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Thursday, July 27, 2006

The MAS Shares

Dr Mahathir pooh-pooh-ed away once-MAS towkay Tajuddin Ramli’s allegation that he bought shares in the national carrier shares on the instruction of the former PM to bail out Bank Negara.

Dr Mahathir revealed that former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin told him Tajuddin was interested in MAS shares. He said Tajuddin had earlier proposed to the Government to buy MAS shares through the exchange of Celcom and Naluri shares. Dr Mahathir claimed he nix-ed Tajuddin’s exchange proposal.

He said: “We were privatising everything at that time. When he wanted to buy the shares, we told him we wanted cash. I said if he had no money, we were not willing to sell him the shares.”

Dr Mahathir added: “I did not force him to buy MAS shares. I never asked him to do national service*. At that time the Government was not short of money. We had the money in Bank Negara, and knew how to recover the losses. We had RM 50 billion in our reserves then. We did not need his money.”

* Tajuddin had claimed that Dr Mahathir told him to buy the MAS shares as a ‘national service’ to the nation. Tajuddin borrowed RM 1.8 billion to pay for the MAS shares.

In this particular case I am inclined to believe Dr Mahathir for a number of reasons:

(1) When Tajuddin made that allegation, he was (still is) in deep financial trouble.
(2) His revelation at a crucial time in Malaysian politics seemed too ‘coincidental’.
(3) Whatever people may say about Mahathir, he has a reputation for looking after ‘his people’. Therefore abandoning a ‘faithful’ Tajuddin seemed at odds with the character of the man.
(4) Assuming Mahathir did do what Tajuddin averred, would such a powerful and intelligent man leave ‘loose ends’ floating around to haunt him subsequently?

I may be wrong but on the strength of logic and known Mahathir’s characteristics I have my doubts about Tajuddin’s allegation.

3 comments:

  1. I am noet so sure ; didn't the government buy the shares back from TR at RM 8 per share while the market price was only half that ?

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  2. Free & Fair,

    I do sincerely believe Ktemoc have been re-reading the Malay Dilemma and Mein Kampf one time too many, which may account for his incoherent ramblings regarding the MAS shares.

    Most privatisation programmes carried out by other free and fair governments are usually carried out in an open and transparent manner i.e. open bids subject to certain clauses and restrictions. And in developed countries, an open hearing may be initiated to allow the public to give their views.

    After privatisation, those same said governments may institute tribunals or ombudsman to ensure the the operations of the privatised entities do not impugn on public interests i.e. taking on a malignant oligopolistic or monopolistic role. Furthermore, if the initial privatisation is considered a failure, governments do their best to find a white knight to rescue the troubled entity; buy-backs using taxpayers' money is only considered as a last resort and to be done as cheaply as possible.

    Of course, in Malaysia, taxpayers' money are used to benefit only a certain group of individuals in the name of 'empowering' the S.O.S. After 30 odd years of empowerment, I find it odd the S.O.S. still require IV drips and the non-S.O.S. footing the bill...

    As for Tajudin's claim, I think it would be better for us to wair for the court to reach its decision before blatantly commenting on some 'conspiracies'. Yes, Ktemoc, lay off those X-Files reruns too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. quote
    Most privatisation programmes carried out by other free and fair governments are usually ...
    unquote

    quote
    ... those same said governments may institute tribunals ...
    unquote

    Such conditions or processes hardly exist in Malaysia.

    My posting was not about the process. T'was about the plausibility of Tajuddin's allegation. I have provided my thoughts on why I don't buy his allegation. This doesn't mean I believe the sales and buyback were proper - only that it was unlikely to have happened the way he painted it, as if he was the victim.

    ReplyDelete