UMNO Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who is the BN Youth Chief wants the Government to be transparent in their awards and projects issued, to attract for foreign investors and players into the country. The Rembau MP also believed that these investments and participations would be a boost for the Government achieving the ‘New Economic Model’.
The Star report on this:
Published: Thursday August 26, 2010 MYT 11:49:00 AM
Transparency needed to lure quality foreign investors, says Khairy
By ZUHRIN AZAM AHMAD
KUALA LUMPUR: Transparency in awarding government projects is the only way to get quality foreign investors into the country, said Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
He said while it was important that the Government created opportunities, it was equally vital to be transparent in giving out projects.
“If we are ready to show that opportunities are given to the best companies, it has to be done in an open manner.
“Project such as the (development of Sungai Besi) airbase or the MRT system, we must demonstrate how they were given out,” he said in a forum on the 10th Malaysia Plan – Bridging The Political Divide here on Thursday organised by The Leaders magazine.
“This is how it should go for the Government.”
Khairy also said time for “sweetheart deals” and providing guarantees to companies to cover the possibility of losses was long gone.
“We should no longer be providing guarantees. We cannot afford to bail out companies now,” he said.
“We also should no longer promote the country as a location for investment with everything the cheapest instead we should offer things that are of high value.”
Khairy also said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had not backtracked on the New Economic Model (NEM) due to pressure from Malay-based non-governmental organisation.
“That is certainly not the reason. The model is still with (Datuk) Idris Jala (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department) and at the final stage,” he added.
Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad, who spoke earlier said despite the talk about transparency, many projects had been given out without much information
*************
What transparency is he talking about?
Maybe Khairy has conveniently forgotten that most of us actually did not forget; He was an integral part of PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s regime which made where and what this country is, today.
Malaysia was a prosperous and promising nation where all the business sectors were doing well, inter and intra ethnic and grouping relations were very good, the integral co-relation between Government and industries and private sectors were cohesive under the ‘Malaysia Inc’ and almost all Malaysians were bullish about able to achieve anything with the ‘Malaysia Boleh’ spirit. There were a lot of liquidity in the market and Government was able to fulfil all its commitments to projects already planned, initiated and being carried out, for the progress of the nation under various social and economic development programs.
Suddenly came PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah. Within two weeks of him taking over from Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, he already cancelled projects meant to stimulate the economy such as the ‘double tracking railway system’. A new manner of economic planning and decision making was formed in the Prime Minister’s Private Office known as ‘Level Four Boys’, where previous work done by various agencies such as the Economic Planning Unit and Implementation and Co-ordination Unit under the Prime Minister’s Department was taken over. Since PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah also was the Finance Minister, some of the decisions of the Treasury was taken over by these ‘Level Four Boys’.
Of course the Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yackop had his ‘reign of terror’, especially in the restructuring of the GLCs (previously, there was no term “GLC”. It is a term adopted from Singapore!). Khazanah Holdings Bhd. was restructured and so were all Federal Government investments. All the GLCs had a new focus; make money and bring ‘Return of Investments’ instead of serving the nation first, as what these GLCs were initially set up as Government agencies and later corporatised and turned private, which include IPOs.
Then the dismantling of other programs and projects such as the systematical slow death of Proton and the invocation of the ‘National Automotive Policy’, believed to be initiated by Ethos Consulting and Co. Of course by this time (mid 2005), the Federal Government had this fondness of hiring consultants which include foreign firms like McKinsey, Hays, BCG etc (being masquareded under the auspicious of new and upcoming indigenous firms) to evaluate, re-structure/re-strategize/re-package/re-branding, plan and form ‘blue prints’ of all sorts of’ ‘economic and transformation agendas’, to take the function of the Government planning arms such as EPU, ICU, MOF and others.
The same time, ‘economic corridors’ were born. First with South Johor Economic Region (then known as Iskandar Development Region), Nothern Corridor Economic Region and Eastern Corridor Economic Region. Big buzz words, exorbitant targets and fancy strategic jargons were thrown around as if it was a series of mega TV movie series made by James Cameron teaming up with Sir Richard Attenborough and Oliver Stone. For example, for the IDR the target was to have an investment of RM 115 billion by 2015.
Of course all of these were not without the free reign of projects issued which had little benefits for the rakyat or nation. Top of the head would be names like ‘Moonsoon Cup’, ‘Crystal Mosque’ and others. Projects believed to be much higher value of the original budgeted cost were being thrown around, mostly to cronies dished out in the most clandestine manner. An example is a PR project for the Inland Revenue Board dished out to Kalimullah “Riong Kali’ Hassan for a cool half a billion ringgit.
Of course there were scandals like Parkway acquistion, Telekom Malaysia hiving off shares to Temasek Holdings, Scomi being awarded a large contract to supply Prasarana with really low quality China made buses and the list is bottomless. Then again there are ‘Khairy linked’ names like ‘Syed Azman’ and ‘Haniff’, who in aggregate got tens of thousand of Approved Permits to import cars from abroad. The monies that they got were so huge that Weststar could afford to acquire a Eurocopter Dauphin helicopter, which Khairy used for trotting around the peninsular when campaigning for his UMNO Youth Head job.
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad wrote in his blog that during PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah’s ‘reign of terror and recklessness’, Petronas issued a total of RM 263 billion in taxes, dividends, royalties, subsidies and other instruments for and on behalf of the Government, as compared to the former’s 22 years of Premiership with an aggregate of RM 170 billion. And yet nothing substantial could be seen with the quarter of trillion Ringgit as compared to the North South Highway and other highways, ports and harbours, KLCC, KLIA, LRT system and the expansion of agencies like the military and acquisition of strategic assets.
Seriously, Khairy statement in this press report really stink to high heaven. Khairy was an active promoter and participant of the scandal of ECM Libra acquiring the much larger MOF Inc controlled Avenue Capital, where issues like “impairment of goodwill, gross disparity of evaluation value, violation of minority shareholders’ rights (no mandatory general offer) and the acquiring company son-in-law relationship to the acquiror company father-in-law”, who was then as the Finance Minister is the Chairman of MOF Inc.
Again, what “Transparency” is Khairy talking about? In 2004, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Private Office at the raw age of 27 years old. He is was at the heart of all these project scandals and clandestine awards. He was in the heart of several Federal Government commitments to shoddy deals. Khairy can’t even be ‘transparent’ about him able to win the UMNO Youth Head contest 25 March 2009, when he polled last of the Division level nominations, which is a true reflection of who the grassroots wanted as the leader.
What transparency?
UMNO Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who is the BN Youth Chief wants the Government to be transparent in their awards and projects issued, to attract for foreign investors and players into the country. The Rembau MP also believed that these investments and participations would be a boost for the Government achieving the ‘New Economic Model’.
The Star report on this:
What transparency is he talking about?
Maybe Khairy has conveniently forgotten that most of us actually did not forget; He was an integral part of PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s regime which made where and what this country is, today.
Malaysia was a prosperous and promising nation where all the business sectors were doing well, inter and intra ethnic and grouping relations were very good, the integral co-relation between Government and industries and private sectors were cohesive under the ‘Malaysia Inc’ and almost all Malaysians were bullish about able to achieve anything with the ‘Malaysia Boleh’ spirit. There were a lot of liquidity in the market and Government was able to fulfil all its commitments to projects already planned, initiated and being carried out, for the progress of the nation under various social and economic development programs.
Suddenly came PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah. Within two weeks of him taking over from Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, he already cancelled projects meant to stimulate the economy such as the ‘double tracking railway system’. A new manner of economic planning and decision making was formed in the Prime Minister’s Private Office known as ‘Level Four Boys’, where previous work done by various agencies such as the Economic Planning Unit and Implementation and Co-ordination Unit under the Prime Minister’s Department was taken over. Since PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah also was the Finance Minister, some of the decisions of the Treasury was taken over by these ‘Level Four Boys’.
Of course the Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yackop had his ‘reign of terror’, especially in the restructuring of the GLCs (previously, there was no term “GLC”. It is a term adopted from Singapore!). Khazanah Holdings Bhd. was restructured and so were all Federal Government investments. All the GLCs had a new focus; make money and bring ‘Return of Investments’ instead of serving the nation first, as what these GLCs were initially set up as Government agencies and later corporatised and turned private, which include IPOs.
Then the dismantling of other programs and projects such as the systematical slow death of Proton and the invocation of the ‘National Automotive Policy’, believed to be initiated by Ethos Consulting and Co. Of course by this time (mid 2005), the Federal Government had this fondness of hiring consultants which include foreign firms like McKinsey, Hays, BCG etc (being masquareded under the auspicious of new and upcoming indigenous firms) to evaluate, re-structure/re-strategize/re-package/re-branding, plan and form ‘blue prints’ of all sorts of’ ‘economic and transformation agendas’, to take the function of the Government planning arms such as EPU, ICU, MOF and others.
The same time, ‘economic corridors’ were born. First with South Johor Economic Region (then known as Iskandar Development Region), Nothern Corridor Economic Region and Eastern Corridor Economic Region. Big buzz words, exorbitant targets and fancy strategic jargons were thrown around as if it was a series of mega TV movie series made by James Cameron teaming up with Sir Richard Attenborough and Oliver Stone. For example, for the IDR the target was to have an investment of RM 115 billion by 2015.
Of course all of these were not without the free reign of projects issued which had little benefits for the rakyat or nation. Top of the head would be names like ‘Moonsoon Cup’, ‘Crystal Mosque’ and others. Projects believed to be much higher value of the original budgeted cost were being thrown around, mostly to cronies dished out in the most clandestine manner. An example is a PR project for the Inland Revenue Board dished out to Kalimullah “Riong Kali’ Hassan for a cool half a billion ringgit.
Of course there were scandals like Parkway acquistion, Telekom Malaysia hiving off shares to Temasek Holdings, Scomi being awarded a large contract to supply Prasarana with really low quality China made buses and the list is bottomless. Then again there are ‘Khairy linked’ names like ‘Syed Azman’ and ‘Haniff’, who in aggregate got tens of thousand of Approved Permits to import cars from abroad. The monies that they got were so huge that Weststar could afford to acquire a Eurocopter Dauphin helicopter, which Khairy used for trotting around the peninsular when campaigning for his UMNO Youth Head job.
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad wrote in his blog that during PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah’s ‘reign of terror and recklessness’, Petronas issued a total of RM 263 billion in taxes, dividends, royalties, subsidies and other instruments for and on behalf of the Government, as compared to the former’s 22 years of Premiership with an aggregate of RM 170 billion. And yet nothing substantial could be seen with the quarter of trillion Ringgit as compared to the North South Highway and other highways, ports and harbours, KLCC, KLIA, LRT system and the expansion of agencies like the military and acquisition of strategic assets.
Seriously, Khairy statement in this press report really stink to high heaven. Khairy was an active promoter and participant of the scandal of ECM Libra acquiring the much larger MOF Inc controlled Avenue Capital, where issues like “impairment of goodwill, gross disparity of evaluation value, violation of minority shareholders’ rights (no mandatory general offer) and the acquiring company son-in-law relationship to the acquiror company father-in-law”, who was then as the Finance Minister is the Chairman of MOF Inc.
Again, what “Transparency” is Khairy talking about? In 2004, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Private Office at the raw age of 27 years old. He is was at the heart of all these project scandals and clandestine awards. He was in the heart of several Federal Government commitments to shoddy deals. Khairy can’t even be ‘transparent’ about him able to win the UMNO Youth Head contest 25 March 2009, when he polled last of the Division level nominations, which is a true reflection of who the grassroots wanted as the leader.
- Commentary
on August 26, 2010 at 16:00 Comments (20)