by Wong Choon Mei
Amid growing concern that Malaysian taxpayers have again been
taken for a ride by the UMNO elite, Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim ticked off
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz for allegedly
instructing Government-Linked-Companies or GLCs to withdraw lawsuits filed
against for MAS chairman Tajudin Ramli.
Among the affected GLCs wereTelekom Malaysia Bhd, Naluri
Corporation, Celcom (M) Bhd, Atlan Holdings Bhd, Pengurusan Danaharta Bhd,
Malaysia Airlines and Duta Skyline Bhd.
These firms had sued Tajudin for losses
suffered by MAS amounting to billions of ringgit, and there is concern that
with a stroke of pen, Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration was bailing
out fallen tycoon Tajudin.
"Such orders should have come from the Minister of
Finance and not Nazri as this concerns GLCs. The government said it had a
strong case against Tajudin involving billions of ringgit in filing the suit.
It is a disturbing," Anwar, a former Finance minister, told reporters on
Thursday.
The
UMNO elite
UMNO is the dominant party in the BN coalition,
providing all 6 of the country's prime ministers since 1957. A party of over 3
million members, it operates on a largely feudalistic style with power tightly
held in the hands of a few elite families, including Najib's and former premier
Mahathir Mohamad's.
On the back of this latest escape route for Tajudin is the
secrecy-shrouded MAS-AirAsia deal, wherein national investment firm Khazanah
swapped its 20.5 per cent stake in MAS for 10 per cent in AirAsia. Analysts
have been mixed in their responses, with some insisting it benefited AiAsia and
some who say it was a bailout for MAS. Whichever it is, the deal lacked
transparency and shares in AirAsia plummeted, while MAS stock shot up more than
18 per cent.
Given the huge complexity of the swap, it is not clear yet
who really benefited but already many say they smell corruption and improper
benefits in the deal praised as a "very good idea" by Mahathir,
former Trade minister Rafidah Aziz and Najib himself. There is speculation that
the 'spoils' have already been carved out and agreed on by these UMNO bigwigs.
It is also telling that
Munir Majid, the former MAS chairman who initiated the suit against Tajudin,
had resigned effective July 31, 2011. He was MAS chief since 2004. Meanwhile, Anwar has appealed to the
authorities, including the Securities Commission, to sieve through the
transaction to ensure utmost transparency.
"More importantly, the deal raises the question as to
what is the fate of the GLC Transformation Programmes that had been launched by
the Prime Minister Najib Razak with much fanfare and wastage of millions of the
rakyat’s money. And is the government specifically admitting that the so-called
successful turnaround of MAS was a mere charade? The Prime Minister must be
held accountable for misleading the rakyat on this," said Anwar in a
response to the swap.
"This deal also raises fundamental issues of
transparency because of the secrecy in which it was shrouded. In this regard,
the Securities Commission must investigate the possibility of irregularities
including insider trading of the shares of both entities."
The
Daim Boys
A news portal had reported earlier on Thursday that
Nazri had issued letters to the GLCs, informing them that the Finance ministry
had agreed to settle out-of-court all outstanding civil suits against Tajuddin.
"This is to inform you that the government of Malaysia
and the Finance Ministry has agreed to settle all civil claims against Tan Sri
Dato Tajuddin Ramli (left) and others to be withdrawn immediately in view of
the fact that the government and the Finance Ministry have agreed that the said
cases will be settled out of court. For your information the government has
given me the mandate to act for the government in this matter," Malaysian
Insider had quoted Nazri as saying.
It is believed that both the BN government and the GLCs will
negotiate for a global settlement with all the parties involved in the Tajudin
lawsuits. Some of the matters which had come up before Federal Court judge Md
Raus Shariff on Thursday have been deferred to September 29 for case
management pending settlement.
Tajudin is one of the coterie of Malay tycoons given special
privileges by Mahathir who said he wanted to create a special speed of Malay
entreprenuers to crimp the Chinese dominance in corporate Malaysia. But soon
after it was implemented, the plan succumbed to massive corruption, with many
pointing the fingers at Mahathir and his finance minister of that time Daim
Zainuddin as benefiting the most from the program.
When asked about the
MAS-AirAsia deal, Mahathir not only insisted it was a "very good
idea", but that "AirAsia can learn about the experience
of MAS and MAS can learn how to reduce costs as done by AirAsia."
Source : MC
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