PAS assures Hindraf better life for Indians

Waythamoorthy has a fruitful meeting with spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and it could pave way for strong electoral ties between Pakatan and Hindraf

 
PAS has assured Hindraf Makkal Sakti that marginalised ethnic Malaysian Indians would have a better future if Pakatan Rakyat captures Putrajaya in the next election.
PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat assured that “things would be different under Pakatan” to Hindraf supremo P Waythamoorthy during a meeting on Thursday morning.
Hindraf national coordinator W Sambulingam said Waythamoorthy had explained to Nik Aziz of the human rights violations against the Indian community under Umno’s misrule.
He said Waythamoorthy told the PAS leader how most working class Indians have been  excluded and isolated from the country’s mainstream development since independence.
“Tuan Guru Nik Aziz listened attentively on the plight of marginalised Indians raised by Waythamoorthy.
“The Menteri Besar was symphatetic and assured us that under Pakatan rule things would be different,” said Sambulingam.
The private meeting between Nik Aziz and Waythamoorthy was held at the Kelantan Menteri Besar’s home.
As Nik Aziz was not feeling well, the meeting, originally scheduled at the Menteri Besar’s office, was moved to the PAS leader’s home.
Waythamoorthy also held a separate meeting with PAS vice president and Kelantan executive councillor Husam Musa in his Kota Bahru office the same day.
PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu was present.
Sambulingam said Waythamoorthy and the PAS leaders held discussions on forging electoral ties between Hindraf and Pakatan to face Barisan Nasional.

Win-win partnership
Waythamoorthy also assured Husam and Mat Sabu that Hindraf was willing to deploy its members as elections volunteers for Pakatan in Selangor, Perak, Kedah and Negeri Sembilan.
“Waythamoorthy reiterated Hindraf’s commitment to help Pakatan on the understanding that there should be a strategic win-win partnership between the parties,” said Sambulingam.
Waythamoorthy has also briefed both leaders on the displacement of about 800,000 estate workers since the 70s due to the country’s unscrupulous urbanisation programme.
Sambulingam said Waythamoorthy told them that these estate workers were systematically excluded from the government’s mainstream socio-economic master plan for decades.
He added that the PAS leaders were enlightened on how estate workers were denied land, house and cash compensations and even job opportunities.
“Waythamoorthy explained how estate workers were relegated from a vibrant pool of human resources to forgotten urban poor,” said Sambulingam.
The Hindraf chair also highlighted the plight of about 350,000 stateless Indians, who were denied proper jobs or education, own properties and even get their marriages registered.
Both the meetings were facilitated by Mat Sabu.
Waythamoorthy, who returned to Malaysia on Aug 1 after a five-year self-imposed stay in London, also met DAP national chairman Karpal Singh in Penang on Aug 12.
Waythamoorthy thanked Karpal for his support and legal assistance to the Hindraf activists who were detained without trial under the now repealed Internal Security Act.
The meeting between Waythamoorthy, a leading Indian rights activist and Muslim leaders from PAS could pave way for a strong electoral ties between Pakatan and Hindraf.

If it happens, Hindraf could help sway lost Indian votes from BN, boosting Pakatan chances to capture federal powers in next election.

NYANYUK - HALLUCINATION

In the Malay language, this is known as "nyanyuk"! This is aptly applied to people of age who talks nonsense and without sense !

VERY WELL WRITTEN AND MUST BE READ BY ALL MALAYSIAN WHO INDEED WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR TUN !


Is the Tun Hallucinating

In an open letter to Mahathir, P Ramakrishnan takes to task the former premier for his outrageous statements about the Pakatan administrations in Penang and Selangor of late.

My dear Tun Dr Mahathir, I’m at a loss as to whether you are hallucinating or failing to see the reality. Your views on Penang and Selangor are misconceived and misplaced. You come across as a dishonest politician determined to score political points and mislead Malaysian voters. You do no credit to yourself nor do you live up to your reputation as an elder statesman (Bernama, 29 January 2012).

Your statement, “They have already been given a lot of chances. A lot of unhappy things have happened in Penang, the same (is happening) in Selangor,” does not make any sense at all. “They have been given a lot of chances”, you unreasonably claim.

Pakatan only came to power on March 8, 2008. They have been in office only for four short years. What chances were given to them and who gave them those chances? What are you talking about? What miracles were you expecting them to perform in this short period of time?

 

Compare their short term of office to the Barisan Nasional’s nearly 55 years of tenure – truthfully and honestly. (22 years of which were under Dr.M, the longest PM in Malaysia who could have done so much more!). We can justifiably throw back at the BN the very words you had uttered: “They (BN) have already been given a lot of chances.

 

A lot of unhappy things have happened in Penang, the same (is happening) in Selangor.” This is indeed a valid observation requiring an honest answer from you, dear Tun.

Indeed, 55 years is a very long time. It is more than half a century. The BN have been given all the chances it wanted and needed. But what have the BN achieved during their long tenure in office except undermining our unity and keeping the people apart? Our unity has been destroyed by senseless and thoughtless policies and statements without a care for the welfare of the majority of Malaysians who are peace-loving and poor. Yes, Tun, if anybody had been given too much chance it is the BN. Indeed, what more can the BN do which they had failed to do during these 55 years? What miracles can the BN now perform to transform this country into a haven for all citizens and provide them with a dignified livelihood?


What do you actually mean by claiming, “They have been given the chance? What’s there left to try. If we allow the situation to deteriorate badly, it will be difficult to repair.”

 

Your rambling statement, “If we allow the situation to deteriorate badly, it will be difficult to repair” comes across as ridiculous and garrulous. What has the Pakatan done that has brought about the deterioration? What is that they are doing that would render the problem beyond repair? Please be specific and enumerate the wrongdoings of the Pakatan.


Tun, you should not make sweeping claims that are without merit. Many Malaysians are truly disappointed and disillusioned with you and justifiably feel that you have out-lived your usefulness as a political leader. You had your time and you did things the way you wanted to. That period is over and done with. There is nothing more for you to do.

Both Penang and Selangor have attracted the biggest FDI totalling more than RM15bn, which is unmatched by the BN-controlled states. Doesn’t this indicate positively that the Pakatan-controlled states are performing very much better in spite of their short term of tenure and lack of administrative experience and expertise? Honestly, dear Tun, doesn’t that deserve some praise?


You kept everything under wraps and resorted to the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to deny citizens their right to be informed. A lot of scandals and corruption prevailed because they are kept from the purview of public scrutiny and guarded as state secrets.


The Pakatan-controlled states in Selangor and Penang, on the other hand, have promulgated a Freedom of Information Act in order to be transparent and accountable. Tun, isn’t this something that has to be complimented?

Cronies and corruption Under your tenure for 22 years, many crony politicians became wealthy beyond imagination and without being accountable for their wealth. Elected representatives and cabinet ministers declared their assets only to you and, according to certain well-informed circles, you had used this information to secure their unquestioning loyalty. That was how you had your way – it was your way and no other way!


We are reminded of the episode concerning the removal of Osman Aroff, the then Menteri Besar of Kedah, who had enjoyed the support of the majority of assembly members in Kedah. These assembly members went to see you, dear Tun, to plead for the retention of their MB. You, reportedly saw them individually and after that they all returned to Kedah abandoning Osman Aroff. Rumour had it then that you had a file on each of them and that forced them to fall in line behind you.


Dear Tun, Pakatan-controlled states of Selangor and Penang did something that you wouldn’t dare dream of doing. All their Exco members declared their assets publically. This is something that civil society of Malaysia has been campaigning for, for a very long time, claiming that this would curb corruption and check abuse of governance.

But you would not be persuaded. You wanted to be the sole privy to the corruption and abuse so that you would have absolute control over politicians holding public positions.

Many Malaysians, in the past, have worked loyally and faithfully and had contributed to the progress of this country. These old timers who retired many years ago are forced to struggle to live a hard life with their meagre pensions in these times of hardships. Their counterparts of modern times, on the other hand, draw reasonable pensions to lead a decent life. The hardships suffered by these senior citizens have not been addressed. Their contributions were not even acknowledged.

But the Pakatan government in Penang has been giving out RM100 once a year for the last three years to express their appreciation to these senior citizens. Admittedly, this isn’t very much but the very thought of appreciation really warms the hearts of these people. With the vast resources available to the BN, they are placed in a far better situation to do more to help these unfortunate people. But why, dear Tun, did the BN government not bother doing this? They could have shown a generous face and given more to these people with all the wealth at their disposal. But they did nothing!

 

Corruption has become so rampant that so much of our wealth is either lost or stolen to the detriment of the nation. Contracts given to crony companies with inflated costs have drained our wealth. Highway toll agreements, the Tajuddin-Malaysia Airlines out-of-court settlement, the rescue of Bank Rakyat and Bank Bumiputra, the reckless forex fiasco in the UK, the bungling Maminco tin-buying spree, to name a few – they have all resulted in the loss of billions of ringgit that could have alleviated the plight of the poor. These are, unfortunately, dear Tun, your legacies that brought terrible hardships for the homeless and the helpless.


Uplifting the people You wouldn’t have open tenders for projects that would have saved billions of ringgit and secured the services of contractors with ability and proven expertise. That would have prevented some contractors from running away without completing their projects and ensured that buildings wouldn’t collapse because of poor workmanship and inferior materials. But repeated episodes of cheating contractors and uncompleted projects did not seem to disturb the conscience of those in charge. It was business as usual and billions of ringgit were regularly squandered without a care in the world.


On the other hand, now we have open tenders in the Pakatan states and Class F contractors are very happy and contented with this arrangement. According to these contractors, under the previous BN government, one had to have connections to get a contract and one had to give inducements to be considered favourably. Otherwise, getting contracts would have been impossible. But now, with open tenders, the deserving have been rewarded with contracts and they have delivered the completed projects on time. Isn’t this something that has to be appreciated, dear Tun?


Malaysian workers have been struggling for years for a minimum wage policy. The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has been championing this issue for decades. But it was opposed vehemently by the Malaysian Employers Federation, which wanted to reap hefty profits from the sweat of the workers. And the Malaysian government did not have the political will to implement the minimum wage policy. Thus we lost our local skilled workers and builders who left the country to work elsewhere. But the exploitation continues to this day with the employment of foreign workers.

Isn’t it praiseworthy that the Pakatan government in Selangor has implemented a minimum wage policy for all its employees in GLCs as from January this year? They are paid a minimum salary of RM1,500. Shouldn’t the employees enjoy the fruit of their labour, dear Tun? Farmers in the new villages of Perak who have been tilling the land and growing vegetables and fruit for the country for generations were exploited and kept in a state of uncertainty as to their livelihood as they did not own the land. Every election this became a moot point for the farmers. Whether their TOL would be extended or cancelled was a worrying experience for these farmers. And when the BN wins the election in Perak, the TOL of these farmers would be renewed.

 

The message was very clear. Vote for the BN or your TOL would not be renewed. They were beholden to the BN for the extension of their TOL. The Pakatan government gave them the land titles and their dignity and freed them from their unnecessary anxiety. The rational was these farmers have been on the land for generations and have been serving the nation with their produce and they deserved the land titles. Isn’t this something wonderful that deserves to be congratulated, dear Tun? Every voter who dies in Penang and Selangor is given RM1,000 and RM2,500 respectively for funeral expenses. This assistance is greatly appreciated, especially by the poor. For the first time a voter receives something very specific and substantial when he or she dies. This had never happened under BN rule. They bribe the living for their vote and forget them when they are dead. Under the Pakatan rule they take care of the living and the dead! Don’t they deserve a pat on their back, dear Tun? All this caring and giving must make a great impact on the people. If given more time there will be other good policies that will benefit the people and perhaps make it difficult for the BN to make any headway in the future. Is that what is worrying you, dear Tun? Is this what you meant when you sounded the warning to the BN, “If we allow the situation to deteriorate, it will be difficult to repair”?

You have correctly foreseen the inevitable doom for the BN. You have realised that it will be difficult to undo the good deeds of the Pakatan. In comparison, the BN will be cast in poor light and cursed for neglecting the majority of the deserving Malaysians who are poor. You are seeing what is impending and you have the right to fear the inevitable, dear Tun!

 

 

 

 

 


P Ramakrishnan is an Aliran executive committee member.

The writer of this article was a former teacher from Penang. During the "hey days" of the NUT, he was the Chairman of NUT Penang and an executive member of NUT Malaysia for many years. He still is an eloquent speaker.

He is a founder member of Aliran and served as its President for many years. In later years he gave up the Presidency of Aliran and is currently an Ex-Co member of that organisation. I am proud to be a friend of this great and brave gentleman!

Deep and Dirty: Malaysia's Submarine Scandal

Leaked prosecution documents show a pattern of official misdeeds in two countries

A two-decade campaign by the French state-owned defense giant DCN and its subsidiaries to sell submarines to the Malaysian ministry of defense has resulted in a long tangle of blackmail, bribery, influence peddling, misuse of corporate assets and concealment, among other allegations, according to documents made available to Asia Sentinel.

Some of the misdeeds appear to have taken place with the knowledge of top French government officials including then-foreign Minister Alain Juppe and with the consent of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, according to the documents, comprising 133 separate files and hundreds of pages. They were presented to the French Prosecuting Magistrate at the Court de Grand Instance de Paris in May and June of 2011. French lawyers have begun preparing subpoenas for leading Malaysian politicians including Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, the current Defense Minister, Ahmad Zaki Hamad and several other figures.

The documents were sent anonymously to Asia Sentinel via a circuitous route that took them to Brussels, Belgium; Lagos, Nigeria; Brazzaville,Congo; Libreville, Gabon; then to Leipzig, Germany and finally to Hong Kong. The documents, written in French, can be found in a collection in Asia Sentinel's Scribd account.

Click here to view documents.

The documents were compiled as a result of a raid on April 7, 2010, when scores of investigators from the anti-organized and financial crime unit of the French Directorate of Judicial Police swooped down on DCN’s offices at 19 rue du Colonel Pierre Avia in Paris’s 15th Arondissement, and four other locations, demanding that stunned officials give them access to safes, files and computers. They collected thousands of documents that form the bulk of the files delivered to Asia Sentinel.

Together, they present a damning indictment of Malaysian officials whose goal was to steer a €114.96 million (US$114.3 million at current exchange rates) payment through a private company called Perimekar Sdn Bhd, wholly owned by Abdul Razak Baginda. Razak Baginda was then the head of a Malaysian think tank called Malaysian Strategic Research, which was connected with the United Malays National Organization, the country’s biggest political party.

The payment appears to have been in violation of the OECD Convention on Bribery, which France ratified on June 30, 2000. On Sep. 29, 2000, according to document D00015, DCNI, a DCN subsidiary, “took corrective actions” after France joined the bribery convention. Contracts concluded after that date were to be routed to Eurolux and Gifen, companies held by Jean-Marie Boivin, DCN’s former finance chief, and headquartered in Luxembourg and Malta respectively Boivin is being investigated for having played a central role in the “corrective actions,” with what were described as “outlandish commissions” traveling through the welter of companies that he established in tax havens around the world. Among the documents is one that shows Boivin paid to send Razak Baginda on a jaunt to Macau with his then-girlfriend, Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian national who was later murdered by two of Najib’s bodyguards.

“A separate agreement sets other compensation consisting of a fixed amount independent of the actual price of the main contract,” one document reads in reference to the payment to Perimekar. “This has been made to be consistent with [DCN’s] internal rules and [its subsidiary] Thales and those of the OECD. The beneficiaries of these funds are not difficult to imagine: the clan and family relations of Mr. Razak Baginda. In addition, these funds will find their way to the dominant political party." Malaysia’s dominant political party was and is UMNO.

Malaysian Defense Spree

The story in essence began when Najib Tun Razak was appointed defense minister in Mahathir’s cabinet in 1991 and embarked on a massive buildup of the country’s military, arranging for the purchase of tanks, Sukhoi jets, coastal patrol boats – and submarines. That kicked off a stiff competition between French, German, Swedish, Russian and Dutch manufacturers, who in turn went looking for the most effective cronies of the Malaysian leadership to help them out. By 1995, according to document DC00078, DCN’s subsidiary Thales was losing out to the German manufacturer Kockums AB, which was represented by Amin Shah, dubbed “Malaysia’s Onassis” because of his business and shipping interests, who was close to then-finance minister Daim Zainuddin and was suspected of being a front man for Daim’s interests.

French authorities seemed to counter by paying a “consultancy fee” according to a handwritten document called a "Consultancy Agreement” signed in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 1, 1996 between DCN International representative Emmanel Aris and a Malaysian Army major named Abdul Rahim Saad. The purpose was “to reintroduce DCNI in the short list of tenders after it was rejected by the Government of Malaysia” on Dec. 14, 1995, according to the French documents.

The remuneration was to be paid in two lots, US$20,000 before Jan. 31, 1996, and US$80,000 after acceptance. Apparently it was successful. Rahim is now managing director of a company called ARS Sehajatera Sdn Bhd., which supplies logistical equipment to the Malaysian armed forces.

However, there are questions whether Rahim was ever paid. A memo found in the DCN files said he “expresses discontent and proclaims his support for the Agosta [the Spanish manufacturer of the Scorpenes for DCN] submarines since 1996 but he ‘has not had any news from DCNI to date.’ He says he organized shady activities to promote the French bid…He complains of not having been paid for his services.”

Eventually, according to the documents, Amin Shah began to lose his influence with the government after Daim Zainuddin left his position as finance minister. DCN and its subsidiaries began casting around for other sources of influence within the Malaysian government.

An attempt to woo Tan Sri Razali Ismail, one of Malaysia’s most distinguished diplomats, failed. “It was ultimately unsuccessful and Mr. Abdul Razak Baginda was chosen in his place,” the documents note. “The role of the latter was to facilitate the submission procedure to the Malaysian government and the responsible ministers, in particular the Minister of Defense, with whom he claimed to have a close relationship.”

According to Document D000112, “…Razak Baginda has maintained excellent relationships with the Defense Minister and Prime Minister. Moreover, his wife, Mazlinda Makhzan, is a close friend of the Defense Minister’s wife. Thus, Baginda has become the center of the network. Both companies are at the center of this network: Terasasi, related to Baginda, and Perimekar, which was initially controlled by Mohamad Ibrahim Mohamad Nor,” who was also close to Daim Zainuddin. However, with Daim stepping down as finance minister after a spat with Mahathir, Razak Baginda took over sole proprietorship of that company through his wife.

“The major defense contracts in Malaysia as in other countries require substantial money transfers to individuals and/or [political] organizations,” the document noted. “In Malaysia, other than individuals, the ruling party [UMNO] is the largest beneficiary [rather than Perimekar, the company to which the commission was directed]. Consultants [agents or companies] are often used as a political network to facilitate such transfers and receive commissions for their principals.”

The Heart of the Deal

Over the next few years, the documents show, as the contract came closer to fruition Razak Baginda and Najib maneuvered in France to get the best possible deal for themselves and UMNO, establishing a tangle of companies through which funds would ultimately pass.

Their activities included the founding of several companies including Perimekar in 2000 as a vehicle to funnel the €114.9 million commission to Razak Baginda and others, with Razak Baginda’s wife the principal shareholder. The plan appears to have had the approval of Mahathir. A diplomatic cable to Foreign Minister Juppe said, “The company chosen by the government for the submarine project is…Perimekar. This choice is the subject of an official notification from the Malaysian Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Defence... Note that this decision of the Ministry of Finance was taken while the Prime Minister himself held the post of Minister of Finance, after the departure of Tun Daim.”

The French company appears to have had no illusions as to Perimekar’s function. Documents note that “Perimekar was a limited liability company with a capital of MR5 million (€1.4 million) of which 1 million is available. It was created in August 1999 … it has no record of sales during 2000. Its ownership is in the process of restructuring.”

As Asia Sentinel has previously reported, document D00087 shows that Najib demanded a US$1 billion “condition” for Perimekar Sdn Bhd’s “stay in France.” The notes, however, don’t make it clear exactly what that means. The information is contained in a note faxed from Francois Dupont, the Asian representative of Thales International Asia, to his bosses but the notation in the documents presented to the court doesn’t elaborate. Dupont indicated that a meeting with Najib on July 14, 2001 would take place with the above mentioned “condition” but it was not known if the meeting transpired.

Along the way, Jasbir Singh Chahl, one of Razak Baginda’s associates at Perimekar, decided he hadn’t been paid enough. In several memos to DCN, Jasbir Chahl demanded a full fourth of Perimekar’s total €114.96 million. Despite several demands, there is no indication that Chahl has ever been paid. He has been subpoenaed as a witness in the case, but after first indicating to French lawyers that he would cooperate, he has since said he knows nothing of the affair. He is said to be extremely ill and suffering from some form of cancer.

Other documents made public by Asia Sentinel earlier show that at least €36 million flowed from the DCNS subsidiary to Terasasi Hong Kong Ltd., whose principal officers are listed as Razak Baginda and his father. Najib was defense minister from 1991 through the time when the submarines were delivered in 2002. Terasasi only exists as a name on the wall of a Wanchai district accounting firm in Hong Kong.

The French-Malaysian Submarine Scandal: the Documents

The 133 official documents uploaded onto this website are from the Directorate-General of the French National Police and the Judicial Police Directorate’s anti-organized and financial crimes unit.

They were presented to a French anti-corruption court in May and June of 2011. Taken together, they present –in French – the clearest picture to date of the two-decade campaign by the French state-owned defense manufacturer DCN and its subsidiaries to sell Scorpene submarines to the Malaysian Ministry of Defense.

Asia Sentinel’s story summarizing what is in the documents is in a collection in Asia Sentinel's Scribd account. They tell a story of corruption on both sides of the world that included – according to one presentation to the court – “blackmail, bribery, influence peddling, misuse of corporate assets and concealment.” The documents show that many of these activities were carried out with the full knowledge if not connivance of top officials in both the French and Malaysian governments.

Click here to view the documents.

There is considerable doubt in Malaysia that these documents actually exist, and that the story of corruption was fabricated by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition. Here is proof that they exist indeed. Readers who speak French may examine them at their leisure.

The documents were sent anonymously to Asia Sentinel because of our persistence in cataloguing the story of the submarines since October 2006, when Altantuya Shaariibuu, a 28-year-old Mongolian party girl and translator of sorts, was murdered in a patch of jungle near the suburban city of Shah Alam and her body was blown to bits with C4 explosives.

It subsequently became apparent that Altantuya had accompanied Abdul Razak Baginda, the head of Malaysian Strategic Services and a close associate of then-Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak, to Paris and Brest during final negotiations for the contract to train Malaysian sailors and to maintain the submarines once they arrived in Malaysia. Although the documents indicate French authorities found no record that Altantuya had ever entered France, Asia Sentinel ran a series of pictures of her in Pars in front of the Louis Vuitton Paris shop, the Arc de Triomphe, the Cathedral of Notre Dame and other locations. The story and pictures, whjich ran on Dec. 5, 2007, can be found here:

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=916&Itemid=178

Two of Najib’s bodyguards – one of whom said in a formal statement that they were to be paid RM100,000 to kill the woman – were convicted of murder, but the courts carefully stayed away from identifying who had ordered her death.

The case eventually spread to France, where lawyers led by William Bourdon were engaged by the Malaysian NGO Suaram to attempt to get to the bottom of the case. Their efforts led French anti- corruption police to raid the offices of DCN and its subsidiaries. Thousands of documents were seized, along with computers and vast stores of documents and files. For the better part of two months, prosecutors detailed the evidence in a French courtroom. They will stay on the Asia Sentinel website as a public service for readers to compile their own evidence of a scandal that infected two governments.

Asia Sentinel.com 

Umno's population engineering a disaster

The Malays are lost and waylaid and at the crossroads of a really serious Malay dilemma. If you don't believe me, check this out.

If you happen to travel around this country and check on the statistics, especially the pasar malam, find out who runs the stalls and their businesses? Check out our beloved Chow Kit Road, and see who owns the thriving commerce? Or visit the Pudu wet market and see who is shouting for customers at 4 am (even before the cock crows).

Half the businesses now are with the foreigners, another half with other races, the Malays only have land titles left (especially reserve land of no value). All the GLC's are still in Malay hands, but not for long; otherwise all will be sold off in no time at all. As a people, the Malays are not known for perseverance and enduring commitment. They have no business acumen. Being entrepreneurial is a steep climb for them and the Malays have no stamina to stomach the strains and stresses. I speak from experience. They are easily swayed by circumstances.

More than half our local workforce are pendatangs (Indons, Myanmars, Nepals, Vietnamese, Banglas!) This country is not only bankrupt as said by Idris Jala, but also - telah dilelongkan. The poorer of the majority Malays left behind will become beggars and mat rempit, mat gian, mat ragut and mat dadah (they are all subsidized by our government funding to buy their No 1 drugs of escapism to run away from a harsh reality - Metadon). Who culled their own Malay race? Nobody but UMNO-BN itself! I rest my case.

Strategy of mind control

Since 1957 UMNO has effectively carried out the population engineering of our country to ensure its own long-term survival by creating the myth of a two-pronged “Ketuanan Melayu” strategy of mind control. “Ketuanan Melayu” for the majority Malay masses who are lulled and numbed into a feeling of being superior over the non-Malays because of their demographic numbers; and “Ketuanan Melayu” for the favored UMNOputra Malay political elites through the accumulation of massive material wealth and power for themselves and their cronies. And while UMNO has failed by almost any measure you chose to gauge them – good governance, ethics or morality – without question they have succeeded too well in the social engineering exercise after the bloody race riots of May 13, 1969.

The duplicity of UMNO in proclaiming 1Malaysia - Satu Bangsa, Satu Negara -while all the while undertaking a relentless program to whittle down the numbers of the non-Malays through a very precise and focused political initiative is breathtaking in its effectiveness!

Consider this -

In 1957:

– 45% of the population were Chinese

– 12% of the population were Indians

In 2010:

– 25% of the population are Chinese

– 7% of the population are Indians

Over 600,000 Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC status were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship and possibly 60% of them had passed away due to old age.

Since 1957:

– 2 million Chinese have emigrated

– 0.5 million Indians have migrated

– 3 million Indonesians came over to Malaysia to become Malaysian citizens with Bumiputra status even if they stay less than 5 years. (Nett gain 0.5 million and an additional of 3 million manufactured Bumiputras like Muslim Indonesians). The most famous is none other than Mohd Khir Toyo who stayed for 20 years but became MB of Selangor.

Chinese population to dwindle and the Indon to rise

In the not too distant future, I reckon Malay bumiputras may have to worry about 2nd or 3rd generation Indonesian migrants, owing to the virtues of hard work and thrift taught by their parents, or grandparents, would have surpassed the majority Malays in terms of socio-economic progress. Mohd Khir Toyo is smarter than most local-born Malays in terms of amassing his personal wealth at the shortest duration of time. Even Muhammad Muhammad Taib is no match for him. That's how smart Khir Toyo is.

Instead of teaching their people the virtues of hard work and perseverance, the UMNO warlords are proclaiming Ketuanan Melayu to feed off the Chinese minorities like parasites. If not for the Chinese taxpayers, the Malays will be sleeping the five foot-ways. Of course the Chinese isn't a threat - they are just workaholics - they want to create wealth and prosperity so much so that no failures of any kind is going to stop them. Not even the ultra Malay racists spewing blood in their eyes or frothing venom in their mouths.

It is envisaged the Chinese demographics will dwindle to stabilize at 4 percent of the overall Malaysian population but their accumulated wealth and economic power will continue to rise to more than 75 percent of the overall GDP of the country. That’s proof enough how steady and influential the Chinese economic stranglehold over the majority Malays will become; and we believe racial hatred and resentment is well likely to remain for the next 50 years. They work hard for the money but we envy them in our idleness.

Whereas the Indonesian newcomers went out to work before you become awake and they are not home yet when you call it a day and went to bed. Will the majority Malays consider them a threat when they deservedly find new wealth? The Indonesians respect the Chinese for their business acumen and diligence. Do the Malays think likewise if not indulge in unguarded jealousy and envy?

Best to lay the blame where it belongs - not the Malays but UMNO

Now the non-Malays are well aware of this tinkering and engineering of our population and it would do us Malays no good to say that it was UMNO’s doing and that we had no hand in what happened at the end of the day. As a Malay I was then comfortable that UMNO was the dominant partner in the Barisan Nasional. It was indeed comforting to know that Malays controlled four of the five major banks. We were also in control of UMBC, MISC and Southern Bank – all previously owned by the Chinese. But seemingly the Chinese-owned Public Bank which is not in our control is moving ahead of the others still in economic prowess and competitive skills. What’s wrong with our control?

Education?

Between 1968 to 2000:

– 48 Chinese primary schools shut down

– 144 Indian primary schools closed

– 2637 Malay Primary Schools were built

Of the total government budget for these schools, 2.5% were for the Chinese, 1% for the Indians and a whopping 96.5% for the Malay primary schools.

The fact that 2637 Malay primary schools were built between 1968 to 2000 implied that the engineered process of retarding our majority Malays or bumiputras is getting obvious. At the end of their school lives, they have nowhere to go except to stay put in this country, as like idiots they have nowhere else to go because everywhere they are faced with a serious language problem and a communication breakdown with others. They will, like it or not, have to support the Ketuanan Melayu concept to survive for their freebies or welfare. The mentality is - No need to work and money will still come. Scions of the rich and wealthy UMNOputras will be educated overseas and return to continue to rule over their poorer local cousins.

Petronas petrol stations?

Of the 2000 station the Malays owned 99%. Yes…we the Malays were indeed in control. In control of what? We were in control of all the business licenses and permits for Taxis and Approved Permits (APs).

We were in control of Government contracts of which 95% were given to Malays.

We were in control of the rice trade through Bernas that bought over 80% of Chinese rice millers in Kedah. Even Robert Kuok aka Sugar King was forced to sell his sugar franchise to UMNO crony interests so that the Malays are deemed to be in control of the sugar market; and the other essential basic items.

We were in control of bus companies. Throughout Malaysia, MARA buses could be seen plying all the routes. Non-Malays were simply displaced by having their application for bus routes and for new buses rejected. Many local Chinese owned bus companies are already kaput in the urban centers.

Every new housing estate being built had a mosque or a surau. None, I repeat “no” temples or churches were built for any housing estate even if the majority residents are non Malays! We even blare the loudspeakers in every mosque calling for Azan at maximum volume just so to tell the non Malays and non Muslims that we are in control!

How come still poor with so much control?

So why with control over all these highly visible entities and business opportunities are the majority Malays still unable to stand tall and with pride over and above the non-Malays?

We are unable to so do because it was not the Malays that benefited from these opportunities - only the favoured UMNOputras enjoyed the benefits, and the poorer among the majority Malays were merely taken for a ride as their name were used by UMNO to hijack the national agenda.

The Chinese bogeyman and the Malay hobbyhorse work wonders for UMNO to play one against the other in their evil scheme of Divide and Rule to suit their survival plan.






Malaysia Chronicle

Breaking up wealth concentration in Malaysia

The past year has seen the government and the opposition unveil their respective economic reform policies. Even if these reform policies and their attendant programmes are implemented, they will not be able to resolve the country’s economic problems. This is because the policies advocated by both sides of the political divide are merely palliative. They do not address the root or fundamental cause of the problem of structural deformation of the country’s economy.

How has this deformation come about? What are its characteristics? And what can be done to bring about a reversal or correction of the deformation so that we have a really transformed economic system that can live up to its full potential?

First we need to recognize that wealth in any country – and Malaysia is no exception – is created by economic activity engaged in by individuals or enterprises that bring profits or gains to the entrepreneur. Much of this wealth creation and subsequent accumulation is legitimate. It is based on material reward arising from work (or gift) and is socially and ethically acceptable. It comes from risk-taking and from the social utility and superiority of the products and services generated by the individual or enterprise.

Wealth generated and accumulated by individuals through legitimate means and conforming to the norms of justice and fairness is not only desirable but beneficial to society and the economy.

But what about wealth that is created or amassed by less than legitimate or by illegitimate or illegal means? Is it a minor or non-issue and do we just ignore it as is the case with the Barisan Nasional government?

Outflow of massive illegal wealth accumulation
One important clue to the massive wealth capture by illicit means in Malaysia was exposed recently by the Global Financial Integrity, a US-based watchdog.

In its study on ‘Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries’, it estimated that Malaysia was fifth in the world on cumulative total illicit financial flows (IFF) since 2000.

For 2009 alone, IFF (non-normalised) amounted to approximately U$47 billion (approximately RM145 billion at the exchange rate of RM3.1 = US$1) and over the cumulative nine years, total IFF amounted to US$350 (approximately RM1.09 trillion.)

Two methods of estimation were used in the study, one being the World Bank residual model (using the change in external debt or CED), and secondly, trade mispricing (using the Gross Excluding Reversals method or GER).

Through the balance of payments (a component of CED), it captures unrecorded capital leakages i.e. illicit transfers of the proceeds of bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion. Outflow of unrecorded transfers due to trade mispricing was captured under the GER method.

Based on the study, Malaysia’s nine-year average normalised i.e. conservative IFF, amounted to US$14.2 billion (42%; RM43.9 billion) due to CED while GER accounted for $19.6 billion (58%; RM60.8 billion). Meanwhile, average non-normalised IFF was US$15.4 billion (44%; RM47.5 billion) due to CED and US$19.6 billion (56%; RM60.8 billion) due to GER.

MNCs and Illicit Financial Flows
According to the study, “illicit flows involve capital that is illegally earned, transferred, or utilised and covers all unrecorded private financial outflows that drive the accumulation of foreign assets by residents in contravention of applicable capital controls and regulatory frameworks. Hence, illicit flows may involve capital earned through legitimate means such as the profits of a legitimate business”.

If taxes were levied on the illegal outflows, the country’s finances would have benefitted to the tune of close to US$100 billion. When the GFI’s findings were made public recently, the finger of blame for the massive outflows was placed by the MP for Kota Belud, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, on multinational corporations (MNCs). Indeed, MNCs have been a convenient scapegoat for transfer pricing woes in developing countries where they have major operations.

One local observer – a specialist in transfer pricing – has demolished this accusation in the context of Malaysia. According to his letter of 27 December 2011 to Free Malaysia Today, “transfer pricing has been the one of the most scrutinised subjects by the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board since the Transfer Pricing Guidelines was introduced [in 2003].”

He has argued that “more likely than not, where there are cases of transfer mispricing, MNCs would always step forward and rectify the situation. This is so because “getting caught by authorities in doing illegal activities will most likely cause serious damage to business integrity and reputation.”

He concluded that “compliance by MNCs is one of the most stringent as far as I understand from a corporate culture perspective, or at least for cases I have seen.”

So if MNCs are not the culprit for the illicit financial outflows, who are the real culprits?
The Global Financial Integrity study has noted that besides transfer pricing outflows – MNCs alone are not to blame for this; local conglomerates and GLCs also play the same game with greater insider knowledge – IFF was caused by illicit transfers arising from the proceeds of bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion.

Malaysia is in fact the only country where IFF is caused by a comparable proportion of transfer and non-transfer pricing transgressions.

Real culprits in illegal wealth accumulation and concentration
While the study has been helpful in providing some hard data on the quantum of the illicit financial outflows, it does not provide much assistance on other key details such as who are responsible for the outflow; the countries of fund relocation; etc.

At this stage, we can only hazard a guess as to the likely individuals or parties involved in the non-transfer pricing illicit outflow. The most likely culprits are those who have been able to accumulate enormous wealth and who for various reasons find it expedient or necessary to conceal their wealth accumulation as well as to diversity their wealth havens and assets away from Malaysia.

The GFI study does not cover the illicit wealth accumulated locally and not yet remitted to foreign shores. The size of this locally retained illicit wealth is likely to be several if not many times more than that sent abroad.

A crude estimate of the extent of legal wealth concentration in the country can be obtained from the 40 individuals identified by Forbes as the richest billionaires for Malaysia. Collectively this group was worth $62.5 billion in 2011. In addition there must be many other extremely wealthy individuals who have avoided making the list through their ability to conceal their wealth and others who though not making the top 40 list still possess enormous wealth.

The most widely rumoured name not making the Forbes list has to be Taib Mahmud, the chief minister of Sarawak, who together with his family is reputed to have shares in more than 330 companies in Malaysia alone and more than 400 companies around the globe worth several billion US dollars.

Various quarters have questioned the legitimacy of the wealth accumulation engaged in by the chief minister. A recent article in the blogsite Sarawak Headhunter provides in-depth details on what is alleged to be the income stream of the Chief Minister’s financial vacuum machine.

These include:

• Income from timber licences
• Surcharge on timber exports
• Kickbacks from timber shipping companies
• Agency and other fees levied on shipping companies
• Privatization of government companies
• Illegal logging receipts
• Federal government contracts
• Alienation of state land to plantations
• State contracts

The Sarawak chief minister has refuted these claims and has argued that that his daughter's considerable property empire was amassed through the daughter and son-in-law’s business acumen in investing wisely the gratuity which Taib earned from his earlier service in the federal government.

This may well be true but if so, it needs to be substantiated by an opening of the financial records and bank accounts of the family and the companies owned or controlled by the family in Malaysia and abroad. Only then can the authorities and public determine the truth of the allegations of financial and political impropriety.

That the chief minister and his family own an extraordinary amount of wealth – held locally and abroad – at least is not denied. Some idea of the enormous size of the Taib family wealth emerged when Taib’s daughter-in-law filed a RM400 million claim on her estranged husband Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib in court recently, including what she claims is her share of property worth RM300 million.

These tantalizing details of the extraordinary wealth accumulation by Taib and a small group of Malaysians show a common pattern. Firstly, they have all been beneficiaries of the Barisan Nasional government and its policy aimed at working with an elite few individuals in driving the economy forward.

Many if not all of the names that appear on the Forbes list are regarded as cronies of past prime ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the present prime minister Najib Razak, and are widely perceived as owing their considerable wealth to their political loyalty to the Barisan Nasional.

All the business empires of the former ‘Sugar King’ Robert Kuok, Genting Highlands’ late Lim Goh Tong, Public Bank’s Teh Hong Piau, YTL’s Yeoh Tiong Lay, Astro’s Ananda Krisnan, Air Asia’s Tony Fernandez and the rising Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary – deservedly or undeservedly – are seen as built on government preference and patronage. This connection is what has provided them with head starts and privileged monopolies without which their enterprises could never have come about, let alone flourish.

Getting to the bottom of how the business empires of our richest Malaysians have taken shape may be a useful way of dealing with the thorny question of how wealth concentration – whether legitimately derived or under a cloud of illegitimacy – has occurred.

We should have no illusions about the obstacles that lie ahead of such investigative efforts. We should also be mindful that in countries where illegal wealth accumulation by the leaders of impoverished countries has drawn national and international ire, attempts at recovery of the wealth, much of which has been spirited abroad and stashed in overseas banks and assets, has been a long-drawn and difficult process.

Admittedly the hope for any confiscation of illicit or illegitimate wealth is distant and dim. The time may not even be ripe to insist on a full-blown opening up of the records and having the truth come out on how the crème de la crème of our business and political leaders have accumulated their fortunes.

But there may be need for public scrutiny in a few special cases in Malaysia despite the concern that such efforts may be construed as an anti-capitalist or anti-Barisan witch hunt.

National discussion on wealth accumulation and concentration
The time is right at the least though for a national discussion on what are the pros and cons of the current economic system which encourages the concentration of wealth and its illegal outflows on such a systemic basis, and whether this is the right economic model for the country.

The time is also right to focus on sectors and processes which have been the main playgrounds of unfair or illicit wealth accumulation; and to implement actions aimed at decisively containing or neutralizing them.

Best practice examples are readily available for example, in the natural resource sector of countries with the same natural wealth as us. These countries, such as Norway for example, have been able to avoid the errors that we have made in the exploitation of our mineral and forest resources. Our mistakes have been in permitting opaque policies and procedures, and condoning corrupt or shady businesses that have reaped a windfall of illicit gains.

For the national discussion on wealth concentration and outflows to take place, we need to break the conspiracy of silence by our political elites that have befitted from the system and that have collaborated in the accumulation of illicit wealth and wealth generated from dubious means.

We need the professionals to play their role. We need more studies by academics and civil society to uncover where illicit and less than legitimate accumulations are taking place and what can be done to plug leakages and bring to justice the offenders and culprits. We need more whistleblowers to step forward.

Discussion needs to be followed by action, whether by the Barisan or a Pakatan government.

This action needs to be more than just the tweaking of economic policy as envisaged by the Pakatan parties. It needs to be a fundamentally new paradigm of development based on the de-concentration of wealth and its more equitable distribution.

New paradigm of development
The radically new paradigm of development that puts the spotlight on the wealth of the country (within and outside) as well as on the wealthy, and with a major focus on the eventual breaking down of wealth concentration illicit financial flows – beginning with illicit wealth – is needed for three reasons.

Firstly, it is a superior approach to the narrowly race-based New Economic Policy model that has dominated the country’s economic life and which is based on a simplistic caricature of affirmative action policy.

Secondly, our oil wealth is rapidly depleting and our treasury is depleted. Going after wealth that has been illegally accumulated or rightfully belongs to the state will provide the country some breathing space until we get our act together on the other pieces of the bigger economic transformation jigsaw.

The final reason is that the primary cause of poverty and stunted development in Malaysia is an economic system that promotes excessive concentration of wealth. So long as the excessive concentration of wealth exists, our poverty and deformed development problem will remain unresolved.

It has been said that economics is not only about production and wealth creation. It is also about morality, and the first moral principle is that the strong owe a duty towards the weak. It is the role of government to ensure that the strong and wealthy fulfil their duty and not to encourage them in wrongdoing in their obsessive wealth accumulation.






Written by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee

450,000 stateless Indians in Malaysia, fact or fiction?

Today it is generally taken for granted that there are good things that people are entitled to have and bad things that they can expect or hope to avoid. A wide, and ever-widening, range of such entitlements and immunities are supposed to belong to everyone, everywhere and at all times, purely as a consequence of our humanity (i.e. of the dignity and respect that are due to us as human beings).Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. Article 15 of the United Nations ‘Universal Declaration on Human Rights’ gives everybody the right to a nationality: no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality nor denied the right to change nationality. So any act by a nation of depriving a nationality to her inhabitants, that too up to 4th or 5th generation born must be regarded as a perpetual humanitarian crime.

Hindraf has on many occasions stated that there is an estimated 450,000 Malaysian- born Indians that have been rendered stateless as they have been denied citizenship status by the Malaysian government.
According to the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2010, there are 2,320,779 non-Malaysian citizens residing in Malaysia. However the general perception that is given is that this huge number consists of nothing but foreign workers like from Indonesia, Bangladesh, etc. In reality it is suspected that this figure of 2.3 million also includes a large number of Malaysian-born but stateless Indians.

During a series of focused group discussions held Aug 24-26, 2009 at Putrajaya with the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department to review the Ninth Malaysia Plan period and provide recommendations for the Tenth Malaysia Plan, certain participants expressed tremendous distrust towards the official figures presented, particularly those on Malaysian Indians.

An outline paper was presented to the Economic Planning Unit in a special meeting chaired by EPU deputy director-general Mat Noor Nawi on Dec 24, 2009 highlighting citizenship documentation of the Malaysian Indians.

It was stated in the paper that there were no proper records of the cases and assistance seems extended to these Indians to be on an ad hoc basis. It was suggested that the government should undertake a comprehensive survey and document all the Malaysian Indian cases and analyse the root causes for this situation.

It was also suggested to enlist the cooperation of the National Registration Department whereby a focal point is established at the national and state levels, and to also undertake a quarterly review of the situation in order to ensure that between 2010 and 2011, at least 75 percent of the cases could be resolved.

It is already 2012 now and I’m afraid the stateless Indian numbers are still estimated to exceed 450,000.

To prove if this number is indeed fact or to discount it as fiction, one has to trace back to old records and reports of the population census of Malaysia.

Following the data trail
The United Nations had declared 1974 as World Population Year and as such the organization initiated within this framework the preparation of a series of monographs on the past, present and future population trends in various countries.

The Committee for International Co-ordination on National Research (Cicred) was given the responsibility of coordinating the preparation of the monographs. Malaysia submitted its report in December, 1975 which was edited by R. Chander, the chief statistician in the country’s Census and Demographic Division.

In the preface of this report Chander states “the presentation of past, present and future trends in Malaysia in this volume, form a useful synthesis of much of the knowledge accumulated by official censuses. Its value is enhanced by the effort made to demonstrate the relevance of population data for social planning”.

According to Cicred, each collaborating national institutional was commissioned a national monograph on the main dimensions of population growth and composition which serve today as a benchmark for studying demographic change in these countries over the last decades.
In short this report was done in a very comprehensive manner and would have been conducted very diligently. Its figures could represent an unbiased clearer picture of the Malaysian population today.

PROJECTED POPULATION BY COMMUNITY
The future population projection of Malaysia was calculated for each community for the years between 1970 and 1990. It was done based on several established standard assumptions and giving four different projections for each community based on:

Projection A: Fertility constant, 1970-1990.

Projection B: Fertility decline 10%, 1970-1990.

Projection C: Fertility decline 20%, 1970-1990.

Projection D: Fertility decline 30%, 1970-1990.

Based on these four different types of projections, the future population projection of the three main ethnic communities in Malaysia was estimated.

For 1990, the Malay community was estimated to number anywhere between 8,006,849 and 8,985,925.

According to Malaysian’s actual population census carried out in 1991, the Malays numbered 8,521,906. This is well within the estimated range projected by the 1975 reported prepared by Chandler and submitted to Cicred.

The Chinese community was estimated to number anywhere between 4,512,199 and 5,487,349. The Malaysian population census of 1991 gave the figure of 4,623,882. Again well within the estimated range.

The Indian community was estimated to number anywhere between 1,491,949 and 1,660,575. The official census of 1991 counted 1,316,086 Indians. This is very much lower than the estimated range.
Meaning the Indian community was around 250,000-300,000 persons less than the estimated number projected by the chief statistician of Malaysia in 1975. How is that so when he was well on the mark on the estimates of the Malay and Chinese communities?

Chandler was way off mark on the 1990 estimate of the Indian community reported to the United Nations committee. Furthermore the estimate given was for the year 1990 but the official population census carried out a good year after that, in 1991. (Malaysia’s population census is conducted once very 10 years – 1970, 1980 1991, 2000 and 2010.)

Despite the external migration of the Chinese community which was far greater compared with the Indian community, Chandler had still been on target with his projection of the ethnic Chinese population numbers in Malaysia. His projection on the ethnic Indian population figure should by right have been accurate yet the 1991 census numbers fell short notwithstanding the fact that the Indian fertility level was far higher than the Chinese’s.

The answer to this anomaly is very simple.

As of 1991, there were at least 250,000 to 300,000 ethnic Indians who had been denied citizenship status in Malaysia for whatever reasons. That was in 1991. Today after 21 years, that number must surely be more than 450,000 at the very least.

Just try asking any Malaysian Indian that you meet whether they know of anyone among their friends
or relatives who do not possess valid citizenship documents? Chances are, more often than not, their answer will be ‘Yes’. The numbers are that staggering!

At least once a week you will come across articles in the Tamil newspapers about an Indian family or individuals here and there who do not have MyKad and about Indian children who are unable to attend primary school because they have no birth certificate, etc.

Which political party or NGO is truly fighting for these stateless Malaysian Indians?

Which elected representative has brought this matter to parliament or requested for a Royal Commission on this humanitarian crime on innocent, poor people? What have you as an individual done about this?

Written by Dr Paraman Subramaniam