`


THERE IS NO GOD EXCEPT ALLAH
read:
MALAYSIA Tanah Tumpah Darahku

LOVE MALAYSIA!!!


 


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

GENTING'S LIM KOK THAY, MAXIS' ANANDA SUCKED INTO NAJIB'S 1MDB QUAGMIRE? Dr M camp zooms in on RM6 bil debt

GENTING'S LIM KOK THAY, MAXIS' ANANDA SUCKED INTO NAJIB'S 1MDB QUAGMIRE? Dr M camp zooms in on RM6 bil debt
ALMOST all commentators attributed Mohd Najib Abdul Razak’s no show at the “Nothing2Hide” (N2H) city hall dialogue on June 5 to the presence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
They concluded that the Prime Minister feared being grilled by Dr Mahathir or, at the very least, the old fox received a more rousing welcome than himself.
As I have stated many times before, this is not about Mohd Najib vs Dr Mahathir. This is about seeking the truth about 1MDB, including the possibility of criminal act in the running of the company.
The following is my take on the event, which made news worldwide, and on 1MDB as a whole:-
1. The Prime Minister is not a debater. He is more like an orator. He loves to scream and shout, sometimes out of tangent, in front of large obedient audience.
2. Dr Mahathir, on the other hand is a debater and communicator. He has crossed sword with some of the region’s best debaters - the likes of Lee Kuan Yew and Devan Nair in the Malaysia Parliament as far back as 1964.
[These days parliamentary banters have become a rarity because few MPs are not genuine debaters and, in the case of government members, the Speaker regularly rescued them from embarrassing situation.]
3. Mohd Najib would have been clobbered not so much by Dr Mahathir but by members of the audience, reported to be some 1,000 of them. They were not the standard audience that Mohd Najib is used to in rural Pahang, Perlis, Sabah and Sarawak.
4. The real reason for Mohd Najib chickening out is Arul Kanda Kandasamy. His June 3 detailing of the 1MDB assets, liabilities and expenditures has made it impossible for Mohd Najib to wrangle his way out of the quagmire. Arul Kanda’s explanation gave the informed public the real basis to ask Mohd Najib at the dialogue, which he could not possibly answer without further incriminating himself.
Arul Kanda Spooks the PM
5. Take for instance buying ageing Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for RM12 billion and inheriting RM6 billion debts, making the total RM18 billion.
6. It is widely known that all or some of these purchases were over-priced despite the fact that the plants are old and their concessions running out. Only Jimah Power is a recent concession with its franchise ending 2033.
7. Arul Kanda, who became 1MDB’s President and Group Executive Director in January this year, told us that 1MDB inherited RM6 billion debts from the IPP purchase.
8. It is hard to believe that companies owned by two of Malaysia’s savviest tycoons – T. Ananda Krishnan and Lim Kok Thay (the scion of the Genting Empire) – would amassed so much debt when their power concessions were coming to an end.
9. The question is, could the RM6-billion debt had been “deliberate created” at the point of purchase in order to enable “excess” funds to be channeled out for political and other purposes?
10. The answer to this question can be extracted if the Public Account Committee of the Parliament (PAC) were to call people associated with the IPP vendors – the likes of Ananda, his right hand man Augustus Ralph Marshall (Tanjong Enery/Powertek) and Lim Kok Thay (Genting/Kuala Langat Power).
11. We all know that Ananda needs Mohd Najib’s “sovereign protection” in order to avoid from being sent to stand trial in India for alleged corruption.
[The Star newspaper reported on Aug. 30 last year that India’s federal police had filed charges against a former Indian minister, his media mogul brother, and a Malaysian tycoon over alleged corruption to help Malaysia’s Maxis group take control of an Indian mobile phone carrier eight years ago.
South Indian politician Dayanidhi Maran, who was India’s telecommunications minister between 2004 and 2007, his brother billionaire Kalanithi Maran, Malaysia’s second-richest man T. Ananda Krishnan and his aide Augustus Ralph Marshall, are among those named in the charge sheet filed in a New Delhi court, a police spokeswoman said.]
12. Mohd Najib may find it hard to justify selling prime government land cheaply to 1MDB – RM200 million for the 70-acre of Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) land in Jalan Tun Razak and RM400 million for 500-acre Bandar Malaysia i.e. the Sungai Besi RMAF base.
13. But it’s harder for him as Chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board, to justify purchasing 234 acres in Penang for RM1.1 billion just before the 2013 general elections, which according to Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, was 95 per cent above valuation two years earlier.
14. Issues pertaining to cost of finance and working capital (RM4.5 billion), foreign exchange cost (RM900 million) and taxation (MR400 million) could be too technical for Mohd Najib to answer.
15. The hottest potatoes of all are 1MDB’s cash investments abroad. It is here that Jho Low features prominently and where the biggest “silap mata” (sleight of hand) could have taken place to enrich certain parties.
16. There are many more issues in Arul Kanda’s revelation that Mohd Najib would not possible answer like those massive investments in Brazen Sky Limited (RM6.1 billion), Aabar Deposit (RM4.2 billion) and 1MDB GIL Fund (RM5.1 billion).
[So the best way out for the self-proclaimed Bugis blueblood was to play AWOL and, as a faint attempt to hide koro syndrome (Readhere), asked the dutiful Inspector-General of Police to declare the civil assembly unsafe.]
The Zeti, Arul Kanda Posers
Many questions have been raised about who Arul Kanda really is and what are his motivations for taking over the hot seat at 1MBD.
People who know him, including those who attended the Royal Military College (RMC) with him, said he was a bright student and an orator. He hailed from a good Ceylonese family from Terengganu. (More here).
Why is he staking his reputation by accepting the 1MDB job puzzles these people. Some ventured to link him to Ananda who is also of Ceylonese descent. What is Arul Kanda’s game plan, if any, can be determined by what question PAC members ask when he faces them.
Bank Negara Governor, Zeti Akhtar Aziz is in danger of losing public confidence and respect for extended silence on the 1MDB issue and her penchant for hiding behind banking secrecy and confidentiality.
Zeti's reputation is at stake
This is because Bank Negara had been openly dragged into the controversy by no less than Mohd Najib himself, when he said cash 1MDB was bringing back from Cayman Islands could not be remitted directly to Malaysia due to Bank Negara restrictions and had to be deposited in Singapore.
The cash, amounting to the US$1.103 billion (RM3.985 billion), had since metamorphosed into “asset certificates” and more recently, according to Finance Minister II, Ahmad Husni Hazadlah, had become “units”.
On May 26, Zeti confirmed that Bank Negara had received a report from its Singapore counterpart - Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) - on a complaint lodged by BSI about 1MDB’s account. BSI is the Swiss private bank where 1MDB deposited the Cayman Islands' proceeds.
Only after more than a week of receiving the MAS report that Bank Negara, on June 3, announced that it has commenced a formal enquiry to examine if there are any contravention of financial rules and regulations with respect to matters surrounding 1MDB. It does not help to raise our confidence when Bank Negara appears to be playing the game of catching up.
In the meantime the confidence in economy is waning, despite repeated assurance that our economic fundamentals are strong. The contagion effects of 1MDB are becoming more apparent.
On June 8, the ringgit fell to a nine-year low against the US dollar at RM3.772, which analysts blamed on sustained outflow of foreign funds from the equity and debt markets.
Zeti responded by saying that it is temporary and blame the “external environment”. She said emerging market currencies, including the ringgit, continue to be affected by external uncertainties, adding that ringgit is trading at levels that are not reflective of the fundamentals of the Malaysian economy.
It may all sound so clever. But in reality, the effects of the falling ringgit and the lost of confidence in Mohd Najib’s administration are already being felt by the rakyat. Strong economic fundamentals means nothing to them if they are not reflected by the stronger ringgit, net capital inflow, cheaper goods and services, rising income and ample jobs.
On the contrary the ringgit could fall to as low as RM3.90 or even RM4 to a dollar should the US decide to raise interest rates. - http://kadirjasin.blogspot.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.