The Chinese ‘Third Force’ finally sees life

This is going to paint an entirely new scenario come the next election. MCA, MIC, Gerakan and Pakatan Rakyat are all fighting for Chinese and Indian support. But the Chinese and Indians are not impressed with political power (especially against the backdrop of an ineffective MCA, MIC and Gerakan and a not-going-anywhere DAP and PKR). They are only interested about anyone who can give them financial support, in particular for their education needs.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

While politicians and political parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan, DAP, and PKR, and movements like Hindraf, have been jostling and elbowing one another in trying to position themselves as champions of the Chinese and Indian communities, three leading Chinese tycoons have been quietly getting together without any fanfare to set up an education charity fund called the Community Chest.

The Community Chest, which will be dishing out RM200 million a year to support Chinese and Tamil-national type schools and mission schools throughout Malaysia will be managed by a Board of Trustees and chaired by Genting Malaysia chairman and chief executive, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay. And the funding for the Community Chest will come from Pan Malaysian Pools, which is being acquired for RM2.1 billion.

The Community Chest, the brainchild of the three prominent Tan Sris (Lim Kok Thay, Chua Ma Yu and Quek Leng Chan), are going to do what the politicians and political parties just talk about but can’t do -- finance Chinese and Indian education.

This has been brewing in the background for quite awhile and saw fruition a few days ago -- while MCA and Gerakan were busy threatening to leave the Barisan Nasional ruling coalition, Pakatan Rakyat was busy threatening to break up due to the conflict over the Hudud issue, and Hindraf was busy threatening to boycott the elections if it does not get the seats it is demanding.

Lim Kok Thay, Chua Ma Yu and Quek Leng Chan have pledged to plough back all the profits from Pan Malaysian Pools into the Community Chest. In other words, they are making this acquisition not for profit but to finance Chinese and Indian education needs.

This is one thing the Malays do not understand. The Malays have the impression that number one on the list of priorities for the Chinese is profit. Actually that is not so. Number one to the Chinese is education and these three tycoons have proven that.

This move suddenly makes political parties irrelevant. The Chinese are not concerned with political power. The Chinese politicians are, of course. But the man-in-the-street is more concerned with education and the Community Chest is just what the Chinese and Indians have been wishing for and is finally here.

This is going to paint an entirely new scenario come the next election. MCA, MIC, Gerakan and Pakatan Rakyat are all fighting for Chinese and Indian support. But the Chinese and Indians are not impressed with political power (especially against the backdrop of an ineffective MCA, MIC and Gerakan and a not-going-anywhere DAP and PKR). They are only interested about anyone who can give them financial support, in particular for their education needs.

Yes, say what you like, what we are seeing is the emergence of a new ‘Third Force’, a Chinese ‘Third Force’, that will command tremendous respect and goodwill from the voters.

RM200 million a year is no small potatoes. RM200 million a year will go a long way into helping the children of Chinese and Indians to get the education they need. Over the next ten years, that is going to come to RM2 billion, a colossal sum of money. And the fact that Lim Kok Thay, Chua Ma Yu and Quek Leng Chan have pledged not to take any of the profits but to plough back 100% of whatever they make into the education fund speaks volumes about their commitment to the needs of the Chinese and Indians kids.

My final word to the politicians, political parties and movements that claim to represent the interests of their communities, continue screaming. And while you scream and nothing gets done, people like Lim Kok Thay, Chua Ma Yu and Quek Leng Chan quietly go about meeting the needs of their community.

Now do you understand what I meant a year ago when I talked about THE THIRD FORCE?

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Genting to buy Pan Malaysian Pools for RM2.5bil?

(The Star, 5 July 2011) -- The market is again abuzz with speculation that Genting Bhd, whose businesses include gaming and leisure under Genting Malaysia Bhd in which the company has a 49.39% stake, is finalising the deal to acquire Tanjong plc's gaming unit Pan Malaysian Pools Sdn Bhd (PMP) for an estimated RM2.5bil.

While speculation of Genting having won the bid is not new, this time sources have told StarBiz that the deal was definitely going through.

“They'll be signing the deal on Thursday worth RM2.5bil,” a source said, adding that four persons were involved in seeing the deal through.

However, another source said Genting's bid has too many conditions and therefore the other bidders have been asked to resubmit their offers.

Besides Genting, Tanjong's gaming arm has attracted other bidders including Olympia Industries Bhd, the Rimbunan Hijau group controlled by Sarawak-based tycoon Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King, Ekovest Bhd executive chairman and co-founder Datuk Lim Kang Hoo, Filipino tycoon Roberto Ongpin and the Cheng family, who operates slot machines in Kuala Lumpur.

A third source said that while the structure of the deal was always important, that would not prevent the deal from going through. “From what I understand, this deal will go through,” he said.

Genting and Tanjong officials were unavailable for comment at press time yesterday.

PMP operates number forecast and race totalisator businesses as well as manages the 240-acre national stud farm in Tanjung Rambutan, Perak.

According to a gaming analyst, the impact on Genting would depend on the price. “A new entrant will intensify competition,” she said.

Besides PMP, which has a 24% market share in the numbers forecasting business, the other operators include Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd and Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd, which has 40% and 36% market share respectively.

Initial estimates from last year after Tanjong was taken private by T. Ananda Krishnan (who controls the company) last September valued PMP at RM2.3bil to RM2.5bil.

The decision to sell the gaming assets was to facilitate the entrance of other investors who could only invest in syariah-compliant businesses as Tanjong, which has a power-generation business, planned an expansion for this business.

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Malaysia's Tanjong sells stake in gaming unit for RM2.1 billion

(Reuters, 1 August 2011) -- A firm controlled by Malaysian tycoon Ananda Krishnan has agreed to sell its stake in gaming operator Pan Malaysian Pools to a consortium of businessmen for 2.1 billion ringgit, the Edge Financial daily reported on Tuesday.

The paper cited unidentified sources as saying the consortium taking over the number forecast operator from recently privatised Tanjong included gaming operator Genting CEO Lim Kok Thay.

Lim's share in the consortium stood at between 250 million to 300 million ringgit.

Others in the consortium included Quek Leng Chan who controls Hong Leong Bank and conglomerate Lion Group CEO and Chairman William Cheng.

Tanjong officials and members of the consortium were not immediately available to comment

The Edge said the group's bid for Pan Malaysian Pools included plans to list the firm on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. A local bank will provide the group with a RM 1.5 billion loan to fund the acquisition.

Pan Malaysia Pools controls a 24 percent market share in the number forecasting business that's dominated by larger rivals Berjaya Sports Toto and Multi-Purpose Holdings .

Selling off Pan Malaysian Pools is part of Tanjong's plan to become more syariah compliant as it seeks to expand its power generation business by tapping markets in the Middle East.