Death Wish 6: The Rakyat’s Wrath

 

Hence most Malaysians are going to assume that Rafizi Ramli was arrested and charged not because of the NFC fiasco but because of the George Kent expose (or both). If I were one of Najib’s advisers I would not allow the George Kent contract award and the arrest of Rafizi Ramli to happen back-to-back. In fact, I would not even touch Rafizi Ramli lest the people link that episode to the George Kent expose.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Ticket to ride for cronies?

Bahaman Borhan

How on earth did a company that makes water meters and whose biggest project was RM40 million get the lucrative RM1 billion-odd contract for the Ampang LRT extension?

Why on earth did the Treasury choose the company and its partners after they failed both the technical and commercial evaluations phase for the tender?

How on earth can Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad announce the George Kent-Lion Pacific joint venture as the award winners after its technical committee recommended two other companies for the Ampang LRT Line Extension Project (LEP)?

Is this a crony deal as claimed by PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli? He has been at the forefront in exposing details of the deal despite denials from the authorities that the contract was already decided.

He was proven to be right yesterday when Prasarana announced that the George Kent joint-venture got the deal.

What can we make of this? That the Barisan Nasional (BN) government prefers to deal only with friendly parties who might not have the technical know-how and fail all evaluations, over those who have the technology and charge a lower price?

What does that say to international companies bidding for projects in Malaysia? That they still have to go through local front companies and commission agents who play golf with the right people to get projects? Or are contracts bloated so that they still go to international companies for the right sum, with the extra pocketed by the crony and split with some who have a say in awarding the contract?

I have always believed in the BN when it says that it was for development and progress. That its leaders are selfless and think of the people, which is why Kuala Lumpur needs a better public transport system using rail.

But the Ampang LRT deal and the various awards in the MRT project suggest that these infrastructure projects are just cash-cows for cronies who can jack up prices and win contracts even if they don’t know a thing about railway technology.

Can you trust someone who makes water meters to install a signalling system for a railway line? Was there any thought given to safety considerations? Or will the winning bidder just offer the project to his competitors and take his cut?

Is this how rotten and brazen it has become in Malaysia under BN? Can Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak explain that this deal is above board and was based on recommendations by Prasarana and the Treasury committee that decides the awards?

After all, the police are investigating the documents shown by Rafizi under the Official Secrets Act. So the documents must be genuine. And his claims could be true. Only Najib and Prasarana can tell us differently.

But I doubt they can. The Ampang LRT deal is a ticket to ride for cronies and not for Malaysians.

We’re being taken for a ride to enrich the select few, including a water-meter maker. -- The Malaysian Insider

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Over 20 years from 1974 to 1994, five Death Wish movies were made -- Death Wish (1974), Death Wish II (1982), Death Wish 3 (1985), Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), and Death Wish 5: The Face of Death (1994).

Today, Malaysia just made the sixth sequel to these series of movies -- Death Wish 6: The Rakyat’s Wrath.

Well, how else would you describe the situation when they announce that George Kent, a company owned by Tan Kay Hock, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s golf partner, won the Ampang LRT Line Extension Project (LEP) the day before Rafizi Ramli is arrested and charged?

Did you also notice that George Kent’s shares went up?

Now, why did George Kent’s shares leap? Why, because it won this very lucrative job, of course, so people are rushing in to buy up George Kent’s shares.

Does it matter that there may be an element of corruption or cronyism in George Kent getting this contract? Really, I want to ask you, does it matter? If it matters then why would we want to buy George Kent’s shares?

Buying George Kent’s shares is about making money, not about doing the right thing. Of course, the right thing would be to boycott George Kent’s shares. We should sell whatever shares we have in George Kent to push the price down. That would be if we were concerned about cronyism, corruption, abuse of power, etc.

But in this situation it is not about being outraged about cronyism, corruption or abuse of power. It is about making money. Hence we buy George Kent’s shares and help push the shares up. And if you know Tan Kay Hock then you would know he will sell some of his shareholding and will laugh all the way to the bank. Then, once the shares go down again, he will go back in and buy the shares at a lower price.

Look, when people are buying, this means there must be people who are selling. If no one is selling then how can you buy? You need people to sell before you can buy. And amongst those who are selling would be Tan Kay Hock himself.

And that is how you make money in the stock market. You sell high and buy low. That is so fundamental. Any fool will know that and Tan Kay Hock is no fool. He would not be where he is if he were.

So, while you are focusing on the massive project that George Kent got and while you calculate how much money George Kent is going to make, that is not where the real money is. Of course, George Kent is going to make money on the project. I am not saying they are not. But the real money is going to be made in the buying and selling of George Kent’s shares.

And this has been Tan Kay Hock’s modus operandi since way back in 1981 when he first entered the market and played the corporate game. To Tan Kay Hock, it is not about making profits on contracts and projects. No doubt he wants to make money on projects and contracts. That is the whole purpose of doing business in the first place.

However, winning large contracts and making huge profits is secondary to Tan Kay Hock. He wants to win these contracts so that he can announce that he has won these contracts and also announce how much profit he expects to make even before he makes the profit -- which he has done. Then the shares of his company will jump -- as what he wants and which has happened. He then sells his ‘surplus’ shares, which are parked under nominees, when the shares go up.

But what goes up must always come down again, especially when the selling exceeds the buying. And when it goes down again he goes in and picks up the shares at half the price he sold them.

The company will make money on the projects and contracts, no doubt. But that profit belongs to the company, not to Tan Kay Hock. Tan Kay Hock makes his money on the buying and selling of his shares. And this has always been how Tan Kay Hocks makes his money. That is his modus operandi. That is the mark of Tan Kay Hock since way back in 1981. And Tan Kay Hock would not be Tan Kay Hock if he does not do this.

What is puzzling, though, is that the same people who are screaming ABU and shout that we need a change of government so that we can wipe our corruption, abuse of power, cronyism, nepotism, etc., are helping Tan Kay Hock with his game plan. Instead of boycotting George Kent’s shares or selling them to push the share price down so that Tan Kay Hock’s game plan will fail, all these people are helping to push George Kent’s shares up.

Yeah, right, ABU, change the government, and all that bullshit. Then, while we scream and shout we go and buy George Kent’s shares and help Najib’s golf partner makes tons of money, the same money which will be used to fight the opposition in the coming general election.

Anyhow, I am digressing, as usual. But then that is what being cheong hei is all about. What I want to talk about today is actually the made-in-Malaysia drama called Death Wish 6: The Rakyat’s Wrath.

Does Najib have a death wish? The government arrests and charges Rafizi Ramli the day after the announcement of George Kent’s ‘success’ is made. Talk about poor timing. Who planned this? Did Najib’s office plan this? Or were the people in Najib’s office caught sleeping?

You must remember that Tan Kay Hock announced George Kent was going to get the contract even before the government confirmed it. Tan Kay Hock announced it as a fait accompli. And Rafizi Ramli was the person who made a hue and cry over the matter soon after Malaysia Today exposed it on 17th June 2012 in an article called Well, Najib, what do you have to say about this? (READ HERE)

Hence most Malaysians are going to assume that Rafizi Ramli was arrested and charged not because of the NFC fiasco but because of the George Kent expose (or both). If I were one of Najib’s advisers I would not allow the George Kent contract award and the arrest of Rafizi Ramli to happen back-to-back. In fact, I would not even touch Rafizi Ramli lest the people link that episode to the George Kent expose.

People already knew that George Kent was going to get the project. Not many believed they would not get it. And most believed that George Kent was going to get the project because of Tan Kay Hock’s links to Najib. There is no way you can erase this perception. Now people believe that Rafizi Ramli is being persecuted because he took on the George Kent issue as his personal crusade.

As I said: does Najib have a death wish? And Death Wish 6, the sequel to the five Death Wish movies, would certainly be aptly called The Rakyat’s Wrath.

As I said before, the coming general election is not going to be about who is going to win it but who is going to lose it. Both sides, Barisan Nasional as well as Pakatan Rakyat, are blundering like hell. And the one who is going to win the election would be the one who makes the lesser blunders. In other words, we are talking about a win by default. You do not actually win but the other side loses and allows you to win by default.

At the moment, though, it appears to be a tie. And that is why the coming general election is going to be the most interesting general election in Malaysian political history. We are not going to see the emergence of a winner but the exit of the loser. And today’s score would go to Pakatan Rakyat.