As expected, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also weighed in the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) saga, by demanding that Tabung Haji cancel its land purchase from an embattled 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
It is unfortunate that Dr Mahathir no longer has the same political clout as he once enjoyed. A word from him in the past would mean a few hundred people scrambling all over the place to get carry out his order, even if it was just a wish!
Calling it nothing more and nothing less than a “bailout”, Dr Mahathir has put at least two persons in an awkward position.
Cabinet minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan had earlier called PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli a “political clown”, for not being able to differentiate between an “investment” and a “bailout”; now, apparently, the Housing and Local Government Minister has to swallow his own words.
With the circus coming to town, we have to ask: “Will the real clown please stand up?” Those of us who have been watching the drama cannot help but applaud the clown of the day.
The old grandmaster of Malaysian politics himself has spoken, and he calls the decision to purchase the TRX land from 1MDB as a “bailout”. This is in the context of the 1MDB saga - which is indeed what it is, depending on which angle you are looking at.
Call a spade a spade. A bailout is a bailout. Tabung Haji would not be questioned if it had discreetly carried out fiduciary investigation before investing the public funds in some other Syariah-compliant money-making projects.
That, my dear politician sir, would have been a good investment!
I would have given Abdul Rahman the thumbs-up if the money, for example, had been wisely invested in some ‘Build-then-Sell (BTS)’ system of housing delivery, to help set the trend for other developers.
This is, after all, a promise that the government had committed would be implemented by 2015, but according to National Housebuyers’ Association secretary-general Chang Kim Loong, has been shelved by Abdul Rahman.
What official secrets?
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In the same breath, inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar had jumped the gun yesterday morning when he insisted that the police have the jurisdiction to investigate the expose under the infamous Official Secrets Act (OSA).
No questions asked about the immense power that the IGP has, but he should have at least kept his cool instead of stretching his men with an unnecessary workload investigating an issue that is of public interest like this.
If it had been an investigation to find out who leaked out some military strategy papers, or how some high-grade explosives had been smuggled out of the military depot, we can understand, but when public money is used by a government-linked body to purchase land from a troubled 1MDB, why did it have to be investigated under the OSA!
Anyone who subscribes to a high degree of integrity should by now congratulate the whistleblowers instead for exposing this ‘bailout’ before it is too late. Dr Mahathir has hit the nail on the head when he said: “Contributors hope that their money with Tabung Haji will be managed for their good, but the money is being used to rescue 1MDB, which has lost billions of ringgit.”
At least, Dr Mahathir is capable of understanding the reason why the people back this ‘expose’, when he asked, “Is this how Tabung Haji uses public money entrusted to it?”
Like any public listed companies, Tabung Haji is managing the people’s money. Therefore any major transaction that it has made in the millions should have been proactively declared openly; unless, of course, if the people managing the funds have things to hide, they should not even have stamped the documents under the OSA.
Any conflict of interest?
One of the ‘truths’ that emerged as the story unfolds - and credit goes to Umno Youth and Umno supreme council member Saifuddin Abdullah - is that at least three persons may be tainted by conflict of interest.
We certainly would like to know if there is indeed a conflict of interest in the deal, since Tabung Haji group managing director and CEO Ismee Ismail is also on the 1MDB board.
Besides him, there are also the other two named by Saifuddin, namely Ismee’s deputy in Tabung Haji, Johan Abdullah, who is also the chairperson of 1MDB subsidiary Edra Global Energy Sdn Bhd, and Abdul Samad Alias who sits on the Tabung Haji investment panel.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is also the Finance Minister as well as the chairperson of 1MDB.
If you have been entrusted with the people’s money, and you fail to carry out the fiduciary investigation, before making an ‘investment’ decision, does this not amount to breach of trust?
Since this is already happening to the Tabung Haji, I would be equally interested to know if the bailout would also involve money from the other institutions, in particular the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
Unless our country is run by some secret societies, it would be in the interest of the government under Najib to declassify any documents so that public interest is being served.
I, too, would not like to see our EPF money being used to rescue an ailing company. It is my retirement fund.
Dr Mahathir has been accused of burning billions of Ringgit in failed projects, and public funds have likewise been used to bail out some of these projects. We cannot afford to allow such a culture to continue, as though there is no end to our great wealth as a nation.
Heart-to-heart talk
In one of my previous articles, at least one Malaysiakini reader thought that I was bashing the Minister in the Prime Minister’s department, Paul Low.
While this is part of occupational hazard for a public servant, it was never my intention to lash out at Low after he expressed his dissatisfaction with Universiti Islam Antarabangsa for cancelling a seminar on moderation.
Except for a couple of comments where it was my personal opinion that Low (photo) appears to be still wasting precious pulpit time trying to justify his appointment to the cabinet over a year down the road, in my entire article, I was merely trying to prod Low and others in the cabinet to be up-front with the prime minister - and shake him up - over his lack of leadership.
This, I saw as the reason for this country being rudderless and we are leaving it to the little Napoleons to run the country at their whims and fancies.
Perhaps, it is time again for Low, who is in charge of integrity, to sit down for a good heart-to-heart talk with the prime minister. Selling 70 acres of land to 1MDB at RM194.1 million, and now, for another government-linked organisation, Tabung Haji to buy half an acre of the Tun Razak Exchange land for almost the same price (RM188.5 million), is certainly an issue of integrity.
Of course, some may argue the decision can never go wrong especially with prime land, but for this to take place using Tabung Haji funds, even Dr Mahathir himself has started to raise his eyebrows.
Perhaps, Low should look at the three names mentioned by Saifuddin to see if there is indeed an issue of integrity or lack of transparency involved. Is it a case of taking from the left pocket and putting into the right pocket, with no one to do the check-and-balance?
It is easy to conclude that the decision is above board, but it is the question of who made the decision and on what basis was the decision made, or whether the money could have given more yields if invested elsewhere instead of buying the land from 1MDB. In the first place, on what basis did the government sell the land at such a cheap price to 1MDB and was there a public tender?
Can Low even suggest to Najib that he should resign from his post as finance minister for the sake of check-and-balance?
If Najib listens, it is well and good; if not, there is no reason for Low or any other ministers to call it a day. As cartoonist, Zunar or Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque put it, even his pen has a stand.
We are reminded a long time ago, when the first prime minister of this country, Tunku Abdul Rahman, wanted some money for a project, the then-finance minister Tan Siew Sin (photo) had the boldness to tell him that there was no money in the coffer for such a project.
Back then, Tunku was not holding the post of prime minister and the finance minister at the same time. There was at least an independent finance controller, but since Dr Mahathir took over the post of finance minister after sacking his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, things have just gotten worse.
Time for a reversal, Dr Mahathir, no? We will see more abuses in future, if we do not put a stop to the rot.
Sometimes, it makes me wonder if the purchase of the land by 1MDB was all part of a bigger scheme, so that, when it gets into trouble, it will be able to bail itself out by selling away the land bank.
In the open market, had 1MDB put up the TRX to sell by open tender and allowing others to bid for the land, 1MDB would have avoided all the unnecessary brouhaha around its sale of TRX land to Tabung Haji.
Only time will tell, as more truths start to emerge. Meanwhile, let us pray that the 1MDB will not be like an octopus with its tentacles out there that could eventually cause the collapse of our financial system.
Over to you, Zeti Aziz as the governor of Bank Negara and Ambrin Buang as the auditor-general of this country. Will historians 50 years from now look at our generation and say we have done well to save the country from going bankrupt? - M'kini
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