Confess and Redress Commission To Combat Corruption

 Confess And Redress Commission To Combat Corruption

M. Bakri Musa

 

Towards the end of his forty-minute address to Indonesian students at Al Azhar University in Cairo last November 2024, President Prabowo announced a major policy initiative:  Amnesty to the corrupt in return for their giving up their loot. The students cheered!

 

Back home the reception was far different. The intellectuals and academics mercilessly ridiculed him and his idea, but Prabowo was unfazed. “Saya bisa di ejek!” (I am used to being mocked), he panned. They had mocked him earlier when he initiated the free school lunch program.

 

That President Prabowo could be ridiculed and he in turn accepting criticisms reveal the remarkable sea change in that republic. A generation ago when his father-in-law Suharto was in power, such criticisms would have been unthinkable, likewise the consequences. Consider the tragic fate of Pramoedya Ananta Toer. 

 

            Prabowo’s bold innovation is a tacit recognition of the magnitude of public corruption in Indonesia and past failures at tackling it. Properly executed, his amnesty program could dent this scourge. Corruption and influence peddling are not unique to the Third World. In America they just re-label them as lobbying, political contributions, and aggressive advocacy. Whatever terms you use, the corrosive effects remain. 

 

When faced with an entrenched problem and where the usual remedies have proven ineffective, it is time to consider other bold measures that may seem counter-intuitive.  

 

            During apartheid South Africa, egregious abuses of human rights were entrenched, pervasive, if not institutionalized. When Nelson Mandela was released from his decades-long imprisonment and later elected President of South Africa, he recognized this immense challenge. He was more into finding the extent of the abuses, their victims, and other hidden aspects of that abhorrent culture. His hope was that the ensuing exposure would shame citizens and prompt societal changes for the better, sunlight being the best disinfectant. 

 

His Truth And Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was less a “law and order” exercise, more of restorative justice, focusing on acknowledging the abuses and on healing rather than revenge or punishment. Mandela wanted his nation to know the extent of the abuses and hear from the victims as well as perpetrators by promising amnesty to the latter in return for their testimonies and confessions. 

 

A comparable Confess And Redress Commission (CRC) could just be the pathway to tackle corruption in Malaysia. Like Mandela’s TRC, CRC would be less to punish, more to find out the magnitude, pervasiveness, and infinite manifestations of this social scourge, as well as to gauge the magnitude of the monetary loss and opportunity costs. 

 

CRC would create a prisoner’s dilemma of sorts among bribers and bribees. Cooperate and confess, you could reduce or even eliminate potential punishment through amnesty. Remain quiet and you risk being exposed by the other party.

 

The amnesty period should be for a short duration, about six months, and only for acts within the past decade. Long amnesty period would encourage collusion. Restricting to corrupt acts within the past decade would circumvent possible statute of limitation strictures. 

 

The confession would be through sworn statements detailing their roles, money involved, relevant supporting documents, and other evidence. This submission would be made through legal counsel. No amateurish free lancing self-declaration or self-lawyering. 

 

The inducement for full cooperation would be total amnesty, together with the assurance that your self-confessed evidences could not later be used against you. 

 

As for the loot, you would have to pay 5 percent of the bribe amount at the time you submit your declaration. That would increase to 10 percent if paid within 30 days, and 25 percent beyond that to six months. No confessions would be accepted if the deposit were not paid within six months of declaration. 

 

Prabowo’s amnesty would have the corrupt return their loot. Minimal incentive there. 

 

If your evidence were later led to successful prosecution of the other party, then your deposit would be refunded. In addition, you would get a percentage of the loot recovered, comparable to America’s Whistleblowers Protection Act (WPA). That’s incentive enough! 

 

Malaysia too has its WPA but has minimal impact. There is no incentive (except for civic duty) and great risk of backfiring if for example you were to criticize the government. America’s WPA helped recover billions in Medicare and other abuses. 

 

Like America, Malaysia also has her Asset Declaration Act for public officials. It is complex and covers too many individuals. Limit that to only the top 100 (sultans, ministers, chief secretaries, and appellate judges) and make the declaration simple and public. Google President Biden’s asset declaration – simple and open. 

 

Back to Prabowo’s free school meals. That has now degenerated into another colossal wastage with tasteless foods being served. I wonder how much corruption was involved in awarding those catering contracts?

 

It is not enough to have a brilliant idea. You have to be prepared to modify as you go along if the implementations were to be less than what you had expected. Nothing is perfect at its inception.

Najib And 1MDB - Emblematic Of The "Malay Problem"

 Najib And 1MDB – Emblematic Of The “Malay Problem”

M. Bakri Musa

 

The humongous One Malaysia Berhad (1MDB) mess is emblematic of a much greater and complex “Malay Problem.” That is, the ignorance and willful detachment of Malay leaders to the pressing monumental challenges facing our community.

 

To wit, the two major Malay political parties, United Malay National Organization (UMNO) and the Islamic Party PAS, planned a major rally this Monday January 6, 2025 to support former Prime Minister Najib Razak, the central crook in the 1MDB scandal now jailed. Pardoning Najib will not contribute in any way towards solving the Malay problem. On the contrary he is very much part of the problem, thus cannot be part of the solution. 

 

Last Friday January 3, days before the rally, UMNO abruptly withdrew its participation ostensibly in deference to an earlier royal decree. It would also have been awkward had UMNO taken part as it is part of the government. Unstated but clear and loud as the call for Azzan is that the present Agung will not be beholden to what his immediate predecessor might have decided (or not) with respect to Najib’s pardon. UMNO readily cowed to that presumed palace disapproval of the rally.

 

The previous Agung had a soft spot for Najib; not so the current one. The present one had in no uncertain terms declared on day one his abhorrence for corrupt leaders. Long close to the crisp, honest and competent ministers across the causeway, Sultan Ibrahim has minimal tolerance to their corrupt sluggish Malaysian variety.

 

Come Monday we will see how far UMNO members can escape their feudal mindset to exercise their rights to a peaceful assembly. PAS meanwhile issued a statement to continue with the rally, thus in effect defying the palace. Kudos to them if they do indeed proceed. The right to a peaceful assembly far outranked the presumed defying of a royal decree.

 

This much is clear. Najib has once again demonstrated that he is a divisive figure. As veteran journalist Kadir Jasin noted, Najib was convicted not for stealing naan at the local Indian bakery. 

 

A major turnout this Monday would portend more and even greater future 1MDBs should these leaders regain power. On the positive side, that would also signal that Malays (especially those in UMNO) have escaped our feudal mentality and assert their rights to a peaceful assembly.

 

Last December 12, 2024 there was the pathetic sight of former Prime Ministers Mahathir and Muhyiddin Yassin announcing with great fanfare the formation of a “Meja Bulat Melayu Terancam” (Roundtable To Tackle the Precarious State of Malays). Mahathir and Muhyiddin are no fans of Najib; their parties also have an overwhelmingly Malay membership. 

 

Nearly a month later, nothing more was heard. Meja Bulat leaders’ rhetoric betray their true core:  theirs is more pendatang (immigrant) paranoia, less problem solving. An apt kampung expression best describes such passion:  Hangat hangat taik ayam (the warmth of chicken droppings). 

 

            It is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of 1MDB’s losses as its myriad subsidiaries had taken many loans, all guaranteed by the parent company. Besides, the ringgit and dollar of 2012 (when the bonds were issued) were much stronger, sans the ravages of inflation and foreign exchange rate gyrations since then.

 

            Far more consequential, and again unquantifiable, were the associated lost opportunities. Had the billions squandered been spent modernizing classrooms, libraries, and laboratories of our schools as well as recruiting quality teachers, there would be little need today for that Meja Bulat.

 

1MDB was the giant government-linked corporation (GLC) that morphed in 2009 from the old sleepy Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) soon after Najib became Prime Minister. TIA was a local Norwegian Sovereign Fund wannabe, a trust fund to manage that state’s hydrocarbon windfall. While the Norwegians today could live comfortably (if they choose to) just from the returns of their Sovereign Fund, Malaysia still bears the horrendous burden of 1MDB, and not just in monetary terms. 1MDB has polarized Malays and Malaysians. The courts are still plugged with the related criminal cases. As for those bonds, the last payment would not be till 2043.

 

I first heard of 1MDB back in 2012 when I saw a full page “tombstone” advertisement of its bonds in The Wall Street Journal. What drew my attention was the then unbelievable usurious near six percent interest rate.

 

At the time I had just refinanced my house. My rate was under three percent, with the associated costs a mere few hundred dollars, less than half a percent of the value of the loan. By contrast, Goldman Sachs, the bonds’ underwriter, collected a cool US$650 million in fees for the total face value of US$3.5 billion bonds, a whopping nearly 20 percent. No wonder Goldman Sachs executives awarded themselves obscene bonuses!

 

At the time a top Bank Negara official was vacationing in California and visited me. Showing the advertisement, I teased him that my creditworthiness was far superior to Malaysia’s. His reaction stunned me. He knew nothing of the bond offerings! I would have thought that such a major transaction would have been a hot topic in the Bank’s boardrooms and around the water coolers.

 

Bank Negara is not your typical Third World institution. Its first head was a Queen’s Scholar and Cambridge graduate, Ismail Ali, legendary for his brilliance, competence, and most of all, integrity. The Bank’s head during the entire 1MDB saga was one Zeta Aziz, an Ivy League PhD in economics and daughter of the famed economist Ungku Aziz. 

 

Nor was the 1MDB debacle unique. Much earlier were the London Tin and Forex scandals, among others. Then-Prime Minister Mahathir thought he was smarter than George Soros and the other London futures traders. Mahathir forgot that while they used spare funds from rich investors and thus could afford possible losses, he gambled with precious public funds meant for rural schools and clinics in his Ulu Kedah.

 

There is yet another bigoted, sinister and inflammatory underlying theme to the current 1MDB narrative. It is hidden or purposely not referred to. That is, an honest trusting Malay leader (Najib) had been hoodwinked by a conniving local Chinaman (Jho Low) and a smart foreigner (Tim Leissner). Never mind that Najib’s own stepson Reza Aziz was very much in the muck of things.

 

Leissner was particularly reprehensible in Malay eyes. He briefly converted to Islam purportedly to gain the favor of a well-connected Malay beau who happened to be the chief executive of a major media company. Being a Muslim, whether born, instant, or put-on, opens many doors in Malaysia. Leissner was key for Goldman Sachs getting 1MDB’s underwriting.

 

This lady was even smarter. She did a ‘Leissner’ on him and received a mansion in London for their brief affair as well as not exposing the great fraud that he was. 

 

It is this destructive racist theme in the current 1MDB narrative that is holding sway among many Malays. It is this that makes 1MDB so dangerous. Alas, this sinister strand is missed or willfully glossed over by our leaders and masses. That is the crux of the problem, and posing the greatest threat to plural Malaysia.

 

January 4, 2025

When Malay Leaders Feel Threatened

When Malay Leaders Feel Threatened 

M. Bakri Musa

 

A sure sign of a wily, corrupt and incompetent leader is when he tries to portray his personal and political problems as that of the nation’s. On the flip side, a good indicator of a wise and mature society is how fast citizens would see through that ruse.

 

            When South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol tried recently to consolidate his position by declaring martial law using imagined North Korean infiltrates as a ploy, South Koreans saw through that charade right away. Yoon was chased out of office and now faces impeachment.

 

            Former Prime Ministers Tun Mahathir and Muhyiddin Yassin both face serious personal, legal, and political problems. Mahathir is under threat of prosecution, as per the recently released Royal Commission, for his mishandling of the Batu Puteh case that saw the rocky outcrop in the Strait of Johore being awarded to Singapore by the International Court Commission. A possible high demeanor crime. More immediate and much closer to his ailing heart is that Mahathir’s adult sons now face serious scrutiny by the Anti-Corruption Agency. 

 

As for his current political standing, Mahathir lost his electoral deposit in the general election of November 2022 when he led yet another new party. His hometown voters finally saw Mahathir’s true character. 

 

            Muhyiddin also faces serious criminal corruption charges now slowly meandering through the sluggish Malaysian courts. His more immediate threat however, is personal bankruptcy for failure to pay libel damages to a fellow politician. That would directly threaten his Parliamentary seat, and thus political power.

 

            Hence the current antics of the desperate duo of Malay politics. Add to that, both are old and ailing, Mahathir with serious heart problems, Muhyiddin crippled with fatal pancreatic cancer. What a load as you stare at the end of your life! Call that Providence, or Allah being All-Just. 

 

            No surprise then that the desperate duo has concocted yet another presumed national (or specifically Malay) crisis. Make no mistake. Despite the duo’s desperate claims, the status of Malays vis a vis non-Malays (the so-called crisis) is today no different than when both men were in power, Mahathir for over two decades at the end of the last century, Muhyiddin a merciful brief couple of years beginning in 2020. 

 

In the tradition of endless meaningless “kongresses” when Malay leaders are bereft of credible or workable solutions to the community’s myriad problems, these discredited has-been Malay leaders have predictably concocted yet another grandiose scheme, the “Majlis Meja Bulat Melayu Terancam” (Round Table Council) to address–what else–the “endangered position of Malays in ‘our own land.’”  

 

There he was, like the Eveready Bunny that never seems to run out of battery, Mahathir giving yet another press conference to declare what he had imagined to be an epoch announcement, but for the reception he received. Beside him was Muhyiddin, flanked by a few low-level representatives from the Islamic Party as well as some discredited disgruntled UMNO members whom Prime Minister Anwar had skipped over in his new ruling coalition. There was for example, former Minister and Senate Speaker Rais Yatim desperate to make himself relevant again, or at least feel self-important.  

 

Nor did Mahathir sense the incongruity that in an audience of Malays to address a specifically Malay problem, he chose to speak in English. Only towards the end did he sprinkle in a few Malay phrases. Never mind, no one saw the hypocrisy or absurdity of that either. 

 

            No, Mahathir did not present any new or credible ideas on how to meet contemporary Malay challenges. He was bereft of them, just as he was during his long tenure as Prime Minister. All he did was announce the formation of the Meja Bulat and its Secretariat. No mention of its possible head or key personnel.   

 

            With that this ailing has-been politician asserted his claim to bring Malays to our promised land. A tie-up between comical and pathetic, or perhaps both. When Mahathir ended his press conference, he asked for questions, anticipating a flood of them. Alas except for a solitary soul asking for a brief clarification, there were none. A fitting end to a futile if not laughable spectacle.

 

            It was obvious that Mahathir and those others had missed the recent subtle but seismic change in the Malay mindset. This is best articulated by an academic at the Islamic International University of Malaysia, one Abu Hafiz Saleh. Malaysian academics are politically docile, the consequence of all those intrusive rules governing their conduct and utterances. That makes Hafiz’s words that much more courageous and significant.

 

            In his latest social media podcast soon after Mahathir announced his Meja Bulat Secretariat, Hafiz had, among others, this to say, “Sidang Meja bulat kuasa dan maruah Melayu adalah polemik setiap kali rasa diri tergugat.” (This Round Table for Malays is but the polemics of has-been Malay leaders whenever they feel threatened.)

 

            Apt and sharp observation. Hafiz’s podcast has not yet gone viral but he has already received hundreds of favorable comments. There is hope for the Malay masses long deprived of competent and honest leadership.

Malaysian Universities' Futile Chase For Ranking

 Malaysian Universities’ Futile Chase For Ranking

M. Bakri Musa

 

“You’re UM-Believable” blared the headline of a Malaysian daily last month, referring to the improved ranking of the country’s oldest university. As per the QS World University Rankings: Asia (QS-AUR) 2024, the University of Malaya (UM) now ranks 12^th in Asia and remains the nation’s top. 

 

“With our new tagline, home of the bright, land of the brave, UM will continue to strive for excellence into the future,” its head triumphantly added. 

 

This obsession with ranking, now a global phenomenon, is a recent preoccupation. The good news is that this might soon be passe, but not before consuming scarce valuable resources from its victims–the universities. This burden is especially heavy with already poorly-funded campuses in the Third World, Malaysia included. While American universities can afford those extra expenses, many top ones have already opted out of these meaningless exercises.

 

US News & World Report, the publisher of the most widely read “Best US Colleges” series, had long ago gone out of business with its newsweekly magazine. It is now reduced to publishing the “Best Of This and That,” reflecting the growing industry of ranking. 

 

Ranking exercises are but parasites on universities, consuming precious resources meant for their students, institution, and community. Nothing demonstrates this silly misplaced obsession with ranking than when a Malaysian campus goes hog wild celebrating its “improvement” from 469^th to 463^rd position! 

 

More pernicious with this obsession with ranking is the explosive growth of predatory journals. That is a major distraction for Third World academics for even the most “junk” article requires some effort to produce. That energy could be more productively expended elsewhere.  

 

A metaphor best illustrates the futility of such global ranking exercises. If you are already a suave dresser, then it would be appropriate to compare yourself with others similarly well-dressed, contrasting their choice of color, style, and type of material. However, if you are just emerging from the jungle or still living in it, your concerns are more basic, like the durability of the material and its ability to provide coverage and warmth. Style, fittings, and color schemes are not your priorities.

 

Accept the reality that no Malaysian university will ever make it to the top decile globally or within Asia in the foreseeable future. Having accepted that, focus on your basic mission – your primary responsibility towards your students, institution, and community. 

 

The critical measures of the quality of a university are its students, faculty, and contributions to the community. Improve those and you are well on your way to improving your institution. Develop your own matrix, one that can be used over time. 

 

A good place to start would be improving your input – your incoming students. Establish standards and criteria for your entering students that can be used for comparison over time, such as language (both Malay and English) competency as well as science and mathematical proficiency. A university is an expensive undertaking; it should not be used to provide remedial or matriculation classes that can be provided better and cheaper elsewhere.

 

For example, accept students with a minimum score of IV out of V in both English and Malay, using the current Malaysian Universities English Test (MUET) as a template. That would be an excellent start. Malaysian undergraduates should be fluent in both Malay and English, as well have some minimum competency in the sciences and mathematics regardless of their majors. 

 

With the glut of PhDs in the country now, the minimum qualification for new academics should be at least two years of post-doctoral experience, with demonstrated productivity as well as capability of conducting independent research.

 

As for the irrelevance of much local research, consider this. Despite the glut of business schools in Malaysia, no one has studied such spectacular debacles as Bank Bumiputra, Perwaja Steel, or the latest, One Malaysia Berhad. Malaysian academics are not curious? Likewise, the ratio of coastline to landmass in Malaysia is one of the highest. Yet few local universities have a marine biology department.

 

Paying attention to those areas critical to the nation is far better than gloating over your presumed ranking improvement.

 

Malaysia And South Korea - What Different Trajectories!

  

Malaysia And South Korea – What Different Trajectories!

M. Bakri Musa

 

 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on November 24, 2024 in Seoul reminded me of the visit to Malaysia in 1966 by President Park Chong Hee. Park received an exceptionally grand royal reception. Of particular interest was his visit to then Deputy Prime Minister Tun Razak’s famous “National Operations Room” where Razak directed Malaysia’s massive and ambitious rural development schemes.

 

            Park was so impressed and inspired by Razak’s initiative that on returning home Park commenced his own community development scheme, Saemaul Undong (SU – New Village Movement). That would be the genesis of the later “Miracle of the Han River,” with South Korea becoming one of the fastest growing economies and a leader in many sectors.

 

The trajectories of the two countries could not be more different. Today it is Malaysia’s turn to learn from South Korea. Let us hope that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was still in secondary school when President Park visited Malaysia, would be as eager and diligent a student as Park was earlier. 

 

South Korea’s success is even more impressive considering that it has been in a continuous state of war since the 1950s. By contrast, Malaysia’s last conflict was konfrantasi with Indonesia in 1963 and the even more deadly 1969 race riot. Both are now distant memories. Wars and conflicts are the greatest impediments to development. That makes South Korea’s achievements that much more impressive.

 

Malaysia’s GDP and per capita GDP in 1966 were US$3.14 billion and $337 respectively; South Korea’s, US$9 billion and $279 (all nominal figures). A significant chunk of the South Korean figures came from American military spending. Even American soldiers employing local maids contributed to the local GDP! By 2023, Malaysia’s GDP was US$400 billion and per capita GDP of $11.7K to South Korea’s US$9 trillion and $279K respectively, both about eight times higher than Malaysia’s.

 

Both nations share many similarities as well as significant differences. Unlike Malaysia, South Korea is a homogenous society. As for similarities, both nations had been colonized; Malaysia relatively benign by Britain, Korea more brutally by Japan. 

 

The reactions of the two nations to their former colonizers could not be more different. While Park was eager to learn and emulate the successful Japanese, Malaysian leaders went out of their way to demonize and avoid everything English, including and especially the language. That is a major self-imposed handicap as English is now the language of science and commerce. Then there was the silly and counterproductive “Buy British Last” campaign of the 1980s.

 

Both Malaysia and South Korea are committed to heavy state involvement in business. South Korea’s family-owned chaebol, modelled after the Japanese pre-war zaibutsu and post-war keirotsu, spearheaded the nation’s entry into the global market with substantive government help.

 

Malaysia too spawned many government-owned corporations to spur development as well as increase Malay participation in commerce. The key assignment for Prime Minister Anwar is to learn from South Korea why their chaebols do not suffer the ignoble fate of our Perwajas and Bank Bumiputras.

 

Then consider the South Koreans’ attitude to learning English. Malaysia had a significant advantage on that front, being a former British colony and with widespread English schools and heightened language proficiency. The modern Malay roman script is also a significant advantage over hangeul in this Internet Age. Perversely, instead of leveraging those advantages, we have treated them as impediments! Malay language nationalists would now have us revert to jawi.

 

The South Koreans do not consider themselves as disrespecting their mother tongue by learning English. The 2024 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Han Kang, writes in her native Korean but she is also crisp in English, as with most South Koreans.

 

Contrast Han Kang’s posture to Malaysia’s National Laureate, Muhammad Haji Salleh. Although educated in English, he has since decided not to write in that language in order to “decolonize his craft,” whatever that means. He is not alone. One cannot minimize the significant negative impact of such gestures on the younger set. Imagine the good he would have done if he were to instead encourage Malays to be bilingual and not consider writing or speaking in English as disrespecting Bahasa.

 

As for those Mahathir types who attribute the success of East Asian societies to their mysterious Confucius values or superior genetic stock, and by implication the success of non-Malays vis a vis Malays in Malaysia, the current fate of North Korea should disabuse them of that delusion; likewise earlier China under Mao.

 

Saemaul Undong catapulted South Korea into the First World while Malaysia’s rural development policies and institutions like MARA floundered. It is instructive to revisit President Park’s original message to the villagers:

 

"Those peasants who complain as if their poverty is due to the fault of others, believing that they are in poverty since the government does not support them and lamenting that poverty is their fate, cannot stand up on themselves even if several hundred years pass by. It is a waste of money to support those without motivation. For lazy people, even the government cannot help them."

 

That may sound harsh but is the essence of “tough love.” Park’s insight was to help only those who needed help and not those who demanded it based on some presumed rights. You are more likely to succeed with the former, and also earn their gratitude. With the latter, expect only scorn when they do not succeed.

 

That is the crucial lesson from South Korea. Success resides with us as individuals as well as collectively; blaming “them” is not productive and creates only frustrations as well as resentments.

 

 

Politik Wang Yang Menghakis Malaysia

  

Politik Wang Yang Menghakis Malaysia

M. Bakri Musa

 

Tun Daim Zainuddin, yang meninggal dunia pada 13 November 2024, mewakili era di mana wang dan politik berkait rapat dalam hubungan yang legap, sangat peribadi, dan sering sumbang mahram. Hasilnya adalah, seperti di tempat lain, rasuah yang berleluasa dalam skala besar.

 

Politik wang Malaysia juga diracuni, seperti yang lain, dengan sentimen perkauman. Itulah tambahan yang lebih bahaya dan terbesar yang mungkin menjahanamkan negara. Pemimpin UMNO (United Malay National Organization), khususnya Mahathir, Daim, dan Najib Razak, berjaya menipu pengikut mereka dan juga orang Melayu umumnya bahawa kepentingan peribadi pemimpin adalah sejajar dengan parti, bangsa, dan negara. Mereka mungkin juga berjaya menggambarkan diri mereka juga sebagai juara Islam kalau tidak pihak Parti Islam Se Malaysia (PAS) menggagalkan usaha mereka.

 

Mahathir dan Najib pernah menjadi Presiden UMNO berlamaan manakala Daim pula ialah pemegang dana parti. Daim telah meninggal dunia, Najib dipenjarakan kerana rasuah, dan Mahathir yang sekarang uzur terpaksa melihat anak lelakinya diheret ke Badan Pencegah Rasuah. Mahathir juga terlibat dalam pelbagai saman mahkamah. Mahathir bersama Daim keluar daripada UMNO pada 2016. Mahathir dan juga UMNO dikebas pada Pilihan Raya Umum 2022.

 

Politik wang UMNO bermula apabila Mahathir menjadi presidennya pada 1981, dan dengan itu Perdana Menteri negara. Perbelanjaan pilihan raya mahal. Oleh sebab itu Mahathir kecewa kerana terpaksa meminta dana daripada pemimpin parti lain dalam pakatan Barisan Nasional. Saya masih ingat Tengku Abdul Rahman berkempen di kampung saya pada pilihan raya 1955 dan 1959. Dia terpaksa tidur di rumah salah seorang ahli UMNO dan meminjam kereta ahli UMNO. Mahathir tidak sudi berbuat demikian. Dia mempunyai kebanggaan diri serta bangsa.

 

Dengan itu bermulalah "iri hati jutawan" UMNO yang mengakibatkan penglibatan parti dalam dunia perniagaan. Pada mulanya ia hanya permit import/eksport yang mudah. Jika itu mengakibatkan kelahiran satu kelas keusahawanan Melayu yang tulen dan berjaya, perbuatan itu mungkin boleh dipertahankan dan juga dipuji. Malangnya itu tidak menjadi. Sebaliknya, UMNOPutra yang kaya raya itu mengukuhkan diri mereka menjadi kelas penyewa yang kekal, berkembang pesat, dan rakus. Maka lahirlah kapitalisme kroni, gaya Malaysia, dengan syarikat berkaitan kerajaan muncul seperti lipas selepas hujan. Ramai yang mempunyai jangka hayat yang sama. Tanah perkuburan korporat Malaysia sekarang dipenuhi dengan rangka seperti Syarikat Maminco (bijih timah), Perwaja Steel, dan Bank Bumiputra.  

 

Bagi beberapa perusahaan berjaya yang di bawah nama pemimpin UMNO, ternyata mereka merasai kekayaan durian runtuh yang tidak di jangka. Yakni, apabila UMNO diisytiharkan haram pada tahun 1988 kerana penyelewengan pilihan rayanya, hakim yang bijaksana itu tidak menyatakan apa yang perlu dilakukan dengan aset lumayan yang disimpan secara rahsia oleh calon parti itu.

 

Hari ini mereka yang bertuah itu, atau “jutaan menenggek" seperti Halim Saad dan Tajuddin Ramil, menyaman Mahathir. Hempedu tulen atau ketinggian tidak bersyukur, pilihlah sendiri.   

 

Pada awal tahun 1980-an Mahathir cuba mencekam pasaran bijih timah. Akibat kebodohan itu merugikan Malaysia lebih RM 1.2 bilion (angka 1980, dianggarkan oleh Agensi Perisikan Pusat Amerika). Lebih teruk lagi, perbuatan itu memusnahkan industri bijih timah. Malaysia merupakan pengeluar bijih timah terkemuka ketika itu. Mahathir menganggap dia lebih bijak daripada adik beradik Hunts di Texas yang cuba mencekam pasaran perak. Mereka menggunakan dana mereka sendiri; Mahathir berjudi dengan duit rakyat yang sepatutnya digunakan untuk memperbaiki sekolah.

 

Bank Bumiputra runtuh akibat pinjaman berlebihan kepada George Tan di Hong Kong yang juga mengakibatkan pengorbanan seorang ahli bank Melayu muda yang bijak dan jujur. Jalil Ibrahim dibunuh dengan kejam apabila dia sedang menyiasat penipuan di sana. George Tan dan Mahathir adalah versi terdahulu dan sedikit lebih murah harganya daripada Jho Low dan Najib yang kemudian. Cerita kedua ini kini diputar sebagai satu lagi Cina menipu seorang pemimpin Melayu yang jujur. Itu juga sesuai dengan naratif bangsa kita.

 

Bekas Menteri Undang-undang Zaid Ibrahim mendedahkan dalam podcastnya baru-baru ini bahawa beliau pernah menyediakan kertas untuk menyaman Daim kerana dia tidak membayar pinjaman dari Bank Bumiputra. Zaid terpaksa menarik balik saman itu kerana arahan pada saat terakhir. Saya berharap demi integriti profesional Zaid bahawa arahan untuk menarik saman itu datang daripada anak guamnya.

 

Dalam salah satu buku saya, saya menyenaraikan panjang "barangan" yang menguntungkan yang diperolehi oleh Daim dari negeri itu, termasuklah perusahaan pertamanya, pembuatan garam, yang akhirnya gagal. Saya juga mengucapkan tahniah kepada beliau kerana banyak amalnya. Daim menulis kepada saya mengatakan bahawa saya telah mencirikannya secara tidak adil. Saya menjawab bahawa jika dia boleh menunjukkan sebarang kesilapan dalam fakta yang saya sebutkan, maka saya akan meneliti semula kesimpulan saya dan juga memohon maaf secara terbuka kepadanya. Tidak pernah mendengar kembali daripadanya! 

 

Mahathir mendakwa kemenangan dengan apa yang dipanggil Dawn Raid di Bursa Saham London merampas kawalan Guthrie Plantations. Beratus-ratus juta pound sterling (yakni wang rakyat) telah dibelanjakan, namun tiada satu pokok getah baru pun yang ditanam. Lebih buruk lagi, "kemenangan" itu telah mengalihkan perhatian orang Melayu ke dalam industri matahari terbenam seperti bijih timah dan getah, meninggalkan sektor-sektor baru muncul seperti pelancongan dan teknologi kepada bukan Melayu.

 

Pertimbangkan pula kos peluang, atau “opportunity cost.” Sekiranya dana itu dibelanjakan bukan untuk membeli saham Guthrie tetapi untuk membersihkan ladang baharu, itu sekurang-kurangnya akan menambah kapasiti produktif negara. Lebih baik lagi, gunakan dana tersebut untuk membaiki sekolah luar bandar. London Dawn Raid itu hanya menguntungkan broker asing, bank pelaburan, dan pemegang saham institusi seperti dana Kuwait yang menjual saham mereka kepada Malaysia dengan harga yang sudah tentunya lebih mahal daripada pasaran sedia ada. 

 

Hanya Allah sahaja yang tahu atas nasib Daim di Akhirat, atau apa yang akan menanti Najib dan Mahathir. Tetapi yang sudah pasti ialah ini. Daim dan keluarganya menanggung Neraka mereka menjelang akhir hayatnya, sama seperti Najib dan Mahathir kini menderita.

Malaysia's Corrosive Nexus Of Politics And Business

  

 

Malaysia’s Corrosive Nexus Of Politics And Business

M. Bakri Musa

 

Tun Daim Zainuddin, who died on November 13, 2024, represented the era where money and politics were closely intertwined in an opaque, very personal, and often incestuous relationship. The result was (and is), as elsewhere, pervasive corruption on a grand scale.

 

Malaysian money politics is also overshadowed by, as with everything else, race. Hence the incendiary element. UMNO (United Malay National Organization) leaders, specifically Mahathir, Daim, and Najib Razak, successfully hoodwinked their followers as well as Malays generally that these leaders’ personal interests were aligned with the party, race, and nation. They would have portrayed themselves as also the champions of Islam but for the Islamic Party (PAS) thwarting their efforts.

 

Mahathir and Najib were longtime Presidents of UMNO while Daim, its perennial money bag holder. Daim has died, Najib is in jail for corruption, and Mahathir, ailing, watches helplessly as his adult sons are being hauled before the Anti-Corruption Agency. He is also enmeshed in multiple civil litigations. Mahathir, who together with Daim quit UMNO in 2016, was politically castrated during the 2022 General Elections, as was UMNO.

 

UMNO’s money politics began when Mahathir became its president in 1981, and with that the country’s leadership. Elections are expensive and unlike his predecessors, Mahathir chafed at having to beg the leaders of his ruling coalition partners for election funds. I remember Tengku Abdul Rahman campaigning in my village in the 1955 and 1959 elections. He had to sleep in the house of one of the UMNO members and be driven around by volunteers. Mahathir would have none of that. He had his pride, self as well as racial.

 

Thus began UMNO’s “millionaire envy” that led to its heavy involvement in business. Initially they were simple import/export permits. If those had spawned the blossoming of a genuine Malay entrepreneurial class, then they could have been defended and indeed applauded. Alas that was not to be. Instead, those nouveau riche UMNOPutras solidified themselves into a permanent, fast expanding, and ever voracious rentier class. Thus was born crony capitalism, Malaysian style, with government-linked companies emerging like gnats after a downpour. Many had about the same lifespan. The graveyard of corporate Malaysia is filled with the likes of Maminco (tin mining), Perwaja Steel, and Bank Bumiputra.   

 

As for the few successful enterprises held by UMNO nominees, as things turned out they had an unexpected bonanza. When UMNO was declared illegal in 1988 because of its election irregularities, the learned judge did not in his wisdom specify what to do with those lucrative assets held in secret by the party’s nominees. 

 

Perversely today those lucky UMNO “menengek (anointed) millionaires” like Halim Saad and Tajuddin Ramil are suing Mahathir. Pure gall or height of ingratitude, take your pick.   

 

In the early 1980s Mahathir tried to corner the tin market. That folly cost Malaysia over RM 1.2 billion (1980 figures, estimated by the American Central Intelligence Agency). Worse, that destroyed the tin industry. Malaysia was the top tin producer then. Mahathir thought he was smarter than the Hunts brothers who earlier tried to control the silver market. The Hunts used their own money; Mahathir gambled with funds that rightly should have gone to schools.

 

Bank Bumiputra collapsed following excessive exposure to Hongkong’s George Tan, but not before a smart, honest young Malay banker, Jalil Ibrahim, was murdered in cold blood. He was investigating the shenanigans there. Mahathir’s George Tan was an earlier and slightly less expensive version of Najib’s later Jho Low. Perversely, both are now spun as yet another crooked Chinese hoodwinking an honest Malay leader. That also fits Malaysia’s race narrative.

 

Former Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim revealed in his recent podcast that he once prepared papers to sue Daim for non-payment of his Bank Bumiputra loan. Zaid withdrew that lawsuit because of last minute instructions. I hope for the sake of Zaid’s professional integrity that instruction to withdraw came from his client.

 

In one of my books, I enumerated the long list of favorable “goodies” Daim obtained from the state, including his very first enterprise, salt-making, that eventually failed. I also congratulated him for his many charities. Daim wrote to me saying that I had unfairly characterized him. I replied that if he could point to any error in the facts that I had cited, then I would reexamine my conclusion and also publicly apologize to him. Never heard back! 

 

Mahathir claimed victory with the so-called Dawn Raid on the London Stock Exchange wresting control of Guthrie Plantations. Hundreds of millions of pound sterling (of public money) were spent, yet not a single rubber tree was planted. Worse, that “victory” distracted Malays into sunset-industries like tin and rubber, leaving emerging sectors like tourism and technology to non-Malays.

 

Then consider the opportunity costs. Had the funds been spent not on buying Guthrie but to clear new plantations, that would have at least added to the nation’s productive capacity. Better yet, use those funds to improve rural schools. That Dawn Raid benefited only the foreign brokers, investment bankers, and institutional shareholders like the Kuwaiti fund who sold their shares to the Malaysian entity, at a premium of course. 

 

Only Allah knows Daim’s fate in the Hereafter, or what will await Najib and Mahathir. This much is certain. Daim and his loved ones endured Hell towards the end of his life, just as Najib and Mahathir are now suffering theirs.