Of Umno-BN and parasites in the economy and corporate Malaysia

In biology, a parasite is an organism that finds a host and in many cases sucks the life out of it. It has uncanny similarity to many other larger life forms that figure in the economy as well.

On the world scene, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States of being a "parasite" on the world economy by accumulating massive debts. "The USA is living in debt. It is not living within its means, shifting the weight of responsibility on other countries and in a way acting as a parasite," said Putin.

Over in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia in particular, the citizens are wondering what the fuss is all about. You see, Malaysia has long been infested with parasites.

Shipping parasites

Mirzan Mahathir’s Konsortium Perkapalan was a subject of controversy in 1998 when the MISC bought all its shipping assets for RM969 million to pay all its debt. After that deal, MISC immediately found itself in trouble and had to be bailed out by Petronas. The main reason why the consortium failed was because their board of directors consisted of parasites.

Almost all of them had their own businesses and they used the consortium to boost their businesses accordingly. One of them had a dry-dock facility for ship repair and refurbishment. The ships from the consortium were sent to his dry-dock whether the consortium ships were due for repair or not; just to ensure that the dock was fully utilized and of course, duly charged exorbitant costs.

Another member of the board had an import-export trade and the consortium’s ships were used to facilitate this business. Some alleged the normal profitable route plied by the consortium’s ships were diverted just to serve his business interest and were paid at below international market rates with term credit for their trouble.

Airline business parasites

Malaysian Airlines is also the same. We all know how MAS awarded the cargo service contract to company in Germany resulting in MAS encountering huge losses. The German cargo hub operations had caused MAS to suffer losses of between RM10 million and RM16 million a month before the project was terminated in 2001.The termination resulted in a RM300 million arbitration claim against MAS by the company alleged to be linked to Tajudin. We all know who owned the German cargo hub, right? Google if you still don't get it!

MAS was then infested with more parasites. Contracts were given to those who were connected; from the cleaning service, consumables, maintenance and even staff recruitment. One can just wait at the visitors’ centre, in front of the sprawling MAS complex in Sepang and watch; there will be all sorts of people, vehicles and trucks of various sizes supplying the needs of MAS. The guaranteed profitable food catering service was awarded to the ex-PM's own brother. And even with the new CEO put in place recently, some things just don't change. For example, that catering business is staying put.

Port parasites

As for the Port Klang Free Zone scandal, the parasites suck the Port Klang Authority dry. They all knew that the UMNO-BN government will surely bail them out because the entire Cabinet was involved. Several ministers had rushed to dip their hands in the RM12.5billion PKFZ honey pot.

Conglomerate of plantation, banking and oil & gas parasites

The Sime Darby conglomerate was also infested with parasites, but the board of directors refused to take the responsibility. They had the CEO Ahmad Zubir Murshid sacked and distributed some of the blame onto several of their top management for show. Ridiculously Sime Darby lost RM2.5 billion in oil and gas investments, at a time when this ought to be super profitable.

It also lost RM1.6 billion through Sime Bank. It went on losing about RM500 million every month in 1998. They explained all this to the public as ill-advised investment and breach of trust. Yet, aren't the people involved parasites and some of them are still in Sime Darby, lurking for the right time and opportunity to start digging and biting into the Sime Darby gravy train all over again.

Plantation parasites

There are parasites in FELDA too. There are already several court cases that have proven that FELDA had sucked the income of many settlers and more cases are in the pipeline. The parasites not only sucked FELDA funds dry but recently had to borrow RM6 billion from the EPF to cover up. The corruption-tainted Umno senior politician Isa Samad is now at the helm of FELDA. It looks like FELDA has now been infected by another parasite.

Cow parasites

The Gemas-Shahrizat Jalil family linked NFC debacle has been in the news of late. The NFC has been giving discounts to the various meat outlets and restaurants connected to the minister's business. Yet her Umno colleagues had the check to rush out and claim that this was alright. But alright by whose standards? The NFC also diverted some money to buy two condominiums. Again, Umno says this is fine. NFC has been infested with parasites and the Audit Report concluded correctly that the national beef projection project is indeed in "a mess".

Breeders of parasites

Now as long as the Umno-BN government is in power, parasites will continue sucking Malaysians of their tax money and their funds because they are the ones who have refused to clean up the GLCs and disinfect the Malaysian corporate world and economy from parasites. Instead, Umno-BN has brought in more parasites into the GLCs and the economy.

Could it be that this is because the Umno-BN government is itself the mother of all parasite breeders?

Malaysia Chronicle