was later acquired by PRIME College in Petaling Jaya. I became the group CEO in 2000.
“We later did a reverse takeover of Systematic Group of Colleges. Subsequently, I took a controlling stake of the listed entity and it eventually became SEGi University & Colleges. Recently, we were among the only 19 universities ranked five stars plus by QS World University Ranking.”
His foray into education came about eight years ago as he ventured into a few diversified industries, which included property development.
“We have created a few ‘education cities’ and will be launching a few more projects this year, with a total GDV (gross development value) of about RM6 billion.
“HCK Capital Group now has a market capitalisation of about RM1 billion but there is still a lot of work that we have to do to reach the level we aspire to be. We may be a property developer but our business is heavily driven by high-tech platforms.
“I am also involved in a media entity, among other communication services. I run Focus Malaysia online. At one point, it was doing a few weekly business publications and news websites. These have been expensive ‘hobbies’ for me and may not be my areas of emphasis now. But during the last seven to eight years, I have been active on social media, trying to create interesting content on a regular basis.
“The journalist in me has never quit. That is probably why I have quite a following online,” he added.
