MMC Port Holdings is the largest Malaysian port operator on the Strait of Malacca - through which approximately 25 percent to 40 percent of global trade and over 20 million barrels of oil daily travel, making it as geopolitically significant as the Strait of Hormuz.
As of an internal memo dated July 12, the new executive chairperson of MMC Port Holdings is Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (Sultan is his given name, not a title. I will refer to him as “Ahmed” for convenience), of the United Arab Emirates.
There was no announcement of this appointment. The news emerged only because Reuters obtained the memo and reported on it on July 15.
The memo stated that former group chief executive officer Azman Shah Yusof had "ceased to serve" with immediate effect. No reason was given. All matters previously routed to the Group CEO would now go directly to Ahmed's (above, left) office. MMC did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
For nearly two decades, Ahmed was chairperson and CEO of UAE’s DP World, one of the largest port and logistics companies on the planet, operating in more than 80 countries.
On Feb 13 this year, Ahmed resigned from DP World with immediate effect.
4,700 mentions in Epstein files
The timing was not subtle: it came within hours of the US Justice Department releasing the Epstein files - the vast trove of documents from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Ahmed's name appears in those documents more than 4,700 times.
Most damningly, verbatim excerpts of the Epstein files show that Ahmed sat at the centre of a private backchannel between the UAE and Israel - brokered personally by Epstein - years before the Abraham Accords made such ties public and official in 2020.
On March 22, 2012, Epstein wrote to Ahmed: "I am in Berlin with the Israeli defence minister. I have told him about you and Sheikh Mohamed. He would like to meet you both." The Israeli defence minister at the time was Ehud Barak.
In June 2013, Epstein wrote to Barak: "My friend Sultan bin Sulaiman is in St Pete, I think you should meet, he is the right hand of Maktoum" - a reference to Ahmed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai.
The following month, Epstein forwarded Barak a news story about Israel inviting international bids for its ports, asking: "Is this something for Sultan?" Barak replied: "Probably once (and IF) we'll start getting deeper into a sincere peace process."
By June 2015, the introduction was complete. Epstein emailed them both, together: "Ehud, Sultan. Sultan, Ehud."
And in July 2018, when Ahmed travelled to Tel Aviv for his daughter's medical treatment, he emailed Barak directly, thanking the former premier "for your help with our visa."
Barak, a central Israeli figure
Barak is a former prime minister and defence minister of Israel, and the most decorated soldier in Israeli military history. He is not a peripheral figure; he is as central to the Israeli establishment as it is possible to be.
As prime minister in October 2000, Barak ordered Israeli police - including sniper units - to suppress Palestinian solidarity protests inside Israel. Thirteen unarmed protesters were shot dead, 12 of them Israeli citizens. No police officer was ever charged. Barak himself later accepted personal responsibility for the events.
More damningly, as defence minister, Barak approved and led Operation Cast Lead, Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza launched in December 2008. Gaza had by then been under a crushing Israeli blockade since 2007 - a blockade Israel had pledged to ease under a ceasefire agreement, and largely did not.
Over 22 days in Operation Cast Lead, approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including some 300 children, in one of the most densely populated places on earth.
White phosphorus was fired into hospitals and the central UN compound in Gaza City. The UN's own fact-finding mission found evidence of war crimes.
When Barak visited Britain in 2009, Palestinian lawyers attempted to have him arrested.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most famous victims, also accused a prime minister (widely believed to be Barak) of raping her brutally, prompting Barak to issue a denial.
Spanning more than a decade
This is the man with whom Ahmed, now in charge of Malaysia's most important strategic ports, built a relationship - through Epstein’s good offices. The man who helped him and his daughter secure a visa into Israel.
And then there is the sex and misogyny directly involving Ahmed himself.
The correspondence between Ahmed and Epstein spans more than a decade, beginning in 2007 and continuing long after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. I will spare readers the bulk of it, but three exchanges (reproduced verbatim) suffice.
In April 2009, Epstein wrote to Ahmed: "Where are you? Are you ok? I loved the torture video." What torture video was exchanged, we do not know.
In another exchange, discussing a mutual female acquaintance, Ahmed wrote that "she wanted some BUSINESS! while I only wanted some P****ness!" Epstein's disgusting reply? "Praise Allah, there are still people like you."
In September 2015, Ahmed sent Epstein a photograph of a woman, with commentary: "The best sex I ever had amazing body."
Epstein, for his part, described Ahmed as "one of my most trusted friends in every sense of the word, you have never let me down, not once, not half of once."
Barak has since said he regrets ever knowing Epstein. Ahmed, to date, has said nothing at all.
National interest
MMC Ports operates under licences and concessions issued by the Malaysian government. Its ports handle an estimated 15 to 20 percent of all cargo moving through the Strait of Malacca. What happens at this company is unambiguously a matter of national interest.
Did the government know? Does the Transport Ministry have a view? Was anyone in Putrajaya consulted - or informed at all?
The silence, so far, is its own answer.
Consider what is at stake. The Strait of Malacca carries roughly a quarter of global trade. It is among the most important oil transit routes in the world.
Comparisons to the Strait of Hormuz - a geopolitical chokepoint that may mark the end of eight decades of American imperial dominance - are inevitable.
The importance of this strait should China ever invade Taiwan cannot possibly be overstated.
Just as Hormuz is at the epicentre of the Iran war, Malacca would become as globally important as it was in the time of Parameswara. It could define Malaysia’s entire fate.
And now, with nothing less than a new world order being shaped, are we seriously to believe that we are placing the leadership of all our most important ports along this strait into the hands of a man who is so deeply involved with the most Zionist of Zionists?
No tolerance for Zionists
We cannot help but think back to the Blackrock Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) scandal, and the unfolding scandal of the Network School in Johor - both allegedly involving Israeli interests and Zionist sympathisers.
The MAHB scandal is particularly relevant, as it suggests there might now be some kind of coordinated attempt by some unseen hands to gain influence over key Malaysian transport infrastructure - influence that shares decidedly Zionist sympathies.
The way in which the Network School scandal involving Balaji Srinivasan blew up in an explosion of public anger should also serve as a stern reminder to all people in power that Malaysians do not ever tolerate anything even remotely connected to Zionists.
I truly cannot believe that there was not a single candidate throughout the world that was qualified to lead MMC Port Holdings who did not have documented ties to the mastermind of murderous Israeli war crimes that killed thousands of Palestinians; who took his daughter to Tel Aviv for medical treatment, out of all the places in the world; and who happily hung out with child rapists on their child rape islands.
Was there really not a single other person available?
When our leaders make a big show and tell of their support for Palestine, and the struggle against genocidal Zionism - are we for real? Or is it all talk?
If we allow a man like this to control our ports along the Strait of Malacca, it is akin to Malaysia giving Zionists access to our most vulnerable and vital assets.
Are we really going to sit idly by and let that happen? - Mkini
NATHANIEL TAN is a strategic communications consultant. He tweets @NatAsasi and can be reached at nat@engage.my.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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