IS DAIM BEHIND PARTI BEBAS RASUAH?

The irony of the whole thing is Tun Daim, the man who is said to be one of the most corrupt men in Malaysia, and Mahathir’s partner-in-crime who cost the country RM200 billion, is behind Parti Bebas Rasuah. This is almost like Zairil Khir Johari promoting family values and heading the movement opposed to adultery. So does that make Parti Bebas Rasuah parti bebas dari rasuah orparti bebas untuk rasuah?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In our previous articles — Ezam scams his party sponsor, yet again and The countdown to Ezam’s death — we wrote about how Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor received RM10 million to buy over the New Generation Party (NewGen Party), after which he was supposed to change its name to Parti Bebas Rasuah. Thereafter he would receive another RM90 million to finance the operation of the party until the next general election expected some time in mid-2018.

The novelty to this story is not just about Ezam short-changing the sellers of the party, how he tried to save money by faking the party EGM, how he fabricated the Minutes to that EGM, how he used a tile shop as the venue of that so-called EGM that never took place, and how he forged the signatures of the attendees, it is also about the irony of the party’s sponsor or financier.

Tun Daim Zainuddin, Ezam’s sponsor, is well-known as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s money-spinner. When Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the Finance Minister at the time when Mahathir took over as Prime Minister in 1981 became a threat, Mahathir replaced him with Daim. During a press conference Mahathir was asked why he chose Daim as his Finance Minister and the Prime Minister replied it was because Daim is his friend so he trust his friends. Anyway, who would appoint his enemy as his Finance Minister? quipped Mahathir.

On 17th February 2014, Malaysiakini published a series of articles titled ‘Daim, the Godfather of Corporate Malaysia’ (READ HERE). In that article Malaysiakini said:

“Collectively, the business activities of Daim’s known associates encompass nearly all of Malaysia’s key economic sectors. Along with his personal holdings and interests, in his heyday Daim was truly a formidable corporate entity whose reach extended everywhere. Although Daim claims that he does not actively participate in corporate activities, he is widely regarded as the most powerful figure in the Malaysian corporate scene, wrote academics Edmund Terence Gomez and Jomo KS in the late 1990s.”

The arrangement between Mahathir and Daim was simple. Mahathir runs the political activities while Daim runs the business activities. Together they control Malaysia’s politics and businesses. You need political power to make money and you need money to hold on to political power. So Mahathir and Daim needed each other and needed to function like Siamese twins.

The Daim-Mahathir tag-team that Time Magazine said cost Malaysia US$100 billion 

Basically, this means you cannot blame Mahathir without blaming Daim, and vice versa, for the estimated RM200 billion that Malaysia lost in the 22 years that Mahathir was Prime Minister. And this figure is mentioned in Barry Wain’s book, ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’.

Wain mentioned that Mahathir wasted about RM100 billion due to his bad economic policies (amongst them the Bank Negara Forex scandal, the Perwaja Steel Scandal, the Bank Bumiputera scandal, and the Maminco-Makuwasa scandal). However, Wain did not mention the estimated RM100 billion that Mahathir siphoned away and the RM60 billion more that Daim did so separately. In fact, most of Daim’s money is parked in his bank in Sierra Leone, a safe haven when you need to hide dirty money and not lose any sleep over it being frozen and returned to Malaysia.

Time Magazine quoted an economist at Morgan Stanley in Singapore as saying that the country might have lost as much as US$100 billion (about RM440 billion) since the early 1980s to corruption. Under Mahathir’s 22 years term, said Time Magazine, there were monetary losses amounting to more than RM100 billion, and this excludes those unaccounted for, and irretrievable (meaning the RM100 billion in Mahathir’s hands and the RM60 billion more in Daim’s hands).

Anwar promised to get back the RM60 billion that Daim stole if Pakatan Harapan ever comes to power

On 1st May 2013, Anwar Ibrahim said, “Saya maafkan Mahathir, tidak Tun Daim.” (READ HERE)

Anwar added, “Kalau aku dengar nasihat hang Tun Daim, aku pun sudah jadi bilionair macam hang. Saya hendak beritahu tuan-tuan, kita ambil alih kerajaan, semua harta yang diambil secara haram, harta rakyat, wang rakyat, kita pulangkan semula kepada rakyat.”

According to the DAP-led Pakatan Harapan, Anwar is going to be Prime Minister if they win the next general election. Anwar, on the other hand, condemns Daim and said if Pakatan Harapan comes to power he is going to confiscate or repossess everything that Daim stole. Daim, on the other hand, is financing Ezam. And Ezam wants his party to be a member of Pakatan Harapan.

How, exactly, does this whole thing work? Pakatan Harapan can’t seem to be able to make up its mind who are their friends and who are their enemies. Probably that is why Pakatan Harapan sees PAS as both an enemy and a friend at the same time.

Lokman revealed that Ezam jumped from Umno to PKR and then back to Umno and then to Pribumi and now to Parti Bebas Rasuah based on the highest bidder and who can offer him more

But then Ezam himself is as confused as the rest of Pakatan Harapan. This is what Lokman Noor Adam, Ezam’s one-time aid and confidante, said about him:

“I know Ezam well. He would not leave a Grade A government post unless he was made a better offer. I know this because in 2004 he made a last minute reversal of his decision to lead 12 (PKR) leaders to join Umno just because his demand to be made a deputy minister was rejected. The truth is Ezam did not leave Umno because of the Official Secrets Act or anything. He did it because of his own personal interests. His future is getting dimmer in Umno, dimmer because despite being handed everything on a silver platter, you still failed to convince Umno members to accept you.”

That was what the man closest to Ezam and the person who knows him well said. Ezam will do things only if the reward is big. Ezam joined Umno because of the money and position he was promised. He then left Umno and joined Mahathir’s PPBM or Pribumi for the same reason. When Daim promised him RM100 million he immediately left Pribumi to buy over the NewGen Party.

Initially, Kadir Jasin was supposed to be the person who would help bring Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak down. However, that does not seem to be working out and after more than two years Najib is far from being ousted. In fact, he is even stronger now than when they first started. And the July 2016 ‘US-DoJ’ fiasco was the last straw which convinced Daim that Kadir is not to be depended upon.

Kadir messed up the July 2016 United States Department of Justice exercise after wasting 8-10 months of planning and more than RM100 million to get Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch to announce they were filing a suit to recover US$1 billion of 1MDB’s money

They had spent 8-10 months and more than RM100 million planning the July 2016 United States Department of Justice exercise. It started with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announcing that the DoJ was filing a suit to recover US$1 billion of 1MDB’s money.

This was supposed to have been an ‘earth-shattering’ announcement but actually this was just a public relations exercise and at the end of the day nothing was really going to happen.

This public relations exercise also included press conferences in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. Ex-Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail, ex-MACC Chief Commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed, and ex-Bank Negara Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz (the three Tan Sri) would hold a press conference in Kuala Lumpur ‘revealing the truth’ and Mahathir would hold a similar one in Jakarta demanding that Najib resign.

Daim was supposed to coordinate matters, who then put Kadir in cage of the whole exercise. However, the plan got leaked and the whole thing got messed up and in the end nothing happened. In just a few hours Najib managed to neutralise the whole thing and demolished the plot even before it could take off. That was when Daim lost confidence in Kadir and decided to change horses and use Ezam instead. However, before anything can even begin, Ezam also messed everything up with his stupid moves. And now Ezam, too, is a dead man walking, just like Kadir, who Daim said is only good for seducing young girls.