Of magical licences, BN monopolies and Ananda's Astro

It is Malaysia’s most cut-throat monopoly. It is a company that raises prices as it likes, when it likes. It plays artful games with ‘packages’; shuffling them around until you’re not really sure what is what anymore. The objective is always clear though; Astro wants more and more money transferred to its coffers from your pocket.

And because Astro is a monopoly, there is little the subscriber can do about it. Astro pretends that you always have a choice. You can always not subscribe to Astro. That is not a choice. It is blackmail. It is arrogance. Choice means that you have a choice of satellite or cable providers that you can go to. Astro stops you from doing that by maintaining, in collusion with the politicians of the Barisan Nasional, a suffocating monopoly.

Rip off?

And what do you get for your money? Old movies. Low-quality movies. B-grade movies. Endless repeats. When it adds a new channel, you have to dig into your pocket to pay for it. For sports, you get the miserable Arena channel at 801. You want anything else, you pay for it. If you want something specific, forget it. Only populist programming is available. It’s not about making the customer happy, it’s about making as much money as fast as possible.

And programmes will be censored as it pleases Astro. Movies will be shortened. Sometimes they will be made entirely meaningless. The highly rated Game of Thrones was butchered. For anybody who has already seen it somewhere else, it would have been rendered unwatchable. Tyrion, that brilliant dwarf of a Lannister, may not curse. But then, he is not Tyrion, is he, if he does not curse? In fact, he was not even allowed to say ‘bastard’. Some half-wittted Astro censor cut his lines. Or it may have been Astro falling over itself trying to please that anachronism from another age of a BN Information Minister, Rais Yatim.

In fact, Malaysians do not need Astro at all. All we need is a satellite dish, which we do not have to purchase from Astro at all. The government makes it illegal to own such dishes and so we are stuck with Astro. Astro then gouges us for every penny, while the wretched BN government looks away.

Magical licenses

What we are paying to Astro is a tax that goes to Ananda Krishnan and his rumoured shadowy backers. Ananda Krishnan has interests in a diversified range of businesses, from Telecoms to Power to Gambling to Satellite Broadcasting. All his interests share a curious common factor. They need government licenses. The Government may approve licenses, it may reject them or it may pull them back at any time. Ananda Krishnan appears to have a magical touch in Malaysia for getting and keeping licenses. How does he do it?

Recently, he has been accused by the Indian CBI of paying bribes to India’s Telecom Minister to gain control; in a most B-grade villainous way; of an Indian Telco, Aircel. He is expected to be questioned soon by the CBI. There are already calls for the Telecom Minister he is alleged to have bribed, Dayanidhi Maran, to be arrested.

The fact that he is being investigated should already be reason for Ananda Krishnan to be investigated in Malaysia. Even more so considering his much too cosy relationships with the ruling BN Ministers. Or his relationship with Mahathir, whose son, Mokhzani, sits on the board of Maxis, the company that is alleged to have indulged in corruption in India. Yet no investigation has been launched by any of Malaysia’s many investigative agencies against him.

Ananda will throw his weight behind BN

Maxis has provided what can only be described as disingenuous answers to the CBI’s many questions. Suspiciously, The Star, a government-controlled paper has been acting as Ananda’s apologist over the past few days. Ananda is portrayed by The Star as a poor Malaysian businessman victimized by India’s feuding politicians. A ludicrous notion to any who are in the know, and a sure sign that Malaysia’s BN government plans to protect him.

It will be in Ananda’s interest to keep the BN in power. All over the world, big businesses keep their preferred administrations in power by bankrolling them financially. It is high stakes for Ananda. He needs the BN, he needs their protection.

Most of his customers, though, whether subscribing to Astro or Maxis or both, are from the urban areas and the ‘middle’ Malaysia which abhors the BN and its undemocratic, ham-handed, tactics. It is indeed ironic that their money, in whatever form, is used to prop up the BN.

If the BN wins another election, they will be here for five more years. Five more years that the country really cannot afford. And five more years of paying unjustifiable, exhorbitant, cut-throat rates to an insatiable Astro.

Malaysia Chronicle