FOUNDING chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) think thank Wan Saiful Wan Jan will leave the post at the end of the month, to be succeeded by acting chief executive officer Ali Salman, who is the current research director.

Wan Saiful, who founded IDEAS in 2009, said he had a next step that he “must take now, or I will regret it forever”.

“When I left a relatively comfortable life in the UK in 2009 to come back and set up IDEAS, I had not much more than just a passion to make a difference.

“Now is the time to take the same risk again, to bring that same passion to a wider audience,” he said in a statement released by IDEAS today.

IDEAS was formally launched as a think tank on February 8, 2010, and grew from two people with a seed funding of RM500,000 into a team of 24 staff on its payroll today, with an annual income of more than RM3 million.

It also runs two charity projects – the IDEAS Autism Centre, which caters to urban poor families in Selangor, and IDEAS Academy, a secondary-level refugee school in Kuala Lumpur.

“I am privileged to have had the chance to work with such a talented team at IDEAS, and I am grateful to all the donors, partners and friends who invested in us and supported us,” said Wan Saiful.

“Having spent the last nine years of my life to build IDEAS, it is not easy for me to leave. But, I see my next move as a step that I must take now or I will regret it forever.”

Wan Saiful has frequently commented on politics in the media.

IDEAS has hosted numerous public policy debates, and is known for its libertarian stance on policies and the economy.

In November last year, Wan Saiful, a lifelong PAS member, had said it was a matter of time before the Islamist party sacked him. – February 22, 2018.