Will 'naughty' MACC probe offshore accounts?

YOURSAY 'We all know the government has no intention to obtain, and may even step in to prevent, such damaging information from their counterparts abroad.'

Politicians among 1,500 who own offshore companies

Not Confused: Is anyone seriously shocked by this ‘explosive' revelation (as far as well-heeled Malaysians are concerned anyway). It is common for those with wealth far beyond their means to use these tax havens - they all do it.

We are well aware that Malaysian politicians and their cronies are mostly corrupt to the core - so much for their Islamic principals.

Should Pakatan Rakyat take over in Putrajaya next month, there will be many years of hard work ahead to weed out those who have corruptly squirrelled taxpayers' money away to offshore accounts and to buy foreign assets. It's about time too.

Swipenter: Many believe that the ill-gotten gains made here are channelled out to these tax and ‘safe' havens and some of them are rechannelled back into the country disguised as foreign direct investments (FDI) and capital inflows to speculate on currency, land, property and Bursa Malaysia to make more money, as well as to wash the dirty money clean.

The suckers at the end of the day are the ordinary Ahmads, Ah Chongs and Muthus. They steal from the latter and also leave them holding the babies. Look at the prices of properties skyrocketing due to speculation and the casino-like nature of Bursa.

That is why the crooked elite politicians, their family members, their cronies, their friends and the politically well-connected are not only getting richer, but are becoming mega rich.

Look at the report coming out of London and elsewhere, where Malaysians are snapping up high-end properties like nobody's business. Who are these Malaysians?

No surprise if they are the same ones having secretive offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and so on.

Anon: This is nothing new. Many countries are centres for these offshore activities, including Cyprus. The purpose of setting up this type of company is to avoid tax for legitimate businesses.

However, for a politician, they may have other considerations, such as to hide their identity. In Malaysia, the people who make the most money are the people who pay the least taxes.

Jedi_Who: We can bet there would be no document trail of this money leaving Malaysia and ending up in these tax havens, indicating they were all illegal outflows.

ACR: Umno politicians give billion-ringgit projects to cronies using tax revenue collected from monthly deductions of the average Malaysians.

From these projects, they earn a few hundred million ringgit in ‘commissions' and park it in an offshore tax haven. Then they give BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia) of RM500 for each eligible Malaysian.

Then expired leaders like former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad would come and talk about ‘bangsa, agama dan negara' (race, religion and country) and how everyone would be worse off if BN loses the elections.

They only want Umno to reign, so that their families and cronies can continue their plunder.

Of course, some of those linked to the Umno gravy train will then come and write drivel on Malaysiakini's forums to state otherwise.

NoBN4me: The outflow of dirty money was at its highest during PM Najib Razak's reign. Najib was supposed to give a report as promised in Parliament but has deliberately failed to do so, because most of the pirates are his cronies.

Najib surely encouraged billions of ringgit to be siphoned out of the country. The RM500 handouts for the rakyat does not even cover this despicable piracy.

Rick Teo: Pakatan should get the list of those politicians and then proceed to haul them up after taking over Putrajaya. Those hauled up should explain their wealth accumulation and if found to be illegal, should be confiscated.

Anonymous #92005027: Most of the times I like to ‘hantam' (criticise). But this time let me tell you some things that many may not know. I have known Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin and work with him and his father for many years in the early 2000s.

I respect them because they are the most honest and sincere and hardworking Malay businessmen I ever met. His father is more than 90 years old but still go to work everyday. They are simple and thrifty, and have accumulated their wealth through many good private investments, such as OYL and Raza Manufacturing.

With their financial background, it is nothing wrong for them to have a offshore company bearing in mind it was common for big businessmen to have offshore companies in Labuan in the early 2000s. Unlike other politicians, Raja Nong Chik or his family do not need to go into politics to make money.

Ramachandran Muniandy: What about PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy Azmin Ali? Or the new recruit from Labuan, Ibrahim Menudin?

Don't tell me that Anwar is clean. All Umno, MCA and Sabah Umno members who have crossed to PKR are all thieves.

Better My: If the kampung (village) folks choose to ignore these or refuse to prise open further the Pandora's box of Umno greed, tax avoidance of the mega kinds, then only Allah can help them, as we surely can't.

If any opposition leaders or business leaders standing for Pakatan are involved in these mega frauds, then we demand that they resign now irrespective of whether they are 100 percent sure winners for Pakatan in the next GE, as we reject them totally.

And that includes the very top leaders in Pakatan.

Ahmed: Will "naughty and dishonest" Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) immediately commence investigations into all the possible non-reporting of income by these 1,500 offshore tax havens bank account holders?

Wira: The last sentence in this article epitomises the purpose of the writers: "Moreover, it is also up to the Malaysian authorities to decide whether to pursue the case and seek the necessary information from their counterparts abroad."

We all know that the government has no intention to obtain, and may even step in to prevent, such damaging information from their counterparts abroad.

Magnus: From the Guardian: "Anti-corruption campaigners argue that offshore secrecy forces citizens to pay higher taxes to make up for vanishing revenues, while anonymity makes it difficult to track the flow of money.

"A study by James S Henry, former chief economist at McKinsey & Company, estimates that wealthy individuals have US$21-$32 trillion tucked away in offshore havens - roughly equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.

"The offshore world is growing, said Henry, who is a board member of the Tax Justice Network, an advocacy group critical of offshore havens."

Think about it. Up to an estimated US$32 trillion squirrelled away in various tax havens without having paid tax on them in the countries where that income was earned/generated. That's US$32,000,000,000,000, by the way.

2 Tim 1:7: We ordinary patriotic citizens who work hard and dutifully pay our taxes are the suckers while the economic parasites, i.e. freeloaders and rent collectors, are blithely erecting Khufu Pyramid-sized offshore investments with money stolen from our nation's coffers.

Unless we unleash people power, we will never be safe from these robbers.

Foodforthought: Yes, what's revealed in this Malaysiakini report is just the tip of the iceberg. - Malaysiakini