Dr M lobs 'bomb' at Badawi but fails to deflect focus from Tajudin's 'I was a proxy' claim

Former premier Mahathir Mohamad resorted to his tried and trusted tactics of lobbing the bomb back to his political enemies when cornered over the long-brewing and finally-burst Malaysia Airlines scandal involving disgraced tycoon Tajudin Ramli and former Finance minister Daim Zainuddin.

This time, the happy recipient of the Mahathir hand grenade was his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"The government lost money when it cancelled the double tracking and electrification between Johor Baru and Padang Besar - we lost about RM8 billion," an irate Mahathir told a persistent press.

"The press doesn't seem to mind, so you are being very selective in focusing on the wrongness of government decision."

Dr M has yet to explain this ...

The embattled 86-year-old was attending a youth function in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. He has come under heavy fire the past few weeks following news that Tajudin had submitted in his court documents that he was merely a "proxy" for Mahathir and had acted "under instructions".

"Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli’s claim that he was a proxy in the acquisition of MAS and acted under the instruction of the then Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad warrants an investigation of the highest urgency," said PKR leaders William Leong and Rafizi Ramli in joint statement on Thursday.

"The fact that agencies controlled by the government (including Danaharta and GLCs) chose to back down and reached an out-of-court settlement shrouded in secrecy will inevitably strengthen Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli’s claim that he was indeed just a proxy. If he was a proxy, who was then the real master who should be accountable for ruining the livelihood and economic future of tens of thousands of MAS employees?"

Today, despite Mahathir pointing the finger at Badawi, the PKR leaders were unimpressed and vowed to continue pushing for the "whole truth" to come out.

"That's not an answer at all. It is no laughing matter. We are shocked at Dr Mahathir's sleight of hand and urge him to behave with greater responsibility since a huge amount of the people's money has been burnt and answers must be forthcoming," Rafizi told Malaysia Chronicle.

Harks back to the 2001 Daim-Mahathir fallout

Tajudin has been at the centre of a barrage of lawsuits filed against him by various government agencies including national asset manager Danaharta and MAS itself. It is widely believed, that back to the wall, he had no choice but to reveal his ace card - the Mahathir factor.

It is well known and documented that in the 1980s, Mahathir began toying with the idea of creating a breed of Malay tycoons to stop the advance of the Chinese in the corporate sector. Daim was then his trusted lieutenant and had gathered together a coterie of young Malay talent including Tajudin, Halim Saad of the North-South Expressway and Rashid Hussain, founder of the RHB banking group.

However, except for Rashid, Tajudin and Halim soon found themselves choked by debt and the 1997-98 Asian Financial crisis all but crippled their businesses. Soon, even Daim was not able to help them and this had led to a fallout between him and Mahathir, resulting in Daim abruptly quitting as finance minister in 2001.

Just a day ago, when asked by reporters, Mahathir gave lame excuses as to why he should explain the MAS debacle. “I’m not in charge of MAS, how can I write a book? I can make some comments, that’s all,” said Mahathir.

'Tajudin will then be generous to the party coffers'

The former PM, who ruled Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, had been asked for his response to former Umno lawyer Zaid Ibrahim, who had called on Mahathir to come clean on Tajudin's shocking revelation plus the Najib administration's request to all the government agencies to immediately cease suing Tajudin.

“Since the settlement was conducted in secret, allow me to guess the terms of the deal: Tajudin was not required to pay a single sen to Danaharta or any of the GLCs; instead, the government will pay Tajudin RM6.5 billion (or half of what he had claimed). Tajudin will then be generous in his contributions to the party coffers for the upcoming general election,” Zaid had speculated on his blog.

According to PKR's Rafizi and William, MAS was a "pride of the nation" with RM600 million cash reserve when Tajudin took over in 1994, but ended up with accumulated losses of RM8 billion when he left in 2001.

The financial burden inherited from the accumulated losses during his time continues to cash a shadow over MAS’ financial performance in spite of successive business turnaround plans implemented since his departure.

Malaysia Chronicle