Pua slams government ‘bailout’ of Syabas

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — DAP chief economist Tony Pua slammed what he described today as an unjustifiable “bailout” of another private company with close ties to the government, this time involving the Selangor water supply company Syabas.

A press statement issued by the Malaysian Rating Company (MARC) yesterday revealed that Syabas, while in financial distress, has been given the AA rating after news that it will receive RM330 million from the federal government.

The statement added that the loan will be unsecured and interest-free and is expected to be given to Syabas by year-end.

The money will be used to repay Syabas' outstanding debts and rectify its cashflow problems.

Speaking to a press conference at Parliament lobby, Pua (picture) expressed shock at the revelation made by MARC and said that the bailout could not have come at a worst time.

"This is a shocking development and we must ask the federal government why it is using taxpayers’ monies to provide life-support to a private company?

"Even when the government forked out RM4.6 billion in soft loans to Port Klang Free Zone, which is a 100 per cent government entity, a 4 per cent interest rate was charged," said Pua, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP.

PAS central committee member and Kuala Selangor MP Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, who was also at the press conference, said the interest-free loan is akin to giving a Christmas present to Syabas.

"Syabas has been given a present in the form of lucrative loan terms by the federal government which is now a Father Christmas," he added.

Syabas is currently at loggerheads with the Pakatan Rakyat-led Selangor government over water supply rights in the state.

The Selangor government is attempting to take over the rights in its bid to restructure the water industry as part of its promise to provide cheaper water to its electorate within the state.

But the Barisan Nasional-led federal government seems keen on awarding the contract to Syabas despite the company's ailing finances, and Pua and other opposition lawmakers want to know why.

"We will make a last-ditch appeal to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to intervene to revive the water restructuring exercise under the state government to ensure that the rakyat's interest is fully protected," said Pua. (TMI)
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Dr M transformed BTN to a super-racist agency, says former director

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 — Former National Civics Bureau (BTN) director now turned PKR leader Datuk Johari Abdul (picture) claimed that it was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who made the body a full-fledged racist indoctrination agency, contradicting the former premier who has gone all-out to defend BTN and deny that the body was used by Umno to sow racial hatred.

Speaking at a forum organised by PKR tonight, Johari claimed that prior to Dr Mahathir’s ascendancy as the prime minister, the body, not yet called the BTN, was initially used to counter the influence of anti-establishment Islamic movements in universities in the 1970s.

At the time, the body was headed by another former prime minister, Dr Mahathir’s arch-rival, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He was not yet a politician at the time but a government officer.

“And when Abdullah became a full time politician, the body officially became BTN and its purpose was to raise the confidence of Malay students who were doing badly academically by instilling ideas like ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy),” said Johari who is also MP for Sungai Petani.

But when Dr Mahathir became prime minister, Johari said the former premier, whom he described as a “shrewd politician”, made full use of the BTN and turned it into a complete Umno-Barisan Nasional (BN) indoctrination machinery to maintain Malay loyalty to the status quo.

“One of the courses (under him) was that the Malay participants were taught to defend the Umno-BN government at all cost. If the Umno-BN government falls, than the Malays are made to think that the Malays would be enslaved in their own country.”

“And then it got worse when (PKR de facto leader) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked by Dr Mahathir after a fall-out in 1998 and the BTN was then used to demonise all opposition leaders,” he added.

The PKR leader claimed he was speaking from personal experience as a former director of the agency.

And being a former director and also an Umno man, Johari admitted that he too at one point believed in the teachings of the BTN, and its supposed objective to help the Malays but has since “repented.”

“You know within your conscience that there is something wrong somewhere..it is wrong,” he said.

Johari said however that to be fair there was nothing wrong with the agency itself but that it was the syllabus that needed a revamp. He also said that Umno, as a political entity, has the right to do its best to edge out its political rivals.

“But don’t use taxpayers money for that. Finance your own programme,” he said.

The government had allocated RM64 million under the 2010 Federal Budget for BTN and the opposition is currently doing its best in Parliament to get BTN closed.

So far, some influential Umno leaders like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and Minister in the Prime Minister Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, have joined in the rising chorus against the agency.

Nazri had also blasted Dr Mahathir as a racist for defending BTN while Razaleigh claimed he too was a victim of the programme when he went against the former premier in the late 1980s.

But the hawks in Umno, through its newspapers like Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia, have come out to defend BTN and blast its critics as attempting to politicise the issue. (TMI)
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Negri MB’s RM10m tip of hot money iceberg

Mohamad is alleged to have sent RM10 million to London through a money changer. — File pic

By Lee Wei Lian

KUALA LUMPUR Dec 4 — When aides to the Negri Sembilan mentri besar sent RM10 million to London via a money changer recently, they were just following in the footsteps of many who have sought the hawala system to move ill-gotten gains and wealth to more secure locations.

Apart from flouting exchange laws and possibly the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the trail of money outside the country betrays a lack of confidence in the future of Malaysia as they are basically transferring funds outside the country through underground channels.

The Malaysian Insider understands that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is unlikely to charge any of them because the list contains a number of prominent Malaysians, including top businessmen, chiefs of some government-linked companies (GLCs), politicians and several ordinary people either sending money for their children's needs abroad or just plain distrustful of Malaysia's future.

And the list is too long as BNM has discovered that these well-heeled tycoons, cutting across all racial lines, and the rest have been using the network of Indian-Muslim money changers across the world to remit millions of ringgit every month to offshore accounts.

The only thing BNM has done is to cancel the licences of the money changers, with some 40 licences taken back this year.

The case came out in the open when Batu MP Chua Tian Chang revealed that Negri Sembilan MB Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan had used Salamath Ali money changers in KLCC Suria to send RM10 million to London. The money changer lost its licence and its shoplot is now closed, ostensibly for renovations.

Several Indian-Muslim money changers and opposition leaders say Mohamad's transfer is just one of many transacted daily to move millions of ringgit to "safe havens" abroad, potentially depriving the nation of capital and breaking local laws in the process.

Chua, who is also PKR strategy chief, told The Malaysian Insider he has access to a list of high-profile personalities who used the money changer transfer services, also known as hawala as practised in India.

He claimed among them is a senior minister's wife who allegedly had money transferred to her overseas and a major GLC chief who apparently moved £3.2 million (RM18 million) worth of funds to London.

But Chua said that he will not reveal the names until he is "absolutely sure".

“This is only the tip of the iceberg," Chua said. "Millions of dollars are going out and I think it is affecting the economy."

Money changers say however that authorities should not focus on the hawala system but rather on why some politicians have access to so much money and moving it abroad.

"We are just doing a service and the commission is very little," said a prominent money changer in central Kuala Lumpur.

Others added that it will be difficult to prove that the money has moved as transactions are in cash and politicians will not appear in person at the money changer but send runners to do the deed.

In Mohamad's case, he blamed the RM10 million transfer on an aide who chose Salamath Ali Money Changer, which later had its licence revoked on Oct 26 for contravening Section 30 of the Money-Changing Act 1998 which states that no licensee may remit or transfer funds outside Malaysia.

The hawala system has been described as a "subsystem" of the conventional banking system. It is run on trust where money given to a money changer in one country will be paid out by a money changer in another with just one phone call.

This network of money changers will settle outstanding debts later using coded chits or notes via their own clearinghouse system which could involve contra of funds, exchange of jewellery or even runners moving bags of cash.

The use of hawala in Malaysia grew after capital controls were imposed in the wake of the 1998 Asian financial crisis where the movement of large sums of money to locations outside Malaysia required Bank Negara's approval.

Some individuals also prefer it as it is cheaper and faster than using conventional banks and leaves no trail.

The United Nations had promised to eradicate hawala as a potential conduit for financing global terrorism and crime and Bank Negara has been quietly working to ensure the integrity of the local banking system particularly the independent money changing system.

In April this year, Bank Negara revoked the licences of 19 money changers and another 20, including Salamath, in October.

The list of money changers whose licences have been revoked can be found here. (TMI)

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