The journey in life is never a straight line (PART 3)

Tan Sri Basir Ismail, the Chairman of BBMB, was very angry about what I said. He cancelled my facilities with the bank and gave me 14 days to make full settlement on my loans. According to the manager of BBMB Kuala Terengganu, the interest they earn on my loans covers the entire operating cost for the branch. In fact, we were the second biggest account after the Terengganu State Economic Development Corporation -- or the biggest non-government client.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

It took me a year or so to settle all my debts with the various financial institutions. BBMB (Bank Bumiputra) was the first bank I had to pay off because they gave me only 14 days to do so. That cost me around RM6 million. MBF was another RM3 million, followed by Amanah Chase, also another RM3 million. Kwong Yik, D&C, and Bank Islam totalled RM5 million. By the time I finished with this ‘cleaning up’ exercise, including those smaller loans here and there, about RM20 million had been settled and that got the banks off my back.

To achieve this, I had to unload all my shares while at the same time not dump too much, too fast, lest that depress the share price. My wife, Marina, handled that part of the exercise, as she was the market ‘wizard’ in the family. However, we managed to raise only about RM12 million or so due to the selling frenzy at that time.

To cover the shortage, I had to sell off the four shop lots that we owned plus two condos in Kuala Lumpur, one in Bangsar and the other in Subang Jaya. The part that hurt the most was when I had to sell of my ‘flagship’, my 30% interest in a Mercedes Benz dealership, which was actually quite profitable.

Basically, I was forced to embark upon a ‘fire sale’ to clean up my debts and then try to restart from the bottom.

The RM6 million that I had to pay off BBMB within 14 days is a story by itself. Around that time, the Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised a seminar, which was officiated by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and I was selected as one of the presenters.

In my presentation, I whacked BBMB and said that it had deviated from the objectives of its creation, which was to assist Malays who needed help to get into business. I talked about the BMF scandal in Hong Kong, which resulted in the tragic murder of Jalil Ibrahim, as one example of how it had deviated from its ‘charter’.

Just to digress a bit, the man arrested and jailed for Jalil’s murder was Dax Mark, a close friend of mine. I am still not sure whether he did murder Jalil but if the court says he did then it must be true. I suppose it is very difficult to accept the possibility that a close friend of yours could be involved in such a high profile murder. There were a few other deaths as well, although some were said to be suicides -- although you can never tell when someone is found drowned in his swimming pool whether it was a suicide or a murder.

I always found Dax quite fascinating. He was married to a MAS stewardess while at the same time he was keeping a SIA stewardess as a mistress. His wife and mistress worked different shifts so both would not be in town at the same time. I asked Dax what would happen if suddenly their shifts were changed and they both landed in town at the same time. How was he going to handle that situation? He shuddered and told me not to tempt fate.

Anyway, back to the issue of the seminar and BBMB. I went on to say that Malaysia is going through a serious economic crisis that is affecting everyone -- Malays, Chinese, Indians and all. The Chinese cooperatives are collapsing and need RM3 billion to bail them out. We are talking in terms of mid-1980s money value, mind you.

The Chinese threatened to abandon MCA and vote DAP if the government does not bail them out. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad instructed the banks to form a consortium to bail out the Chinese cooperatives, which they did (after all, who can say ‘no’ to Dr Mahathir).

The Malays, too, I said, need bailing out, just like the Chinese. If the government can bail out the Chinese cooperatives to the tune of RM3 billion (even though it was ‘under duress’ because of the Chinese threat to abandon MCA and vote DAP), why can’t the government also bail out the Malays? Instead of bailing out the Malays, BBMB is taking legal action against defaulters and is filing bankruptcy against them, I explained.

I then quipped that BBMB now stands for ‘Basir buat Melayu bankrup’. What do we have to do to get the government’s attention? Do we also need to make threats like the Chinese -- threaten to abandon Umno and vote opposition?

Tan Sri Basir Ismail, the Chairman of BBMB, was very angry about what I said. He cancelled my facilities with the bank and gave me 14 days to make full settlement on my loans. According to the manager of BBMB Kuala Terengganu, the interest they earn on my loans covers the entire operating cost for the branch. In fact, we were the second biggest account after the Terengganu State Economic Development Corporation -- or the biggest non-government client.

I related this story to an old friend of my father, Chai Fook Loong. Uncle Chai was surprised. “Basir knows your late father very well,” he said. “Why would he do this to you?” I replied that I did not know why (and at that time I really did not know -- I did not realise it was related to what I had said about Basir).

Uncle Chai phoned Basir and spoke to him. “Kam’s son, Raja Petra, is sitting in front of me,” Uncle Chai told Basir (my father’s close friends used to call him Kam -- pronounced Kem and short for Kamarudin). Before Uncle Chai could say more, Basir replied, “I know who Raja Petra is. His file is on my table and I am looking at it now.”

I do not know what else Basir told Uncle Chai because he refused to tell me. He looked extremely perturbed when he put the phone down and just said, “What did you do to the old man? I know him very well and I have never seen him so angry. He is actually a very nice man but today I am seeing another side of him.”

I just told Uncle Chai, “Never mind. I think I know why.” I did not want to say anything more about the matter. I knew I was in deep shit with Basir.

The seminar was not a total waste, though. Dr Mahathir agreed to the setting up of the Tabung Pemulihan Usahawan (TPU). Bank Negara was to be put in charge of that fund but the Malay Chamber can form its own committee to recommend those businessmen who needed help.

During the many meetings that we held to sieve through the deserving cases to assist, the Chairman told us that certain names on the list would have to be removed from the list. We were furious and demanded to know why. (My name was not one of those on the list, though, because I was not one of those who the banks were suing for bankruptcy).

There was a lot of shouting and table banging and finally the Chairman revealed that the names that are to be removed from the list are those who have been ‘blacklisted’ by the government. We told the Chairman that Dr Mahathir had promised us that the TPU would be ‘politically blind’ and that help would be given to Malays in trouble based on their eligibility and not based on their political affiliations.

We told the Chairman that we demand a meeting with Dr Mahathir to clear this matter up. Dr Mahathir had promised us RM500 million and that if RM500 million was not enough he was prepared to increase it to RM1 billion. But start with RM500 million first and see how far that goes, Dr Mahathir said. And Dr Mahathir had also promised that while Bank Negara would be the trustee of the fund, there would be no political interference from Umno.

It was then that the Chairman told us that the instruction to remove certain names from the list did not come from Dr Mahathir but from Anwar Ibrahim. And one of the people who Anwar insisted should not get any assistance was Marina Yusoff.

Imagine my surprise when around ten years or so later, when Dr Mahathir sacked Anwar, Marina Yusoff came out to support Anwar and even joined PKR (then called PKN) and became one of the Vice Presidents of the party.

I later asked marina Yusoff whether she knew that Anwar had tied to ‘kill’ her back in the late 1980s and she confirmed that she did. In fact, she had to request an audience with Anwar to make peace with him and he agreed to help Marina but would give her only one-third of what she needed.

One-third was far from sufficient to bail her out and eventually her business collapsed. Yet, in spite of that, she still stood by Anwar in his hour of need. And when she joined PKR and opposed Umno in 1999, the government finished her off for good and buried her.

Many say she is stupid for sacrificing herself for Anwar, a man who tried to destroy her ten years earlier. I suppose that stupidity is in most of us.

TO BE CONTINUED