Rafizi on Maju Holdings Deal

by Rafizi Ramli@www.malaysia-chronicle.com

I follow very closely the sale of Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya highway concessions by Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd to EP Manufacturing Berhad, with reported transactions worth RM1.7 billion.

This immediately raised my suspicions as the highway was constructed using large amounts of public funds through government grants worth RM976.7 million. The overall cost of the expressway is estimated at RM1.32 billion and was mostly funded by the people through the RM976.7 million grant given by the government to Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd.

In addition to these grants, I estimate the injection of funds made by Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd was only about RM60 million (i.e 4.5% of overall costs) as they also borrowed RM370 million from financial institutions.

As a result, the sale proceeds of RM1.7 billion will provide a windfall to Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd if the government grants amounting to RM976.6 million is not refunded and paid back. If this happens, after paying their RM370 million debt to financial institutions, this means that Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd will still make a profit of about RM1.33 billion from the estimated investment capital of RM60 million.

Return the Rakyat's money

I urge the Prime Minister in his role as the Minister of Finance to confirm whether Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd will refund the total of RM976.7 million to the people, because if not, it will raise more questions that will continue to provoke people’s fury.

If the RM1.33 billion profit is kept by Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd, what are the details regarding the terms of the agreement between the Prime Minister with the owner of Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd, who are known to be supporters of UMNO? Was there an agreement that the profits, which were made from public funds, are to be channeled back to UMNO as 'elections funds'?

Lately, it has become the habit of the Prime Minister to approve transactions involving the cronies of UMNO-Barisan Nasional which are worth billions of ringgit, and this in turn has strengthened the people's fears that the high prices will boomerang to hurt them. To make it worse, the secrecy in which the transactions were all shrouded and the utter lack of transparency only adds to the people's suspicions.

2nd suspicious deal in a single month

This highway concessions sale is the second transaction this month alone involving the use of public fund. 1MDB bought the power utility assets and businesses of BN crony Ananda Krishnan. 1MDB is of course controlled by the Prime Minister, and the purchase of the Ananda assets amounted to RM8 billion. Why was Najib willing to spend such a huge sum when 1MDB clearly lacks experience in the power generation industry?

The amount of funds involved here is RM976.6 million, which is four times higher than that of NFC. The Prime Minister may think that he can get away with the NFC debacle, but surely this highway deal involving such a huge amount of public funds will require greater scrutiny and he better be ready to give some answers.

Malaysians must note that the buck for the Maju Holdings deal stops with Najib because the transactions could never go through without his consent as the Finance Minister.

Mohamed Rafizi Ramli is the Strategy Director of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Translated by Huzainah A Rani of Malaysia Chronicle)

RM32 millions Kickbacks: 1.1 billion Yen Questions

by YES MINISTER

RM32m kickbacks: ACA confirms probe is on

Tony Thien reported on May 10, in Malaysiakini.com that Sarawak ACA has received the go-ahead from their headquarters in Putrajaya to investigate the Japan Times report implicating Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family with the alleged RM32 million kickbacks paid by Japanese shipping companies for transporting Sarawak logs to Japan.

This is what most people are eagerly waiting for. Hope that the ACA will also investigate other corruptions allegations against Taib.

BE BRAVE: Taib stressing a point when opening the
Parliamentary Seminar for Government Backbenchers 2007.
— Photo by Jeffery Mostapa, The Borneo Post

Perhaps knowing what is forthcoming, Taib had this to say when opening the Parliamentary Seminar for Government Backbenchers 2007 here in Pantai Damai, Sarawak, "Our (legal) system is good enough to fight it out and I will show the example to you. You should not be afraid”.

This is so much sound like a person who is apparently trying psychic himself knowing his fate would be sealed or someone who is in panicked. This is the result of the psychological warfare inflicted upon him by the people. And he added, "government backbenchers not to cower in the face of accusations but to make full use of the country’s legal system to “fight it out”. Building a self-confident and trying to instill comradeship in the backbenchers, meaning let's us fight it together and indirectly saying, "please help me, I'm in troubled". Absolutely compunction. "Bird of a feather float together" hmmm... what a saying.

It is a well known secret that Dewaniaga is a state-affiliated concern in charge of lumber export control and is headed by the Sarawak chief minister's younger brother Onn bin Mahmud, the centre of the RM32 million kickbacks allegation against the Chief Minister Taib Mahmud that was reported in the Japan Times.

Dewaniaga Sarawak (DNS), a company affiliated with the Malaysian state of Sarawak, instructed NFA members to pay so-called intermediation fees to the Hong Kong agent, Regent Star (RS). The Chief Minister's brother Onn bin Mahmud also sits on the board of CMS. Not only is Abdul Taib Mahmud Chief Minister, he's also the Resource Management and Planning Minister. That means he's also the Forestry Minister.

Trying to justify his action on the related matter Taib said: “If you base this by Western standards, of course, there must be something wrong with this country, where a small group of people are sometimes related … as brothers, cousins, classmates … you can’t avoid these things (people being related to one another).

Well, it might still be alright if it is just one or two projects that is given to family members. But one too many and almost everthing is monopolised given to the same family, then there must be something wrong. Rightly so, the Rakyat should question? There would be other members of the community who also would like to have a share in the economic pie of the State. Afterall no one should have the right to deny other people from making a decent living.

And he added, “If you avoid them, you are going to push most of the jobs of developing the State to people who are not connected to the administration, not connected to politics and who can’t implement. They can’t implement your dreams of achieving prosperity". What is wrong if they're not connected to the administration or politically connected? Evereyone should be given a chance to participate in developing the state as long they're capable. As Raja Dr Nazrin correctly said in his keynotes address NATIONAL UNITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES FOR NATION BUILDING; "First, Malaysians of all races, religions, and geographic locations need to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have a place under the Malaysian sun. Only when each citizen believes that he or she has a common home and is working towards a common destiny, will he or she make the sacrifices needed for the long haul". When people are feeling neglected, of course they will becomes dismayed with the government. In order achieve prosperity, it should not be confined to a single family or community, but to all the Rakyats. That must be the objectives of the government.

“Prosperity is not only about investing in the economy. It depends also on having enough good people to translate your dreams into commercial reality” Taib said.

Wow... is this the thrust of the Barisan Nasional government of which Taib is the state BN head how to develop Sarawak, encouraging cronyism and nepotism? Meaning to say, there are no other Sarawakian capable of implementing any state government projects other than his own family members? This is really absurd! It has been proven that his family members had failed miserably in running a financial Institution, that it had to be sold to the other party? And what's else are the other Sarawakian not capable of other his family members?