Blood money for Death Railway used on MISC? Is that how Dr M 'spent' the funds?

The mystery surrounding a huge amount of compensation allegedly paid by Japan to the Malaysian government for victims of the Death Railway project took a twist with PAS demanding an explanation whether the money had been used to develop the Malaysia International Shipping Corporation (MISC).

PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man referred to a 2007 report carried by UMNO mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia quoting Ahmad Shabery Cheek, the then secretary at the Foreign Ministry as saying that the ‘blood money’ paid by Tokyo had been used to develop MISC.

Shabery, now the Youth and Sports minister, had also said that the government would not allow individuals and organisations to make direct claims of compensation from Japan.

“The victims are now faced with an even more unfortunate news when the money which was meant for them was said to be abused by the government to build Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad (MISC) as reported by Utusan in a report in 2007,” said Tuan Ibrahim.

Bukit Gantang member of parliament Nizar Jamaluddin (left) had previously claimed that some RM207 billion was paid by Tokyo to the Malaysian government for victims of the Death Railway, an ambitious project by the Japanese imperial government to link Thailand and Burma by rail through the use of forced labour.

Nizar later publicised two documents allegedly issued by the Attorney General’s Chamber and the Finance ministry to a non-governmental organisation representing heirs of the victims.

A Japanese embassy official in Kuala Lumpur has meanwhile denied knowledge of the RM207 billion compensation as claimed by Nizar, but had said that the two governments had agreed through an international deal reached in 1967 that Japan pay "blood money".

It also claimed that the compensation, in the form of grants and services worth some RM25 million to Malaysia, had been transfered "around 1970's or 80's".

-Harakahdaily