Dr Mahathir: Plan to open up economy won’t help

KUALA LUMPUR— Former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has dismissed the efforts of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to liberalise the economy, saying they were “not going to help anybody”.

The plan seemed designed to make Najib popular, said Dr Mahathir, adding: “It will not help the Chinese, Malays or Indians.”

Dr Mahathir was asked to comment on Najib's steps to open up the economy to make it more attractive for foreign investors.

The steps included relaxing a host of restrictions on foreign investment, including a rule requiring businesses to be partly owned by Malays.

Listed companies will no longer be required to allocate 30 per cent of their stake to Malays as part of an affirmative action programme for the country's Malays.

Among other measures were allowing stock brokers and unit trust management companies 70 per cent foreign ownership, up from the current level of 49 per cent.

Najib also announced a government private equity fund to invest in high-growth industries and promote Bumiputera ownership of Malaysian businesses.

Najib said the Bumiputera rule for companies was neither benefiting poor Malays nor sustainable amid the global economic slowdown, which would force Malaysia into its first recession in a decade.

But Dr Mahathir was not impressed.

“I think it's a kind of move more designed towards becoming popular. I don't know if it will help the economy, because Malaysia has been growing since independence,” The Star newspaper on its website quoted Dr Mahathir as saying.

“Now that there is a lack of growth, this is due more to external reasons. It's not about internal things,” he told reporters.

He also said Malaysia should be cautious of foreign investors keen on total ownership of fund management companies as they “owed no loyalty to the country”.

“They are here to make money. When they can't make money, they go out and we pay the price,” he was quoted as saying.

He asserted the potential hazard of capital flight should investors no longer find the Malaysian market lucrative saying: “In some instances, they come to build factories and produce things for export. Well, that's fine. But when they can openly go into the market, well, that's not good,” he said. — Straits Times

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Owen sign up with Manchester United

Michael Owen looks set for a surprise move to Manchester United, after having a medical on his knee on Thursday. The striker will then have a full medical on Friday ahead of signing a pay-as-you-play deal with the Premier League champions.

Empics

Michael Owen: A free agent

The England international is without a club following the expiry of his contract with Newcastle United and it appeared only Stoke City and Hull City were interested in offering him a contract.

But now it appears Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to snap up a player who is fourth in the all-time goalscorers list for his country.

Newspaper reports suggest the contract will be purely incentive based, depending on minutes played and goals scored.

Sir Alex tried to sign the player - a boyhood Everton fan - as a teenager but instead he opted, on the advice of his father, to pen a contract with Liverpool where he scored 118 goals in 216 games.

United have been searching for a new forward since the departure of Carlos Tevez at the end of his loan deal. They had been linked with the likes of Karim Benzema and David Villa, but now it seems Owen will be arriving.

The 29-year-old suffered an injury-ravaged time at St James' Park but still managed to score 10 goals as the Magpies dropped out of the Premier League.

The former Liverpool and Real Madrid striker will be hoping a move to Old Trafford will push him back into the thoughts of England coach Fabio Capello ahead of next summer's World Cup finals.

United, meanwhile, have sent 20-year-old Brazilian-born midfielder Rodrigo Possebon on a season-long loan to Portuguese side Braga. (ESPN)

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Najib agreed to drop Azim as BSN chairman after Bank Negara objection

KUALA LUMPUR — Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi's contract was terminated prematurely due to conflicts with his political career in Umno.

The Malaysian Insider understands that Bank Negara does not favour politicians serving on the board of directors of banks and that the prime minister, who is also finance minister, agrees with this view.

BSN is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance and is regulated by Bank Negara.

According to Azim, he was supposed to serve until the end of this year but Bank Negara only allowed him to stay until the end of June, which is just after his term as vice-president of the World Savings Bank Institute ended in May.

Azim was Umno treasurer until April this year when he was replaced with Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah. He is also Bukit Bintang Umno division chief.

When contacted, Bank Negara said it does not comment on individual banks but that board appointments are governed by the Development Financial Institutions Act 2002.

The legislation does not explicitly say that the chairman cannot hold a political position but gives Bank Negara the discretion to prescribe additional criteria "as in its opinion expedient for the purpose of protecting the interests of the prescribed institution, its stakeholders and the general public."

When contacted, Azim said that Bank Negara's stand against politicians serving as bank directors is nothing new but he was not in favour of the policy. He was confident that without Bank Negara's intervention, he would have been able to serve as chairman for several more years.

"Bank Negara has been trying to get rid of me for quite some time but I managed to stay on. You should not penalise someone for being in politics," he told The Malaysian Insider.

"If you have someone with the experience, who is capable, who can discharge duties responsibly. You can ask Bank Negara to do an audit. I transformed BSN. I have not been involved in giving out contracts and all that. It is not whether a person is political or not. It should all rest on capabilities, whether that person can bring progress and change."

According to Azim, a banker since 1984, no successor has been named and that he was not asked by Bank Negara to choose between being a politician and continuing as chairman.

He also defended his record at the bank, pointing out that when he joined the bank in 1999, profits after tax were only RM9.5 million but over RM160 million last year.

Azim was appointed Umno treasurer by former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2004. He is also involved in a legal battle with civil activist Raja Petra Kamarudin over two articles written by the latter last year.

Azim was awarded RM1 million in libel damages by the Kuala Lumpur High Court after Raja Petra failed to appear in the civil proceedings to file a statement of defence.

He has also been named in the ongoing Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal as the chairman of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd, the main developer of the transshipment project. (TMI)

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