Vietnamese come, dogs and cats missing
Bangladeshi come, Malays girls gone missing
Chinese girls come, husband gone missing
Politicians come, Mongolians girls gone missing,
Elections come, government funds missing
Police come, drugs gone missing
Elections lost, documents missing
Release true report, doctor missing
Tell the truth, whole family gone missing
Expand Air Force, jet engines missing
Pass on this, if you don't you will be missing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poof... RM8 billion dream.

Here's the deal, Einstein.

Why spend RM8 billion on defence when there's no threat. If there's one, bring back the the FREE defence pack e.g. Australia, NZ, UK, that was here before BN kicked them out. Not only it's FREE, but lots of M'sians and businesses can be generated from them. Ego and pride, huh?

Anyway, M'sia's external borrowing is RM9.9 billion and want to borrow another RM8 billion to buy 257 8x8 Armoured-Wheeled Vehicle from DRB Hicom? And, that's a cool RM31.1 million each!!!

If, there's really a need, why not buy the best of the best tanks i.e. M1Abrams at RM19.7 million. Cheaper and bestest in the world!!! Something is not right, don't you think?

Of course, the best deal is to forget about it and put this budget for basic amenities to all M'sians e.g. roads, water, electricity, health care and education.

May God save Malaysia.

============================================

Pua slams decision to buy 256 AWV for RM8 bil by Hemananthani Sivanandam KUALA LUMPUR (April 22, 2010): Opposition leaders are urging the government to review and cancel the contract to purchase 257 8x8 Armoured-Wheeled Vehicle (8x8 AWV) for an "astronomical" amount of RM8 billion. Tony Pua "We would like to state upfront that we are disgusted by the transaction. The amount is shocking as each of these non-combat vehicles is priced at a ridiculous RM31.1 million," said Tony Pua (DAP-PJ Utara). On Tuesday, DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (Deftech)’s chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil announced at a press conference during the 12th Defence Services Asia 2010 Exhibition that the government has given Deftech a letter of intent, entrusting it to develop the 8x8 AWV programme with the support of the Defence Ministry, Malaysian Army and the Malaysian Defence Industry Council. "We have an order for 257 8x8 AWV units but right now, we are going to come up with the prototypes meant for testing purposes by the army before we develop the whole range of armoured vehicles," Mohd Khamil was quoted saying. Pua said the amount was shocking as other armoured vehicles in other countries cost far less. "The Portugese army bought 353 Pandur II 8x8 armoured vehicles for the amout of 364 million euros (RM1.56billion) or an average of 1.03 million euros or only RM4.41 million each. "In 2009, the U.S Army has awarded a US$2.2 billion contract to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, one of the best military vehicle and equipment manufacturer in the world for 724 Light Armoured vehicles (LAV) equivalent of USD$3.04 million or only RM9.9million each meant for Saudi Arabia. "Even the best-in-class main battle tank produced in the United States, M1Abrams M1A2 deployed extensively in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Australia cost only US$6.1 million or approximately RM19.7 million. "Despite the price-tag, Deftech admits that they are only at the stage of developing a prototype. The prototype hasn’t been tested but the contract is already out" Pua told reporters at Parliament lobby today. Pua also said the Barisan Nasional government is "clearly missing the woods for the trees" in the financial management of the country. "At the same time when the Ministry of Finance has issued strict treasury circulars for all ministries to reduce their operational expenditure by as much as 20%, the Ministry (of Defence) commits to a purchase that completely mocks the attempt by the government to be thrifty," said Pua. "We hope the Ministry of Defence will now inform us that this is another decimal point error in the contract value," said Pua jokingly. -- theSun

Updated: 01:22PM Thu, 22 Apr 2010

source: http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=45889

================================================

Government debt at RM362b as at Dec 31, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The government’s overall debt as at Dec 31 last year was RM362.4 billion or 53.7 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (picture), who is also Finance Minister, said a major portion of the debt was domestic debts amounting to RM348.6 billion or 96.2 per cent while the remaining RM13.9 billion (3.8 per cent) was external debts.

“The small amount of external debt is in line with the government’s current policy which prioritises domestic borrowings to finance the country’s development projects as the cost is cheaper and there is less exposure to foreign exchange risk,” he said in a written reply to a question from Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Bikut Bendera) at the Dewan Rakyat sitting here today.

Liew had asked on the direct financial obligations of the government in the form of financial guarantee for debt instruments.

Najib said the debt instruments were subscribed by financial institutions, insurance companies and social security institutions.

On the borrowings for projects, he said the financiers were multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank while the bilateral institutions included Japan For International Cooperation (JBIC).

He said the interest rates varied and depended on the tenure of the loan and the prevailing market conditions when the bonds were issued.

Najib said the government’s contingent liabilities meanwhile were in the form of guarantees for the borrowings of statutory bodies and government companies.

As of Dec 31, 2008, the contingent liabilities of the government stood at RM69.2 billion comprising domestic borrowings of RM59.3 billion (86 per cent) and external borrowings of RM9.9 billion (14 per cent),” he said.

He said the guarantees involved two statutory bodies and 16 government-linked companies. — Bernama

RM77 million dream for the hardcore poor?

Now, now... is this how taxpayers' monies are spent? Wouldn't this money be more than enough to provide water and electricity to all Malaysians that are still using well water and kerosene light?

Singapore don't have APCO and yet I'm very sure they'll be welcomed to meet Obama for FREE. I remember Mahathir administration paid RM2 million to meet Bush.

KNNCCB!!!


================================

Apco contract cost RM77 mil a year

Christine Chan and Hazlan Zakaria
Apr 13, 10
5:52pm

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz today revealed in Parliament that the contract signed between the government and the controversial communication consultant giant Apco Worldwide amounted to a whopping RM77 million.

In a written reply to Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) to his query on the fees paid to Apco, the amount provided by Nazri is more than twice what was earlier reported.

Chua referred to a newspaper report which quoted Nazri as saying that the amount paid to Apco was RM28 million.

"Convert this to ringgit and you will get almost RM77 million," he said based on last year's currency exchange rate.

"I don't know whether he was mistaken or his conversion rate of ringgit to US dollars is different. Maybe he thinks that the Malaysian ringgit is still strong, almost on one to one with the dollar?"

Chua also expressed his disbelief that much money is being paid to a foreign contractor for a task which could have been performed by a local company.

He said that the RM77 million contract was for one year.

"Are Apco's services so special that we need to pay so much? Why wasn't a local company employed? I am sure there are local firms that can do the job."

Nazri: Apco a bridge between Malaysia and US

Nazri (below) explained later today that Apco was hired to help strengthen ties between Malaysia and US.

He said that the government hired the company to not only improve the government's image but also to "get close to the US".

Speaking in his office in Parliament, he refuted Tian Chua's claim that local firms could do the job.

"In US, there is the lobby culture. That is normal, every country who wants to be close to US has to resort to lobbying. You think a local company can do that for us?" he countered.

Nazri then said the Jewish Americans were the biggest lobbyists.

"So if we want to lobby for something in the US adminstration, do you think that we can succeed if we use an Islamic company?"

Nazri went on to illustrate what made Apco worth the millions that the government paid for its services.

"Our prime minister is meeting Obama and some prominent US leaders. (Making it happen) is no easy task," he said, adding that during his own trip to US in February he was able to see the people that he wanted.

Dictators use the best

Nazri also responded to the opposition's call for the government to terminate contracts with Apco as they were also engaged by countries ruled by "dictators".

"Dictators with money will only use the best," he explained, adding that the same applied to the services of veteran opposition strongman Karpal Singh, a lawyer who had represented murderers and drug traffickers.
“If you are using Karpal's legal service, it does not mean that you are also a murderer. It just means he is a good lawyer. Similarly we use Apco because it is good. So what is wrong with using Apco?"

Further, Nazri explained that it is time that Malaysia strengthened its ties with US now especially with the prime minister's recent support for economic liberalisation.

"The government is making more effort to make up for the 28 years of "not so good" foreign policies under the reign of the two former prime ministers."

source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/129066

3rd class kopitiam with 1st class chair

Amazing, amazing, amazing indeed. What is The Star and Mr Tan up to? Or, are there hidden hands and agenda at work here? Sorry, no money for your right guesses. Anyway, this is what happens when there's a "buy" erection. Oops, I mean election.

Here's the story...

Saturday April 10, 2010

Coffeeshop owner honours PM

By CHRISTINA TANZ
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA KUBU BARU: Coffeeshop owner Tan Sew Sewan, thrilled by the Prime Minister’s visit here last Saturday, will “preserve” the cup, plate, fork, spoon and chair used by him.

The 60-year-old grandfather said a souvenir shop was making a glass showcase to store the cutlery for display at his shop.

Tan said no one would be allowed to sit on the chair “as I am going to wrap it and display it in my coffeeshop.”

“This shop has been in business for over 70 years and it is hard to believe that the Prime Minister actually came here for tea,” he said.

Priceless memorabilia: Tan holding up the teacup which was used by Najib at his shop in Kuala Kubu Baru yesterday. Behind him is the chair that Najib sat on during his visit to the coffeeshop.

Tan said his father opened the Sun Sun Nam Cheong coffeeshop in the 1930s, adding that its specialty was Hailam mee and kopi-O.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, during his visit to Kuala Kubu Baru town, took a break at the coffeeshop in Jalan Mat Kilau, previously known as Stoner Street.

Tan said he felt excited when an MCA member told him on Friday that Najib would be dropping by, adding that his wife and children stayed up until 2am to help clean up the place.

“I was nervous because I was not sure about the PM’s likes and dislikes ... whether he likes the noodles to be salty or not,” said Tan, who served Najib a plate of Hailam mee and a cup of kopi-0.

Tan described his meeting with Najib as very pleasant.

“In person, he is really friendly. On TV, he looks serious,” he added.

The coffeeshop owner said following Najib’s visit, several people had offered to buy the cutlery.

“They asked me to just name a price but I declined. I want to keep it for my family,” added Tan, who met Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Najib’s father, about 40 years ago in Kuala Lumpur at an outdoor event.

A very interesting article by Dr Bakri Musa. Details as below. Enjoy...

=====

M Bakri Musa

M. BAKRI MUSA, M.D.
General Surgery
700 West Sixth Street, Suite S
Gilroy, CA 95020
Phone 408 842-1511
E-mail: bakrimusa@juno.com Website: www.bakrimusa.com

APPOINTMENTS: Professional

2004 Chief of the Medical Staff, St. Louise Regional Hospital, Gilroy, CA
1989 Active Staff, St. Louise Regional Hospital, Gilroy, CA
1982-89 Active Staff, Wheeler Hospital, Gilroy (Closed in 1989)
1978-82 Chief of Surgery, Harney County Hospital, Burns, OR
1976-78 Surgeon, Government of Malaysia Medical Service
1974-76 Staff, W.W. Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
1972-74 Resident in Surgery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton
1971-72 Research Fellow, Medical Research Council of Canada at U of A.
1970-71 Resident in Surgery, Montreal General Hospital
1969-70 Intern, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton
1965 Demonstrator, Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta

Non Professional: 1994 Board of Director, Private Practice Doctors Inc., an Independent Practice Association of over 60 physicians.
1992 Managing Partner, Gilroy Professional Group Partnership, a real estate partnership. President, South Valley Islamic Community, Morgan Hill, CA
DEGREES AND DIPLOMAS

1985 Fellow, American College of Surgeons (FACS)
1974 Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC)
1973 M.S. (Experimental Surgery) University of Alberta
1971 Research Fellowship, Medical Research Council of Canada
1969 M.D. University of Alberta
1966 B.Sc. (with distinction) University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

AWARDS AND HONORS:

1968 Mosby Prize in Microbiology, U of A School of Medicine
1967 Morris Weinlos Prize in Pathology
1966 First Class Standing Award, University of Alberta
1965 First Class Standing Award, University of Alberta
1964 Lehmann Prize, (for top freshman in Chemistry) and First Class Standing Award, University of Alberta

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS READ

Musa, M. Bakri: Fab2 Antibody Fragments and Xenograft Rejection. Masters Thesis, U of A, 1973.
Musa, M. Bakri: Germ Cell Malignant Tumors in Father and Son. Canadian Medical Association Journal 112:1201, 1975.
Musa, M. Bakri, S Katakka, A Khalik: Anorectal and Perianal Complications in hematologic malignant neoplasms. Canadian J Surgery 18:578, 1975.
Musa, M. Bakri, Freda Meah: Isolated perforations of jejunum and ileum in blunt abdominal trauma. Aust & NZ J Surgery, August 1977.
Laidin, A Z, M. Bakri Musa: Pre and Post incisional topical antibiotic prophylaxis in appendectomy wounds. Malaysian J Surgery, June 1977.
Wahab, YHA, M. Bakri Musa: Rupture of herniated small intestines from blunt abdominal injury. Injury 9:225, 1978.
Musa, M. Bakri: Spontaneous gastrocutaneous fistula complicating benign gastric ulcer. British J Clinical Practice, August 1979.
Musa, M. Bakri: Anorectal Complications of Leukemia. Read at the Congress of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Musa, M. Bakri: Medical Management of Amebiasis. Read at the 29th Congress, International Academy of Proctology, Kuala Lumpur 1977.

GENERAL ESSAYS AND COMMENTARIES

Dr. Musa’s general essays have appeared in The New Straits Times, Far Eastern Economic Review, Education Quarterly, International Herald Tribune, and Businessweek, and his commentary aired on the Voice of America and America’s National Public Radio’s Marketplace.
Columnist, Malaysiakini.com, Malaysia-Today.net, and The Sun Daily (Malaysia).

BOOKS PUBLISHED (Strategic Information Research Development, Malaysia):

The Malay Dilemma Revisited: Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia, (1999) ISBN: 0-583-48-367-5
Malaysia in the Era of Globalization (2002) ISBN: 0-595-73577-0;
An Education System Worthy of Malaysia (2003) ISBN: 0-595-26590-1;
Seeing Malaysia My Way (2003) ISBN: 0-595-30318-8;
With Love from Malaysia (2004), Co-written with Karen E. Musa ISBN: 0-595-31607-7 Towards A Competitive Malaysia: Development Challenges in the Twenty-First Century (2006) ISBN: 0-595-31607-7
HOBBIES AND SOCIAL CLUBS

1989 Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International, Rotary Club, Morgan Hill
1985 Member Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley, Ca
1982 Certified PADI Scuba Diver
Hobbies: Scuba diving, sailing his sloop, Makan Angin.
Morgan Hill, CA
November 2006

==========

It Happened Under Your Watch, Najib!

January 10th, 2010

It Happened Under Your Watch, Najib!

M. Bakri Musa

“Don’t point the fingers at UMNO or anyone else,” so declared an angry Najib Razak, responding to a question on last Friday’s bombing of a church. It was pathetic to see him react thus, a body language that bespoke of a sinister kid whose bag of malicious tricks finally exploded in his face.

Najib would like us to believe that those acts of arson were spontaneous combustion. What a pathetic attempt at extricating himself from the ugly and dangerous mess he helped create! His performance was more to convince himself, for he could not possibly convince us.

Here he was after pouring the gasoline feigning surprise when someone finally lit a match. It was Najib who only the day before the incident declared that “Muslim groups were free to protest and express their views about the ‘Allah’ issue.” Just in case that message did not register, he added that the authorities would not stop groups from gathering at mosques and protesting there. Najib’s cousin and Home Minister, Hishammuddin, echoed the same sentiments.

Obviously somebody took them at their words. It is truly touching to see these two ministers belatedly becoming so protective of citizens’ rights to protest! The pair obviously do not appreciate the subtle but enormous difference between having those rights and the wisdom to exercise them appropriately.

Najib and Hishammuddin must think that Malaysians are a dumb lot not to see through their charade. It was Hishammuddin who first unhinged that dangerous religious wrecking ball with his banning of the use of the word Allah by that Catholic publication.

Contrast the words and deeds of these two very public purveyors of the “1Malaysia” fantasy to that of the leaders of Pakatan. In a statement issued through PKR, Anwar Ibrahim declared that “the wish of the non-Muslim community to use the term ‘Allah’ is a positive and welcomed development. We must not let that be an opportunity for those with malicious intent to seize the occasion to portray themselves as champions of Islam.” Amen to that!

Anwar realized only too well the potential dangers of stoking the religious fire. To emphasize his point, Anwar called for restraint and urged his followers not to participate in the planned Friday demonstrations. It was a particularly prescient call. Anwar must have read Najib, Hishammuddin and all the other characters in UMNO well; he knew their mischievous if not evil intent.

Anwar was not alone; leaders of PAS went out of their way not only to discourage the demonstrations but also to defend the rights of the Catholic publication to use the term “Allah.”

I do not know whether Malaysians, specifically Malays, are becoming more sensible or the restraint urged on by Anwar and the others had an impact, for come Friday the demonstrations were definitely muted. The egging-on by UMNO leaders fell flat; instead the rotten eggs landed on the faces of UMNO leaders.

The exemplary stand of the opposition leaders was a stark contrast to the mischievous if not downright dangerous antics of UMNO leaders. The contrast did not end there. Immediately following the tragic incident, Selangor Pakatan Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim visited the charred church. His was a much needed and very comforting presence, as well as a deeply symbolic gesture. It was a spontaneous yet splendid demonstration of common sense and deep concern for your fellow citizens, as well as of leadership.

Najib was content to condemn the hooliganism from afar, and in the process found himself in an uncomfortably defensive position. He did not visit the damaged church until the next day, but not before he had launched his party’s People’s Champion campaign in preparation for the next elections. That was Najib’s priority.

The only UMNO leader who visited the damaged church right away was its Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin. He conveyed genuine empathy; his condemnation and expression of sympathy were genuine and heartfelt, a welcomed change from the hollowness of Najib’s.

Khairy’s presence made the absence of the other UMNO leaders that much more noticeable, and vulgar. These supposedly more seasoned UMNO leaders could learn a thing or two from Khairy on the importance of showing leadership in moments of crisis. You cannot teach that; either you have it or you don’t. Obviously Najib does not have it.

Najib’s bag of tricks was so crude that even foreign observers saw through it. “The real reason UMNO is politicizing the issue and pandering to its conservative base,” wrote the Wall Street Journal, “may be to deflect attention from its own political vulnerabilities.”

Najib had every reason to want to change the horrible headlines that were damaging his leadership, the latest being the jet engines stolen from a military base. The theft occurred during Najib’s tenure as Defense Minister but was only recently being made public.

That was not the only serious lapse of security during Najib’s tenure as Defense Minister. There was the spectacular and potentially devastating collapse of the naval base in Pularek just before its official opening. And to balance things out, there was the lethal attack on the army base in Grik, Perak, by a band of sarong-clad Al Maunah gang members. This recent revelation of the stolen jet engines was merely part of Najib’s trademark pattern of incompetence.

Thus far Najib is determined to repeat that same pattern as Prime Minister, except that he has now progressed beyond incompetence to being sinister.

It is downright malicious for Najib, Hishammuddin and others in UMNO to attempt at dividing Malaysians by needlessly treading on our religious sensitivities. Najib’s “1Malaysia” campaign has barely begun and he has already made a mockery of the ideal.

Specifically, Najib’s attempt to split Muslims in the opposition parties was brazen, crude and potentially destructive. There were initial intimations that his dirty scheming would work, what with the mainstream media continually harping on the supposed differences among the leaders of PAS and Keadilan over this issue. Najib and others must have been licking their chops, savoring the ‘brilliance’ of their strategy while remaining oblivious of the dangerous forces that they had unleashed.

Thankfully this time around Malaysians are far ahead of their leaders; we did not fall for this ugly and dangerous ploy. I am heartened that even UMNO’s own New Straits Times felt emboldened enough not to defend the administration on this matter.

In a thoughtful commentary, Rehman Rashid not too subtly reminded us of the terrible mess we found ourselves in with this manufactured crisis. Left unstated is the role of our leaders in leading us to be where we are today. Of course it would be too much to expect the mainstream media, specifically NST, to explore that. Under the circumstance, Rehman has gone as far as he could, and I applaud him for that.

In his piece Rehman wrote, “Debilitating dogmas need to be debunked, political parasites purged, and Little Napoleons stripped naked and hounded out of town.” Strong words! At least he has demonstrated that sycophantic editors (or at least their toadying editorials) are out too!

I hope that the positive gestures by Khairy and refreshingly candid commentary by Rehman would move Najib, Hishammuddin and others in UMNO away from their dangerous games. If they do not, then it is time we take the match away before they burn down the country. It is also time we tell them in no uncertain terms that they are not only unfit to lead our great nation but they also pose an imminent danger to Malaysia.

The nation suffered terribly in 1969; that national tragedy was instrumental in elevating Tun Razak to the nation’s top post. We should never risk our nation to another tragic episode under the inept and sinister leadership of his son.

We must not let Najib and his UMNO cahoots continue their bag of dirty tricks upon us. The fire next time might not be so easily contained. The conflagration then could rip us all apart. Let us not even contemplate giving them another chance; we have had enough!

source: http://www.bakrimusa.com/

An erection once every FIVE years?

This phone interview with the ex-Minister of Information, Zainuddin Maidin, who defends police action against protesters calling for changes to electoral process, tells it all. Listen very carefully around 2 min 20 seconds into the video. God bless Malaysia.

===

M'sia should be very rich but not. WHY? Here's why...

The below tells it all. However, IMHO, there could be more that we are not aware of or have proof of it. If the below article is not true, the writer can be sued. So, it must be substantiated and thus TRUE!!!

This is the main reason why I decided to retire early. Why pay income tax for it to be squandered/pilfered away? So, having paid so much money in income tax all these years, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

===

How the gov't 'looted' up to US$100 bil

Nov 28, 09 11:28am

The multi-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone scandal may be big, but it is only the latest in a long line of scandals going back to the early 1980s.

Time magazine quoted Daniel Lian, a Southeast Asia economist at Morgan Stanley in Singapore, saying that the country might have lost “as much as US$100 billion since the early 1980s to corruption”.

The scandals listed below are only a small sample of the looting of the country's coffers:

In July of 1983, what was then the biggest banking scandal in world history erupted in Hong Kong, when it was discovered that Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF), a unit of Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Bhd, had lost as much as US$1 billion which had been siphoned off by prominent public figures into private bank accounts.

The story involved murder, suicide and the involvement of officials at the very top of the Malaysian government. Ultimately it involved a bailout by the Malaysian government amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mak Foon Tan, the murderer of Jalil Ibraim, a Bank Bumi assistant manager who was sent to Hong Kong to investigate the disappearance of the money, was given the death sentence, and Malaysian businessman George Tan who had participated in looting most of the funds, was jailed after his Carrian Group collapsed in what was then Hong Kong's biggest bankruptcy, and a handful of others were charged.

No major politician was ever punished in Malaysia despite a white paper prepared by an independent commission that cited cabinet minutes of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad giving an okay to a request to throw more money into the scandal in an effort to contain it.

That was just the first Bank Bumi scandal. The government-owned bank had to be rescued twice more with additional losses of nearly US$600 million in today's dollars.

Ultimately government officials gave up and the bank was absorbed into CIMB Group, currently headed by Nazir Razak, the sitting prime minister's brother.

Bank Negara lost RM20 bil

That scandal, which stretched over several years before its denouement in 1985, set the tone for 24 years of similar scandals related to top Malaysian officials and was the first to prove that in Malaysia, you can not only get away with murder, you can get away with looting the treasury as well.

Perwaja Steel, for instance, lost US$800 million and its boss, Eric Chia, a crony of Mahathir's, was charged with looting the company. He stood trial, but was acquitted without having to put on a defense.

In the mid-1980s, the Co-operative Central Bank, a bank set up to aid the Indian smallholder community, had to be rescued by Bank Negara, the country's central bank, after hundreds of millions of ringgit in loans granted to a flock of Umno and MIC politicians became non-performing.

Some had never been serviced at all. Although the chief executive and general manager were charged with criminal breach of trust, none of the politicians were ever charged.

Before that, the Malaysian government was believed to have lost US$500 million in an attempt at Mahathir's urging to corner the London tin market through a company called Maminco, driving the world price of tin from US$4.50 per tonne to US$7.50.

It then sought to cover up the loss by establishing a US$2 company called Mukawasa from which allocations of new share issues to the government's Employees Provident Fund (EPF) were diverted. Mukawasa expected to sell the shares at a windfall profit to hide the tin speculation.

Mahathir also was behind an attempt by the then governor of Bank Negara, the central bank, to aggressively speculate in the global foreign exchange market. Bank Negara ended up losing an estimated RM20 billion. The governor, Jaffar Hussein, and the head of forex trading, Nor Mohamed Yakcop were forced to resign.

'Malaysia's Enron scandal

There have been many other political and financial scandals since. In 2005, Bank Islam Malaysia, the country's flagship Islamic bank, reported losses of RM457 million mainly due to provisioning totaling RM774 million as a result of bad loans and investments incurred by its Labuan branch.

Cumulatively, Bank Islam ran up non-performing loans of RM2.2 billion, partly from mismanagement and poor internal controls but also "years of regulatory indifference fueled by the misconceived notion of an untouchable Bank Islam because it was a favourite child of the Malaysian government, being the first and model Islamic bank in the country and region," according to a December 19, 2005 article in Arab News.

"Bank Islam had a reputation in the market for being the spoilt child of the Malaysian Ministry of Finance; and the perception of the bank was more of a Muslim financial fraternity or government development financial institution," the report said.

In 2007, in what was called Malaysia's Enron scandal, the publicly traded Transmile Group Bhd, whose chairman was former MCA president and cabinet minister Ling Liong Sik, was caught having overstated its revenue by RM530 million.

A pretax profit from RM207 million in 2006 was actually a loss of RM126 million, and a pretax profit of RM120 million in 2005 was a loss of RM77 million, causing the government postal company Pos Malaysia & Services Holdings Bhd to warn that its earnings for the 2006 financial year might be affected by the reported overstatement, as the postal group owned 15.3 percent of Transmile.

Bailouts and more bailouts

Over the years 2001 to 2006, the government had to spend billions to rescue seven privatised projects including Kuala Lumpur's two public transport systems, the perennially ailing Malaysia Airlines, the national sewage system and a variety of others that, in the words of one study, "had been privatised prematurely."

The government also repeatedly bailed out highway construction concessionaires, all of them closely connected to Umno, to the tune of another RM38.5 billion.

In 2008, it was revealed that Rafidah Aziz, who had served as trade and industry minister for 18 years, had been peddling approved permits for duty-free car sales and allegedly lining her pockets.

Two companies which didn't even have showrooms – one of which belonged to the husband of Rafidah's niece – received scores of permits.

Although Rafidah came in for heavy criticism from within Umno, she remained in office until she was defeated in party elections.

In the 1960s, federal prosecutors in the United States who were attempting to jail the late labour boss Jimmy Hoffa for looting the Teamsters Pension Fund of millions of dollars with his cronies were puzzled by the fact that their revelations appeared to have little effect on the union's rank and file.

It was because no matter how much money Hoffa and his cronies stole, there was always money left because the fund was so rich. That appears to be the case with Malaysia.

source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/118519