Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi

In An open letter to Mahathir Mohamad (see MM Online), Johari Abdul Ghani, who is Malaysia's Finance Minister II and also a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, wrote among many issues about the Forex Loss of RM31.5 Billion under the PM-ship of Mahathir, the following (selected extracts):


2. It is very important for the public at large to understand the difference between speculative foreign exchange activities and orderly management of foreign exchange market.

The speculative foreign exchange activity, to put it in simpler words, is a kind of “gambling” activity with the hope of quick returns.

[...]

6. Because of the scale of these foreign exchange speculative activities losses, the Government was forced to transfer its shares in Telekom and Tenaga Nasional Berhad to BNM at the nominal value of RM1 per share and these shares were immediately revalued by BNM at RM22.10 per share and RM19.30 per share for Telekom and TNB respectively.

In addition, BNM had to dispose off its Malaysia Airlines shares to a third party at the price of RM8 per share and MISC shares at RM10 per share to Kumpulan Wang Pencen in order to realise the gain.

If these speculative foreign exchange losses were not real, the Government would not have taken these drastic actions in order to cover the BNM losses at that material time.

The above transactions were humongous losses to the Malaysian public, because when one talks about 'government shares' and 'BNM's shares', those shares actually belong to us, the general Malaysian public.

And the losses were as a result of ... gambling ... with public money-assets.



Now, Johari Abdul Ghani is Malaysia's Finance Minister II and of course would/could be accused of political bias against Mahathir.

But the scandal regarding Makuwasa would not be, because Mahathir himself admitted it. A week ago I penned Stricken by plagues of Egypt? in which I said:

... let us talk about (1) the Maminco-Makuwasa scandal.

But why was that Maminco scheme called Maminco-Makusawa intead? What was the Makuwasa part of it.

Let us hear from WTF, which states:

Malaysia used to be the world’s leading tin producer accounting for 31% of the world’s output. It was a major contributor to the country’s economy providing employment for more than 40,000 people.


In 1985 the world tin market crashed with the price plunging by 50%. Many tin mines in Malaysia had to close as it was no longer economical to operate the tin mines.

One of the factors that contributed to the collapse of the tin market is the ill-fated attempt by the Malaysian government to corner the tin market and to prop up the tin price.

In this crooked scheme, a RM2 company Maminco Sdn. Bhd. was set up and was used to secretly buy tin future contracts and physical tin in order to push up prices on the London Metal Exchange.

To finance its covert activities, Maminco obtained financing from Bank Bumiputra – naturally. At one point, this RM2 company was borrowing astronomical amounts from the bank – as much as RM1.5 billion.


It's those unfair plagues sent against me 

With that introduction let's leap to the Makuwasa scandal.

Undertaking this Maminco scheme is already bad enough. But instead of admitting their mistake, Mahathir and his merry band cooked up another scheme to hide the losses incurred by Maminco from the Malaysian public. Another RM2 company called Makuwasa was set up.



Continuing - The idea was new shares reserved for bumiputras allocated to EPF were diverted to Makuwasa at par value!

Can you believe this? These cheaply acquired shares could then be sold for a profit at market price! Instant profits made by Makuwasa can then be used to cover the Maminco’s losses.

Effectively, Makuwasa is used to raid the savings of Malaysians to help pay for Maminco’s losses!


In 1986 Mahathir publicly admitted that Makuwasa was created to recoup the government’s losses from the Maminco debacle and to repay its loans to Bank Bumiputra.

Memang harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi. The Malays in general were tyhe BIG losers, having a big chunk of their assets (shares reserved for them) pilfered or stolen to cover up someone's speculation (gambling) mistake.

Which do you think had been the worse, the theft in the Makuwasa scandal or the selling off (transactions) of public-owned shares (Telekom, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, MAS shares) held in trust by the government and BNM?

 

20 comments:

  1. "The idea was new shares reserved for bumiputras allocated to EPF were diverted to Makuwasa at par value!"

    It was up to 70% of the shares reserved for bumiputra were sapu-ed by Makuwasa. Tsk..tsk..

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  2. Johari Abdul Ghani is the one who tried to bullshit the public that No public funds were involved in 1MDBs settlement with IPIC and "No wrong doing" was involved in 1MDB transactions.

    Singapore courts have already sentenced 2 individuals to jail over 1MDB transactiins and penalised 3 others without jail terms.

    Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants my foot. The liar should be disbarred for life from claiming to be an accountant.

    Mahathir did very bad things during his time in power, but Johari Abdul is the last person I would assign any credibility to.

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    1. wakakaka, I knew you would attacked Johari, which to me is fine, but please at least address those pilfered shares reserved for Malays

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    2. Johari is correct. 1MDB had not lost any money. I am asking you again Monsterball: How much had been siphoned out by 1MDB? You better get your facts right first. I am with Johari, absolutely.

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    3. When dedak eaters and their vested-interest supporters deliberately ignore the smelly shit right in front of their eyes and under their very nose, they have already forfeited their right to rail and lament about the shit that occurred decades ago !

      While both shitters took the rakyat for a ride and defraud us, we have a right to demand for justice. But deplorable dedak eaters and shameful their supporters have NO right to EVEN talk about justice, let alone demand for justice, when they have so openly give support for the grand thievery of one of the shitters. They deliberately ignore, and pretended that no crime was committed by one of the shitters.

      We have to pay IPIC twice, once to the fake company and then to the real one when the latter rightfully made its demand. So far, no action absolutely to recover our money that was "wrongfully" paid to the fake IPIC and the criminal is free to leisurely enjoy the breeze sailing with great equanimity around the international waters.

      The U.S. lawsuits had seek to seize assets “involved in and traceable to an international conspiracy to launder money misappropriated from 1MDB” over a four-year period. Did our govt work closely with DOJ of USA so that we could at least claim back two thirds of these stolen money ?? But no, so far, what we get is the stonewalling...the official silence on this is deafening. Nope, we apparently did not lose any money at all, wakakaka although DOJ was and is saying that these money belongs to Malaysia ! Billions of ringgit to be returned to us, but nope, our official stand is, "no money was lost, we are not claiming these money, we think DOJ is nuts, wanting to return billions of ringgit which in the first place don't belong to us as we didn't lose a single cent" wakakakakakaka.

      Ini pun la harap pagar, pagar makan padi. Tetapi the dedak gang ONLY want to talk about one type pagar only which also cannot di harap kan. Both these crimes committed by Dumbno leaders but DEDAK gang not interested in 1MDB pagar, wakakaka. Justice my foot !


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    4. How does defending and promoting a Kleptiocrat's lackey help build a better Malaysia?

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  3. 1. In the proverb, pagar doesn't mean fence, rather it's a kind of a bird spelled as pagar.
    2.bnm is a regulator, why did they become a gila punya gambler, and that yaakob guy is still untouched how come?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1. when I was schooling, my Bahasa teacher (Malay) taught me 'pagar'. Think of it, memang a pegar (pheasant) makan padi, jadi mengapa harapkannya? There's a still a lot of argument on this.

      But I checked with "Kamus Istimewa Peribahasa Melayu" (olih Abdullah Hussein - Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka Cetakan Pertama 1965) and 'Pagar' is correct.

      2. Jadi, harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi, wakakaka seperti di perkara Maminco-Makuwasa

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  4. Hadapkan Pegar...Pegar makan padi
    Pegar = a type of bird

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    1. I checked with "Kamus Istimewa Peribahasa Melayu" (olih Abdullah Hussein - Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka Cetakan Pertama 1965) and 'Pagar' is correct.

      Kita ta'mahu harapkan pEgar lah, ianya se-ekor burung yang memang 'nak makan padi, wakakaka

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    2. This kind of bird tak makan padi, dia makan ulat2/serangga yg attack padi.

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  5. Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi
    is exactly the story of 1MDB.

    Najib Tun Gasak is the powerful Chairman of the 1MDB advisory board, meant to act as the safeguard for funds borrowed by the fully Government-owned entity.

    Instead , according to the Singapore courts, Billions of dollars were divertered into bogus accounts. According to the US FBI, Billions diverted ended spent on luxury properties in New York, Bel-Air as well as private jets and luxury mega-yachts.


    Yes Pagar Sudah makan padi.

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    1. Quote

      "There is currently no action against 1MDB. Only against properties thought to have been procured using money belonging to 1MDB,” said Thomas C Goldstein, Advocate Appellate, US Supreme Court said when asked about the civil forfeiture action against 1MDB.

      When asked to whom would the DoJ return the seized money to, Tom explained that the issue has put the DoJ in limbo as the 1MDB has said that the money is not theirs, whereas the case is based on money taken from 1MDB, made by complainants that do not represent 1MDB.

      “The DoJ has recently to put on hold civil forfeiture lawsuits against assets acquired (by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low), because pursuing these may have “an adverse effect” on its ability to conduct the criminal investigation. What the DoJ is doing is it is trying to prevent the money from dissipating by starting a criminal action,” Tom explained. “But right now there is very little activity pertaining to the case and no one has been named as criminal targets.”

      Asked if this (that 1MDB says the money is not theirs) is the reason it has taken the DoJ so long to actually initiate something, he answered with a simple, “Yes.”

      “A huge amount of money made its way into the US, and the DoJ is interested to know where is the source of this money. It is not a criminal case and an escalation into one will only make life more difficult for them as there has been no precedent. No one has been named in the civil forfeiture suit. If a criminal case were to be developed then it would be a classical criminal case and the burden of proof falls on the DoJ that it has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that crime has been committed,” Tom added.

      All the people that have been charged, tried and sent to jail for laundering “1MDB money” in Singapore and elsewhere in the world were bank employees who flouted the local financial regulations.  Yet, not a single 1MDB employee has ever been charged in those courts.  Why?

      Unquote


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    2. You should be thankful both Singapore and United States have been scrupulous in only acting on matters within their jurisdiction and did NOT interfere in Malaysia's internal affairs.

      Singapore charged and jailed , and also penalised other individuals and organisations, for crimes they committed on Singapore soil. Specifically the crime of administering and facilitating transactions which fraudulently diverted 1MDB-sourced funds into Bogus accounts.

      United States is seizing property purchased in the USA from what they have traced to be illegally sourced funds.
      This is a powerful law originally created to seize property purchased by the ill-gotten gains of Drug Traffickers. The common tactic has been get a court order to seize property first, then later develop a criminal case.

      The crime of the original fraud did NOT occur on either Singapore or USA soil, and they are not charging anybody for that.

      The actual fraud occurred in Malaysia, and belongs to Malaysia to investigate and charge people involved. But Malaysia's non-independent police and prosecution refuse to act on the fraud. This is NOT for the USA or Singapore to prosecute, and they have not done so.

      Thomas C Goldstein is NOT a DOJ official.

      Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General of the USA, and from his press conference, he intends to pursue this matter with the full force of the DOJ and the FBI.

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    3. There is a piece of extra-territorial American power which is a tremendous source of intelligence to US law enforcement and national security authorities, and also sanction power, including against Iran (previously) and North Korea (now)

      Many countries, and not just criminals, hate it, but have no choice as long as the US Dollar remains the principal Currency used in international trade.

      Every US Dollar institutional transaction in the world, either pay in or pay out, must route through a bank or other institutional branch which sits on US Soil. No significant international bank or other institution dare violate this rule, as they risk severe US penalties and being locked out of the US Dollar system. Once on US Soil, the DOJ , FBI etc. can get a court order to access, analyse and monitor the transactions.

      That's how 1MDB's fraudulent transactions got caught...paid from which account, paid to which account, rerouted to yet other accounts, who owns those accounts, used to buy this and that property....all visible to the FBI.

      There is a way around this by using only Cash or by going through a rogue bank. However, once the transaction runs into many Millions or even Billions, it is near impossible to go by Cash and rogue banks don't have enough underground Dollars to manage.

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  6. "Thomas C Goldstein is NOT a DOJ official."

    Nevertheless, didn't Goldstein gave an independent legal opinion that is not jumbled by a convoluted trial-by-media game and propaganda led by Mahathir, who is supported by his dedak gang like you?

    1MDB's projects are on-going strong and its development value is worth in hundreds of billions, unlike the speculative forex and tin trading, all lesap-ed, and kaya-ed the Jews.

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    1. The Najib administration transferred 486 acres of Government land (Sungai Besi RMAF base) at RM76psf to 1MDB. That land is now "Bandar Malaysia" and 1MDB made an instant RM 7.2 Billion valuation gain on it.
      That kind of "strong project" I also know how to do..

      Then 1MDB got to sell the land at even higher price to China and Australian entities.

      That kind of "business" I also know how to do..

      The money is being used to pay the debts for 1MDB cash siphoned off to USA luxury properties.

      The above transactions were humongous losses to the Malaysian public, because when one talks about 'government land' and '1MDB money', those funds actually belong to us, the general Malaysian public.

      And the losses were as a result of ... theft ... with public money-assets.

      Memang harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi. Malaysians in general, including the Malays, are the BIG losers, having a big chunk of their assets (government land ) pilfered or stolen to cover up someone's theft (kleptocracy) .

      Which do you think had been the worse, the theft in the 1MDB scandal or the selling off (transactions) of public-owned land (TRX, Sungai Besi RMAF Base land) held in trust by the government to pay off the stolen funds?

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    2. It is more than one and a half years now; why hasn’t the DoJ taken any action?  Thus, it accentuates what Goldstein had said - "the complainant said the money was siphoned from 1MDB, but the 1MDB said they have not lost a single cent.  So, whose money did these '1MDB officials' siphon?" Is it Jho Loh's? LKS? Yours? The limbo will rock on for decades.

      BTW from my training, I can accept the 1MDB's business model. It has been used and replicated by many State Corporations and GLCs.

      Is there anything illegal about it? Nope. They teach this model at Business Schools. You can guess how Trump makes his billions?

      Finally, “The DoJ, based on the complaint, is just tracing the money and think it may be linked to 1MDB. Right now, there is no suggestion of any criminal target." ~ Tom Goldstein

      I emphasize and recapitulate the words "and think it may be linked to 1MDB. ..no suggestion of any criminal target."

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    3. " 1MDB business model"....

      Nothing more nothing less than a model of how some people were monetizing government assets to line their own pockets.

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    4. Privatization and assets stripping pun sama lah..

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