An Intent to Deceive UMNO Members , will MUHYIDDIN GIVE VOICELESS UMNO MEMBERS ‘CHANCE TO BE HEARD’“ how the prime minister Najib unrelentingly went about improving Chinese and Tamil school education, gave additional allocations to these schools, and met with several radical Chinese and Indian groups like Dong Zong and Hindraf,and cheated the umno members of their assets it would only be fair to allow the grassroots to decide on Najib’s fate when polls are called at the end of the year, instead of the party leadership arbitrarily deciding not to allow the party’s presidency to be challenged.
It is not premature to talk about the new class war in UMNO. For Najib it will be war against DPM Muhyiddin to t finish off. To say Muhyidin is expendable and easily forgotten if he can be held captive to the number two post” is to underestimate the DPM’s acumen, tenacity and political resilience.Muhyiddin is an unusual politician. Perhaps even his worst critics might grant him that.
It is not easy to sum up 2012 without a deep feeling of despair. If 2008 was the year in which some fundamental structural issues with our political system were exposed, 2013 seems to have not only deepened our understanding of those shortcomings, but also made us alive to the deepening fissures in the Malay Society.subsequent callousness and insensitivity shown by the political class, underlined the fact that class discrimination is deeply embedded into the societal fabric.subsequent callousness and insensitivity shown by the political class, underlined the fact that class discrimination is deeply embedded into the societal fabric.f one were to try and tease out some patterns underlying the events of this year, they might broadly fall under two, somewhat related heads. For one, we are beginning to see the tentative first steps towards the formation of the idea of citizenry; the notion that as citizens there exists a reciprocal responsibility to not only respond to one’s immediate environment, but also play an active role in managing it.
Najib’s cronies holding corporation
Former UEM and Renong Supremo Tan Sri Halim Saad revealed that he was denied the option to MBO and taking it private by then Economic Adviser to Government Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yackop. Instead Nor Mohamed induced Halim to leave the board of both companies, sold his holdings of and eventually both company were acquired by Khazanah Holdings Bhd.
Nor Mohamed also was instrumental on Federal Government spending of big monies on consultancy advice from firms such as Bina Fikir, Ethos and foreign firms for policies, strategies, blue prints, ‘rebranding’, ‘Wide Asset Unbundling’ and even operational programs. Telekom Malaysia’s operational issues were brought to McKinsey to be resolved. The National Automotive Policy introduced almost saw the slow demise of national car project Proton.
The Edge Review said the suit, set to be one if the biggest corporate battle in the country, will expose for the first time the “behind-the-scenes dealings in several multibillion dollar transactions and contract awards that shaped corporate Malaysia between the mid-1980s and the early part of this decade”.
“Businessmen familiar with the situation say that Dr Mahathir told Halim that he had been informed by Nor Mohamed that the assets taken over by Khazanah belonged to Umno,”
Tycoon Tan Sri Halim Saad has mounted a massive legal challenge against the government to demand full settlement of an over RM2 billion deal that forced him to relinquish his controlling stake in Renong Bhd more than a decade ago.
According to digital business magazine The Edge Review, Halim, once the sole corporate nominee of the ruling Umno, was offered RM1.3 billion in cash and property as well as control of a private waste management company, roughly valued at RM2 billion, in exchange for his disposal of Renong in the 2001 agreement.
But citing people familiar with Halim’s suit, the magazine reported that the business magnate had since only received RM165 million despite giving up his business empire and will be demanding the remainder.
Over the last couple of years, the interest in directly influencing modes of governance has grown; democracy as a practice is increasingly detaching itself from the narrow idea of UMNO elections. The political class has not understood this change; one has only to look at the fact that in the recent protests in Kuala Lumpur, virtually no elected representatives, not even local politicians, alot malays were involved. When a movement that holds the nation’s attention with such intensity fails to stir the representatives of people even a little bit, the schism between citizenry and the polity can be deemed to be enduring.
Najib ’s big battle seems to be with his party that he allegedly leads. Najib is interested in his name not UMNO, his visage, the unquestioned nature of his authority but is deeply uncomfortable with his ideas which are indulged so that they don’t have to be implemented. His critique cuts too deep for it to be actionable, particularly his secound wife. Fortunately for UMNO,own suspicion about power has rendered him incapable of pushing through his ideas with any force. He keeps plugging away in his little laboratories, emerging occasionally to make some pronouncement before diving back away from the real world. It is Najii’s belief that power is contaminating that makes his endeavours and ideas a non-starter. Without exercising power, change is unlikely to come about on its own. By labelling all power regardless of the manner of use as corrupting, he has effectively neutered the power of his own prescriptions.
“Halim held numerous meetings with Dr Mahathir — even after the latter quit as premier in November 2003 — and Nor Mohamed to push for a full settlement but he was repeatedly fobbed off,” the article said.
“Some time in April 2010, Halim met with Dr Mahathir to try to seek a resolution to the matter but was told that the government would not be honouring the agreement.
“Businessmen familiar with the situation say that Dr Mahathir told Halim that he had been informed by Nor Mohamed that the assets taken over by Khazanah belonged to Umno,” it added.
The Edge Reviewsaid Halim then met with Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, then a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit, who confirmed Dr Mahathir’s words.
According to the magazine and StarBiz today, Nor Mohamed, the Malaysian government and state-owned strategic investment fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd have been named as defendants in multibillion ringgit suit that was filed in April this year.
In the statement of claim sighted by StarBiz, Halim is alleging that the parties had signed the 2001 and/or another 2003 agreement with him with “an intent to deceive him or induce him to enter into both agreements”.There is no harm in giving in to desire once in a while, but are you fooling yourself by demanding ‘wants’ as ‘needs’ you are entitled to? Realpolitik will push one malaysia into a new social contract. This will not be achieved by moral lectures to politicians. Rather, a new equilibrium will evolve that enables business … Read more
The Edge Review said the suit, set to be one if the biggest corporate battle in the country, will expose for the first time the “behind-the-scenes dealings in several multibillion dollar transactions and contract awards that shaped corporate Malaysia between the mid-1980s and the early part of this decade”.
“Among other things, the executives say that Halim’s suit will provide insights into how Umno created a political money-making machine around Renong and its associated concern, United Engineers Malaysia Bhd (UEM).
“It will offer Halim’s account of how he ceased to be a business nominee of Umno and also provide a personal confession of the gruelling years the businessman went through as he battled to keep debt-laden Renong afloat,” the magazine wrote.
Halim, who was in 1984 taken in by former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin to become Umno’s sole corporate nominee, had built Renong and UEM into Malaysia’s largest conglomerate, with ventures in the banking, construction, telecommunications, real-estate development and tolled-roads industries.
The Asian financial crisis of 1997 led to the fall in Renong’s share prices and according to The Edge Review, exposed the conglomerate’s poor cash flow and large debt burdens.
According to StarBiz, a business manoeuvre that year in UEM’s purchase of a 32.5 per cent block of shares in Renong did not go down well with the investing public.
“To appease the market, Halim had, in 1998, offered to buy the Renong shares from UEM by way of a ‘put option’,” the business section of English daily The Starreported today.
“The option price for the ‘put’ was RM3.2 billion, which he was to pay in four instalments three in RM100 million instalments and the balance with interest on February 14, 2001, when the option was due.
“Halim was reported to have paid the first RM100 million but could not pay up the second when it was due, which was when Khazanah took over.
“The sovereign wealth fund took UEM private in 2001 and later cancelled the option,” it reported.
According to The Edge Review, it was Dr Mahathir who stepped up pressure on Halim in 2001, which eventually led to his disposal of control over Renong.
The former prime minister had purportedly instructed Halim to meet with Nor Mohamed, who was then economic adviser, and the latter was to arrange for the government’s purchase of the tycoon’s interest in Renong.
Citing close associates of Halim, Dr Mahathir’s reason was merely that the one-time Umno corporate nominee “no longer enjoyed public confidence”.
The digital magazine said Halim did not agree at first, insisting that Renong did not need a bailout as the group had enough assets to cover its outstanding loans.
“The Mahathir administration saw things differently,” The Edge Review wrote. “The group’s slow progress in restructuring its roughly RM13 billion debt was placing a huge strain on the national banking system.”
Under pressure, Halim subsequently gave up his stake in exchange for the nearly RM2 billion deal and Khazanah subsequently took UEM private in 2001.For the media is increasingly filled with the same kind of tactics that politicians have forever been accused of: hyper aggressive, unbothered about the law, abusive in language, attacking each other without any proof, etc etc. The truth is that even more than politicians, it is the media now that should be accused of adopting …Read more
