1. Malaysia wants to be a true believer in the rights of man, in democracy and the rule of law.
2. We abolished the ISA, the Internal Security Act and the law which provides for restricted residence of habitual criminals.
3. We almost repealed the Anti-Sedition Act which would have won us more praise from the powers that be.
Negara-ku Malaysia, Tanahair-ku, Tanah di mana sembilan puluh tahun dahulu
Darah tumpah dan aku dilahir
Di lahir sebagai anak bangsa yang dijajah
Aku membesar mempertuankan orang asing
Terhina dan dihina
Bangsa yang serba kekurangan
Tinggal dipondok berbumbung atap nipah
Berdinding, berlantai kayu
Namun aku lebih bahagia dari ramai bangsaku
Mereka tinggal di pondok robek, tiris apabila hujan
Tanpa pili air tanpa lampu letrik
Anak mereka berkaki ayam, berkudis
Demam panas dan kadang-kadang meninggal
Aku survive, aku ke sekolah, aku ke universiti
Nasib aku lebih baik
Allah Subhanahu Wataala kesian kepada aku
Setelah dijajah oleh satu bangsa, dijajah pula oleh dua bangsa lagi
Aku bertanya akan bangsaku selalunya dijajah orangkah?
Alhamdullilah, berkat kesedaran, berkat perjuangan, berkat perpaduan
Bangsaku dibebas, merdeka
Apakah merdeka hanya bermakna tidak dijajah orang
Apakah merdeka bermakna terus merana
Tidak, tidak, tidak
Merdeka bermakna kemajuan
Kemajuan sehingga berdiri sama tinggi
Duduk sama rendah dengan bekas penjajah dan bangsa lain
Bahkan mungkin lebih tinggi
Politik yang menyelamat dahulu
Terus membela bangsa
Negara dibangun, bangsa dibangun, agama di muliakan
Kemudian…
Malang dan sedih,
Bangsa yang berjiwa kental, bersemangat besi
Diserang oleh nafsu dan perasaan tamak
Aku dapat apa dari kemerdekaan tanya mereka?
Mana bahagian aku?
Dan semangat pun menjadi luntur, tidak terdaya mengawal nafsu
Apa makna senang jika untuk mendapat sesuatu begitu susah
Dan nafsu dan perasaan tamak pun di peralat dan disogok oleh orang-orang politik dan orang kaya
Bangsa yang merdeka
Bangsa yang mulia
Sekarang sanggup menjual hak yang sedikit
Hak memilih, hak mengundi
Untuk mendapat kesenangan tanpa usaha, kesenangan yang sedikit
Maruah dijual
Bangsa dijual
Tanahair dijual
Segalanya dijual
Untuk nikmat yang tidak kekal, nikmat yang sementara yang sedikit sahaja
Politik yang menyelamat
Menjadi politik yang menghancur
Pemimpin semakin tamak
Untuk tempat dan kedudukan tinggi
Perbuatan yang haram dihalalkan
Nama Allah diperalatkan, dijual untuk nikmat yang sementara di dunia
Akan kembalikah bangsaku
Menjadi bangsa yang dijajah, dihina dan diperhambakan
Wahai bangsaku
Begitu mudahkah kamu lupa
Aku akan pergi tidak lama lagi
Dapatkah aku pejam mata dan hembus nafas terakhir
Kerana bangsaku
Negaraku
Masih mulia
Masih bermaruah
Masih dipandang tinggi
Atau mataku terbeliak
Nafasku tersesak, terhenti, kerana segala yang diperjuangkan luput ditelan nafsu
Ya Allah lindungilah bangsaku
Sedarkanlah mereka
Sedarkan mereka bahawa Engkau tidak akan mengubah nasib bangsa
Melainkan bangsa itu sendiri cuba mengubahnya
Mengubah sendiri, membendung nafsu
Kerana Allah
Kerana agama
Kerana bangsa
Kerana negara
Biarlah aku pergi
Mata terpejam rapat
Nafas perlahan berhenti…
DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Julai 10, 2015
1. Saya dicela oleh Anifah Aman, Menteri Luar kerana memalukan negara dengan ditemubual oleh akhbar Amerika “The New York Times”.
2. Mungkin Anifah tidak pernah baca suratkhabar Amerika sebelum usaha untuk memburukkan nama saya dijadikan asas mempertahankan Perdana Menteri Najib. Tetapi seluruh dunia tahu berkenaan Dato Seri Najib, Jho Low dan 1MDB. Ini disebabkan akhbar terkenal Wasington, New York dan London telah menyiarkan rencana panjang sehingga empat muka berkenaan skandal 1MDB, Najib dengan cara hidup mewahnya, Jho Low sahabat karibnya dan Riza Aziz, anak tirinya yang membiayai filem lucah “The Wolf of Wall Street”.
1. One of the greatest achievements of Malaysia is in the collection of taxes. Malaysians willingly pay taxes. They fear legal action being taken against them. They fear more the raids on their businesses and residences by the income tax authorities. I know this because I was raided when I was expelled from the party and was working as a medical practitioner.
2. They got hold of my cheque stubs and nothing I said would convince them that the money in my account was not all mine. In the end I had to pay more than twice what they claimed I had not declared.
3. The income tax people are always on the lookout for people who live beyond their means. They would raid these people and would force them to pay additional tax should they feel that the culprit had not paid up fully on their wealth.
1. Competition is good, says the CEO of the Malaysian Automotive Institute (The Edge Malaysia, June 22, 2015). It will benefit consumers and allow local industry players to explore export market.
2. It is therefore good that the Malaysian automotive industry should compete with cars imported from Japan, Korea, China and Germany. Incidentally these countries impose conditions and standards which prevent Malaysian cars from being imported into their countries to compete. So the consumers in Japan, Germany, Korea and China cannot enjoy the benefits of competition like their Malaysian counterparts
3. Some of us may have noticed that in sports for example competition is between people of the same category by age or in football by division. In golf handicaps are given so that the competition would be fair.
1. Some people are very excited about Justo. Now they say the critics of the Prime Minister should apologise. Apologise for what? The fact remains that vast amounts of money has disappeared. Can Justo bring all the money back?
2. Justo was dismissed and Petro Saudi gave him 15 million Ringgit. Is he being bribed or what? That is a handsome amount to pay an employee or director after he had done something wrong. Normally he would just be kicked out. But we are told he is not happy with this amount and demanded for more or else he would leak documents. What is the proof that he tampered with the documents or he has more incriminating documents. How does he negate the fact as admitted by the Prime Minister in a written reply to Parliament? He said that, “a US1.9 billion dollar loan from 1MDB to a subsidiary of Petro Saudi International Limited was in order to reduce the risk on the equity holding.” Giving a loan to a joint-venture partner who was found unsuitable as a JV partner would increase the risk, not reduce it.
3. When the JV was dissolved after only 6 months of its formation, it must be because 1MDB realised that the venture was bad. What it should do is to demand the equity and the loan amounting to US1.9 billion be returned. Instead it was converted into a loan (murabahah).
4. Having given this US1.9 billion loan, where is the money now? The Government has not clarified. Is it in Cayman Islands, or in Singapore or where. That amount of money cannot be shifted around without being recorded by the banks involved. Surely Najib knows. Yet the money has not returned.
1. “Foreign Affairs” is an American magazine. It is highly respected in America but it is not my favourite magazine.
2. Recently while flying I came across its latest edition. Its theme in the issue is on race and colour and on how they affect relations between people. I became interested because I felt sure the magazine would have nothing good to say about Malaysia.
3. There is an article on colour-blindness in America – meaning to say that all Americans of whatever colour are equal. Apparently the equality between people of different colours has not produced good results. What it really means is that everything, including opportunities must be based on merit.
1. To all my criticisms 1MDB, can only say that they are all wrong. But there are no proofs given. The answer is always about secrecy of Government matters.
2. I know about the TIA refusal to allow the future products of Terengganu oil wells to be used as collateral by talking to the people who were actually involved with the TIA. The Federal Government as guarantor for the RM5 billion loan was because Terengganu rejected the absurd. Why should Terengganu pull out of the Federal Government’s initial proposal that its oil wells future production be the collateral.
1. 1MDB entered into a JV with Petro Saudi. It is not a Saudi Government company. 1MDB paid USD 1billlion as its 40% share of the JV. As far as can be ascertained Petro Saudi did not pay a single cent.
2. Then Petro Saudi is said to have bought the assets of Petro Saudi International, which is not owned by Petro Saudi. The JV between 1MDB and Petro Saudi then requested 1MDB to pay USD 700 million to settle the loan from Petro Saudi International to Petro Saudi.
3. The ownership of the oil fields in Argentina and Kazakhstan (or is it Turkmenistan) is not very clear, nor is the ownership of drilling ships.
1. From the comments on my blog and the questions I have been asked by people while shopping, it is clear that many do not know much about 1MDB. They know enough that Najib has done something wrong with the RM42 billion borrowed money, but are not clear about what is so wrong that I should call upon him to resign.
2. So I think I need to explain why 1MDB is wrong in stages.
The Terengganu Investment Authority
3. Firstly the attempt to hijack the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) money. Petronas pays 5% of its gross earnings to the Terengganu Government. Over the years their royalty has grown quite big.
4. Jho Low persuaded Najib to make the TIA into a sovereign fund for investment like the Kuwait Investment Fund but under Najib’s control. Appointments of staff were made by Najib without Terengganu’s knowledge. Terengganu agreed at first but when Najib decided to raise through bonds RM5 billion using Terengganu oil wells as collateral, the istana and the Government thought it was not right.
5. Terengganu requested that the issuance of the bonds be deferred. Najib went ahead. Terengganu accordingly withdrew as it cannot let its’ oil wells be put at risk.
6. Jho Low then advised Najib that the Federal Government should guarantee the loan. Strictly speaking such a matter should be discussed and approved by Cabinet. There is no evidence that a cabinet paper was prepared and presented for approval despite the amount being unusually big. In fact for a long time Cabinet was not aware of the activities of 1MDB.
7. To avoid scrutiny by officials, the loan was classified as off – budget i.e. outside the annual budget presented to and approved by Parliament. Off – budget spending can be made but usually only limited in amount. RM5 billion have never been borrowed by Government or any of its agencies. It should not be off-budget. It should get Cabinet approval first and then presented to Parliament. None of these procedures were followed.
8. It is not clear whether any Government department or agencies have scrutinised the terms of the loans. But the terms were very unfavourable to 1MDB and the Government.
9. Goldman Sachs which was entrusted with raising the loan was given;
i) Commission of 10%
ii) The interest rate was fixed at 5.9%
10. What this means is that of the RM5 billion borrowed 1MDB would get only RM4.5 billion. Goldman Sachs would get RM500 million as commission, an inordinately large sum.
11. But 1MDB would pay 5.9% interest on the whole of RM5 billion. Since it gets only RM4.5 billion the rate of interest on this amount would be 6.6% plus. Goldman Sachs need not pay interest on the RM500,000,000/- it got as commission.
12. Loans taken by Government or guaranteed by Government would normally carry 3% interest or less. But the 1MDB loan cost almost 7% interest i.e, about RM350 million a year or almost RM1 million per day.
13. Who approved such terrible terms for a loan to a government owned company? We would like to know who. There must be some documents with the signature of the approving authority. If not somebody needs to answer for this stupidity. Or is it abuse of authority.
14. But more loans were raised from local as well as foreign banks. In all RM42 billion were borrowed. It is not clear what the terms are. But interest on RM42 billion must come to almost RM3 billion a year. Unless the investment yield fantastic returns, the interest burden would sink 1MDB. In fact as everyone knows Ananda Krishnan had to make available RM2 billion to pay the interest. Is it a loan or a free gift? Later 1MDB had to sell shares or properties for USD1 billion (RM3.7 billion) in order to settle short term loan from a German bank.
15. 1MDB is effectively headed by the Prime Minister who is also the Minister of Finance. When loans of more than 100 million are raised for investment overseas Bank Negara has to approve. But the final approval must come from the Minister responsible. And the Minister responsible is also the effective head of 1MDB.
Investments
16. The best known investments by 1MDB were in the purchase of power plants and Government land as well as private land.
Power Plants
17. RM18 billion was spent to purchase IPP belonging to Ananda Krishnan, Genting Sanyen Power (now known as Kuala Langat Power Plant) and Jimah Energy.
18. The prices paid for Genting Sanyen and Ananda’s IPP were well above market price. 1MDB also paid RM6 billion for unpaid loans. The Jimah IPP was to put up another power plant. But 1MDB had no money to build this plant
19. Genting Sanyen and Tanjung Energy (now known as Powertek Energy Sdn Bhd) were nearing expiration of their licenses. Had 1MDB waited until the licenses expired, the price would be next to nothing.
20. Why 1MDB did not wait until the expiry of the license is a mystery. Genting and Ananda clearly made more money than they were entitled to. One estimate is that the high price netted the sellers an extra RM3 billion. Besides they are relieved of the loan of RM6 billion.
21. So not only is the borrowing costly but the high cost of investments will mean low returns. Why is 1MDB so stupid.
22. As stated above 1MDB is unable to get the IPP listed again. Who would want to own overpriced and obviously unprofitable power plant.
Purchase of Land
23. The land along Jalan Tun Razak was actually meant for an agency to build shops etc for Bumiputras. But instead the Government sold the 70 acres to 1MDB for RM320 million i.e. at RM 60/- psf. Land close by had been sold at RM7000 /-psf. 1MDB should pay at least RM3000 to RM4000 /- psf.
24. Government lost a huge amount of money from the sales. The question is why did the Government sell at such a low price. One cannot help thinking it is because the PM ordered the sale. If so it is wrong and it constitutes abuse of authority. The full value should be paid to the Government now.
25. Then 1MDB decides to sell a small part of the land at the price it bought the whole 70 acres of land. Payment was made by Tabung Haji even before the transfer of ownership was completed. Apparently 1MDB needed the money immediately.
26. The directors of 1MDB and Tabung Haji are the same people. They claim that they abstained from voting. But obviously it was not an arms– length deal.
27. If the Government could sell to 1MDB at RM60 /- psf, it should also sell at the same price to TH. But effectively it has used money saved by intending pilgrims to give enormous profit to 1MDB.
28. It is the same with the Sungai Besi airport land. 1MDB acquires it at the ridiculously low price of RM90 /- psf. The value of the land is at least RM2000 /- psf.
29. But 1MDB bought private land in Penang at a much higher price. Yet the land is not at the centre of the city, has more than 1000 squatters and has not obtained the Penang Government approval for development. Seems like 1MDB had overpaid the seller for useless land. Why?
Assets
30. 1MDB claims it has assets worth RM52 billion.
31. So far no explanation has been given as to how these assets are valued. How much is the value of all the power plants. And how much are the prices of land worth?
32. Future values after development may be big but billions of Ringgits must be invested before the property can be sold. After deducting cost, the return cannot be very big. The power plants and the land cannot be worth RM52 billion.
33. Even if this money is used to repay debts, the disappearance of billions of Ringgit must be recovered, or 1MDB should be charged for the loss.