Parliament report on Malaysia's #1MDB blames board; calls for probe into ex-CEO

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian parliamentary inquiry into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) said the board of the troubled state fund had failed to carry out its responsibilities and its former chief must be further investigated.

The bipartisan Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which tabled the much delayed report in parliament on Thursday (Apr 7), said it found the financing and performance of 1MDB "unsatisfactory".

It called for the advisory board of the fund - chaired by Prime Minister Najib Razak - to be abolished and any reference to the prime minister be changed to finance minister in the company's memorandum and articles of association.

This is one of the final reports on investigations into alleged mismanagement at 1MDB, and a financial scandal surrounding Mr Najib. Mr Najib, who founded the state investment fund 1MDB in 2009, has battled for months to fend off allegations that billions of dollars were looted from 1MDB in complex overseas financial transactions. He and 1MDB have consistently denied wrongdoing. 

But the PAC said more than US$3 billion in unapproved payments were made from 1MDB funds, and alleged "restrictions and weaknesses" in 1MDB's management. The PAC said former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi has to take responsibility.

"As such, enforcement agencies are asked to investigate Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and anyone else related," according to a summary of the report. Mr Shahrol was 1MDB's CEO from 2009 to 2013.

The Prime Minister's Office lauded the PAC report as comprehensive and conclusive.

OVERSEAS BANK STATEMENTS

Shortly after it was released, opposition leader Tony Pua, who was part of the PAC, told a news conference the report vindicates critics of 1MDB. It "confirms gross mismanagement and wanton neglect of all principles of good governance and accountability" at the fund, he said.

"I think at the very least (Najib) should be held ministerially culpable. Anything else we don't know, as we don't have the overseas bank statements of 1MDB," said Mr Pua, an MP with the Democratic Action Party (DAP). Mr Najib was not named directly in the report.

Mr Pua lamented the failure to get crucial information on 1MDB's foreign banking transactions, which are the subject of money-laundering and fraud investigations in the United States, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Singapore. The 1MDB fund has denied those allegations.

Concern over 1MDB began after its debt rose from 5 billion ringgit in 2009 to 42 billion ringgit (US$10.77 billion) by 2014, the report said. The fund sold its land and power assets last year as part of a restructuring plan to pare down its debt pile.

The PAC began its probe into 1MDB last May. The committee's work stalled in July when PAC chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed stepped down after being appointed deputy home minister.

'SHOCKING MISDEEDS'

Pua said "many other shocking misdeeds and transgressions" were disclosed in the report which would provide "sufficient damning evidence to indict not only the entire top management, but also the entire Board of Directors".

An interim report by the auditor-general last year found nothing suspicious after vetting the fund's accounts. Malaysia's attorney-general rejected a call by the central bank to initiate criminal proceedings against 1MDB.

The Wall Street Journal, citing documents from international probes, reported that investigators believe nearly US$1 billion moved through state agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB before eventually finding its way into Mr Najib's personal accounts.

The 1MDB fund has denied that any of its funds went to the prime minister. The Attorney-General cleared Mr Najib in January of any corruption or criminal offences, saying the US$681 million was a gift from a member of Saudi Arabia's royal family and that most of it was returned.

The scandal has rocked Mr Najib's government as public outrage over the alleged mismanagement and corruption grows. The scandal has fuelled a sense of crisis in a country under economic strain from slumping oil prices and a prolonged slide in its currency last year.

Swiss authorities have said as much as US$4 billion may have been stolen from 1MDB. Authorities in Switzerland, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere are investigating.

PM NAJIB IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Critics have alleged debt-stricken 1MDB, set up to fuel Malaysian development projects, was bled dry in a vast campaign of fraud and embezzlement stretching from the Middle East to the Caymans.

The Wall Street Journal, which has detailed many of the money movements, also last year revealed the US$681 million payment made to Najib's bank accounts in 2013. It has said in subsequent reports that he may have received more than US$1 billion.

Mr Najib has taken steps to scuttle official investigations, purge officials demanding accountability, and stifle media reporting on the scandals.

He initially denied taking the US$681 million but his government now claims he accepted a "donation" from the Saudi royal family, most of which was given back. Saudi Arabia is yet to confirm that explanation, which is widely dismissed in Malaysia as a cover story.

The Journal last week said documents show the same bank accounts of Mr Najib were used to purchase US$15 million in luxury goods and pay out millions more to political figures ahead of 2013 elections.

The newspaper also reported that some of the money used to make Hollywood hit The Wolf of Wall Street, a movie about financial corruption starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was laundered from 1MDB.

'WE WILL STUDY AND ACT ON REPORT'S RECOMMENDATIONS': PM NAJIB

"The report has identified weaknesses in 1MDB’s capital structure and management," Mr Najib said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon by the Prime Minister's Office. "We will study and act on the report’s recommendations. We must ensure that lessons are learned, and action will be taken if any evidence of wrongdoing is found."

He added: "The PAC’s report shows that 42 billion ringgit (US$10.8 billion) is not missing from 1MDB, as had been alleged by (former Prime Minister) Mahathir.

"It is now clear that Mr Mahathir’s allegations against 1MDB have been false. He was motivated by personal interest, not the national interest, and a desire to unseat the government."

Former Prime Minster Mahathir Mohamad has been a vocal critic of Nr Najib, calling for the latter to step down over his role in the 1MDB saga. 

1MDB BOARD OFFERS RESIGNATION

On Thursday afternoon, the board of 1MDB offered its resignation to the Ministry of Finance. "This has been a difficult decision to take but we believe is the right thing to do, given the circumstances, in order to facilitate any follow-up investigations as recommended by the PAC," it said in a statement.   

- CNA/Agencies/rw

Posted 07 Apr 2016 11:07 Updated 07 Apr 2016 21:26

1MDB’s failure to settle debt seen driving down the Ringgit

By Ahmad Naqib Idris Adzman Shah. Published by The Edge Markets on 6 January 2015.

1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) failure to settle a RM2 billion loan to local lenders has been a factor behind the extended drop in the ringgit against the dollar, an economist said.

The Edge Financial Daily, quoting sources, reported today that the sovereign fund had missed its Dec 31, 2014, deadline for settlement of the loan, and had received an extension up to Jan 30, 2015, to settle the outstanding payment.

The RM2 billion amount was part of a RM5.5 billion debt taken through its subsidiary Powertek Investment Holdings Sdn Bhd in May 2014 to refinance a RM6.17 billion bridging loan taken in 2012 to part finance the purchase of power assets. The remaining RM3.5 billion has been converted into a 10-year term loan due in August 2024.

An economist, who is attached to a local bank-backed research house but declined to be quoted, said that while factors such as the drop in oil prices and worries of a twin deficit had influenced the overall weakness of the ringgit, the currency’s decline past the RM3.50 level could have been due to 1MDB.

“1MDB’s failure to settle the RM2 billion loan has added to concerns about the overall financial stature of the sovereign fund, which has a knock-on effect on the ringgit, as we are not sure how much of its debt is backed by the government,” he told theedgemarkets.com. He added that the 1MDB’s situation had further stoked worries regarding the Malaysian government’s financials.

However, 1MDB aside, he said that the performance of the ringgit would largely depend on oil prices. “Principally, the main concern is on oil prices, which has resulted in some selling pressure for the ringgit, due to Malaysia’s position as a net oil exporter,” he said.

According to Bloomberg data, the ringgit has weakened to RM3.5553 against the US dollar, its lowest since 2009. Meanwhile, Brent crude oil hovered around US$53.50 per barrel.

Link: http://www.theedgemarkets.com/my/article/1mdb%E2%80%99s-failure-settle-debt-seen-driving-down-ringgit-economist

Sources said 1MDB has now been given until January 30 to settle the debt that was originally due on November 30, 2014. Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and RHB Bank Bhd are the lead lenders. The problem has been brought to the attention of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), and sources said at a recent meeting, top executives from 1MDB led by chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail and outgoing CEO Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman were given a dressing-down by the central bank. According to sources, the 1MDB executives were told in very strong terms that they will face action if the matter is not settled.

Maybank, RHB and BNM declined to comment. 1MDB did not respond to queries on the matter...Maybank has 58.99% of the RM2 billion loan while RHB has 32.41%. The other lenders are Alliance Investment Bank Bhd (4.06%), Malaysia Building Society Bhd (3.24%) and Hwang DBS Investment Bhd (1.29%).

Sources said the inability of 1MDB to meet its payments shows how it is struggling with cash flow that cannot support its debt servicing. They said it is likely that 1MDB has not received the US$1.23 billion (RM4.3 billion) that was supposed to be redeemed from the fund in Cayman Islands on November 30 last year. 

The money was the remaining amount of the US$2.33 billion invested in a fund there. In 1MDB’s audited accounts for the financial year 2014 ended March 31 (FY14) released in early November, it was stated that the money would be redeemed by November 30, 2014.

1MDB had borrowings of RM42 billion and suffered a negative cash flow of RM2.25 billion in FY14 with its debt servicing at around RM2.5 billion. Apart from not getting all the money back from Caymans, 1MDB’s plan to list its energy assets to raise money to pay its debts has been delayed and now looks likely to take place only in the second quarter of this year.

Read more here:

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/bank-negara-grills-top-executives-as-1mdb-fails-to-settle-rm2-billion-debt

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): The FBM KLCI skidded 1.53% at the midday break on Tuesday, in line with the fall at most global markets. At 12.30pm, the index lost 26.32 points to 1,710.30. It had earlier fallen to its intra-morning low of 1,708.78.

Market breadth was negative as losers thumped gainers by 663 to 88, with 175 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 951.28 million shares valued at RM811.36 million. Meanwhile, the ringgit declined 0.61% versus the US dollar and was quoted at 3.5553.

Read more here:

http://www.theedgemarkets.com/my/article/klci-slides-153-global-growth-woes

Perwaja Steel Closure Is Inevitable

Published by Free Malaysia Today on 12 December 2014.

The Terengganu government has assured the 1,500 workers of Perwaja Steel Sdn Bhd that their welfare will be cared for although Perwaja will cease operation by year end. Trade and Industry Committee chairman Tengku Putera Tengku Awang said the state government has urged China-based Eastern Steel Sdn Bhd to employ Perwaja workers.

“The state government has negotiated with Eastern Steel who agreed to employ skilled Perwaja workers. However, Eastern Steel did not set a quota for the workers,” he told reporters after winding up debate in the state assembly today.

Established in 1982, Perwaja changed ownership several times and was beset by financial problems, forcing operations to be closed. Eastern Steel is Malaysia’s largest steel plant with investment of RM1.8 billion on a 500-hectare site in Teluk Kalong, Kemaman.

Tengku Putera said the state government via the Workers Coordination Committee was willing to meet with the Perwaja workers involved. “The retrenchment of Perwaja workers was decided one year ago but the first phase only began in early September. The closure is inevitable, although some capital injection and a rescue plan had been implemented,” he added. The state government is also willing to provide assistance to Perwaja workers who want to venture into business.

- BERNAMA

Link: 

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/12/12/eastern-steel-to-absorb-perwaja-steel-workers/

Public Accounts Committee probes Felcra

By Terence Fernandez.

Several past and present directors of the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra) including three deputy ministers are facing serious allegations of breach of trust and fiduciary duty for accepting honorariums without the approval of the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

It was reported last month that Felcra Bhd directors had paid themselves over RM700,000 in bonuses over a span of three years — in defiance of an MoF order not to do so. In 2008, when Felcra wrote to the MoF for approval to pay honarariums, the latter had declined the request.

Among those subject to an ongoing Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquiry are MoF deputy secretary Datuk Dr Mohd Isa Hussain — who also sits on the audit committee. Mohd Isa, whose portfolio involves investments, Ministry of Finance Incorporated and privatisation is supposed to be MoF’s representative in Felcra to look out for the interests of the ministry.

However, the PAC heard that he had accepted the honorariums from 2010 to 2012 along with the other directors of the 11-member board.

The membership has changed over the course of the last three years, with three deputy ministers also named as receiving directors’ fees without MoF approval. They are former Felcra chairman Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, who is the present Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister; Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Abdul Muttalib; and Deputy Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Halimah Siddique.

Each director was paid RM20,000 in 2010, while Tajuddin who was chairman was paid RM30,000. This amount was raised to RM30,000 for each director and RM50,000 for the chairman for the next two years.Halimah, however, joined at the tail end of 2012 and as such only received RM5,000.

Felcra’s excuse was that the payment was “consolation” money was for “excellent work”, and paid out RM133,333 in 2010; RM257,500 in 2011; and RM332,500 in 2012.

Other than Mohd Isa, also facing the PAC during last month’s hearing were newly-appointed Felcra chairman Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin and Felcra chief executive officer Datuk Ramlee Abu Bakar.

PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed had made it clear that Bung Mokhtar was not among those who had received the bonuses and is assisting the PAC in the investigations.

Nur Jazlan had also revealed, in a case of putting the cart before the horse, that the Felcra board only sought MoF approval for the bonuses in October — after the money was paid.

PAC sources tell The Edge Financial Daily that the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamad had viewed the PAC findings and was of the opinion that there is no element of corruption but a clear case of breach of trust.

“It is in clear breach of the Companies Act where shareholder approval was not obtained to pay out the honorariums,” said a source.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 8, 2014.

Link:
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/my/article/pac-probes-felcra

RM6 billion injection of public funds into Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is a bailout or an investment?

Published by The Malay Mail Online on 29 August 2014.

The RM6 billion injection of public funds to turn around the fortunes of ailing national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is not a bailout but an investment, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today. Najib said state fund Khazanah Nasional intends to fully recover the RM6 billion investment but that recovery for the ailing national carrier could take longer than the three years envisaged by the restructuring plan announced today.

“This is an investment, not a bailout,” Najib told reporters after the Umno Supreme Council meeting here. “The recovery may take more than three years. But we believe in three years we will see a positive turnaround,” he added. Najib also said that any downsizing of the company will be done in the most humane and compassionate way.

Khazanah announced today that the carrier will trim its workforce by 6,000 although Ahmad Jauhari Yahya will stay on as chief executive until July 2015. He said that a foreign CEO, if hired, will make room for a local eventually. 

Najib also claimed the plan is rooted in making MAS a commercially viable airline, and Putrajaya would need to subsidise MAS if it wants to keep certain routes. The prime minister also said that the airline is being kept alive as Malaysians want MAS as a national carrier.

Read more: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/rm6-billion-mas-turnaround-plan-is-not-a-bailout-says-najib

Published by Reuters on 29 August 2014.

Malaysia Airlines (MASM.KL) (MAS) will slash nearly a third of its 20,000 workforce and cut back its global route network as part of a radical 6 billion ringgit ($1.9 billion) restructuring following the devastating impact of two jetliner disasters.

The 42-year-old company will be de-listed by the end of the year under the broad revival plan announced by state fund Khazanah Nasional on Friday that aims to bring long-elusive efficiency and global standards to the loss-making carrier.

The 6,000 job cuts were higher than expected by the industry and mark a painful new blow for staff after a traumatic year for the national flag-carrier and the Southeast Asian country. Khazanah, which owns a majority stake in MAS, said it would invest in "re-skilling" those who lose jobs and pledged to set up a panel to improve often rocky relations between unions and management.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/29/us-malaysia-airline-restructuring-idUSKBN0GT0KR20140829

Published by Bloomberg on 29 August 2014. By Chong Pooi Koon, Choong En Han and Elffie Chew.

Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS), which lost two jetliners in air disasters this year, will eliminate 6,000 jobs as the national carrier restructures.

Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, whose term was due to end next month, will lead the carrier until July 1, Azman Mokhtar, managing director of majority owner Khazanah Nasional Bhd., said today in Kuala Lumpur. The full impact of the disasters will only be seen in the second half, the airline said yesterday after reporting its sixth quarterly loss.

Sovereign wealth fund Khazanah made a 1.38-billion ringgit ($438 million) buyout offer this month to take Malaysia Airlines private, and the funds are part of 6 billion ringgit it is investing to return the carrier to profit in three years. Prime Minister Najib Razak has said “painful steps” need to be taken to overhaul the airline, which has racked up 4.9 billion ringgit in losses since the start of 2011.

“We believe the fastest way is actually to create a hard reset and create a clean slate,” Azman said. “We needed to have a fresh start because the current MAS, unfortunately the cost structure does not work, unfortunately the revenue has been consistently below its cost.”

The national carrier that traces its beginnings to the 1930s will cut its workforce to 14,000 from 20,000, with Khazanah setting aside funds for retrenchment costs. It’s struggling to repair its image after MH370 vanished in March and MH17 was shot down over Ukraine last month.

CEO Search

As part of the restructuring, Khazanah will review Malaysia Airlines’ services to Europe, renegotiate supply contracts and move the carrier’s headquarters and operations to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the fund said. It will spend 1.6 billion ringgit on revamp and retrenchment costs.

Khazanah’s buyout will result in the company’s delisting, targeted for completion by year-end. The airline is expected to be relisted in three to five years, Khazanah said. A global search will be carried out to find a new CEO by the end of this year, it said.

Khazanah will invest in a “staggered and conditional basis” over the next three years, it said in a statement. “While funds have been made available, they come with strict conditions, so as to ensure that MAS truly resets its business model and cost structures, in order to be truly sustainable.”

The 6 billion ringgit it is pumping into the carrier is not a bailout, Azman said today as the fund outlined its plans in a 40-page report titled “Rebuilding a National Icon.” Shares of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) were suspended from trading today. They have lost 19 percent of its market value this year.

Tainted Image

“The need to restructure the company was accelerated” after the disasters damaged the brand, Ahmad Jauhari said in a statement yesterday. “Our company has had to undergo a thorough re-examination and re-evaluation in order to reposition ourselves as a stronger and more sustainable Malaysia Airlines for the future.”

The March 8 disappearance of Flight 370, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, sparked street protests in Beijing and prompted boycotts by Chinese travelers. No trace of the plane has been found in the world’s longest search for a missing jet in modern aviation history.

The airline’s yields, or measure of ticket prices, fell 4 percent in the second quarter to 21.7 sen, the company said. It filled 73.7 percent of its seats in that period, 6.7 percentage points lower than a year earlier.

Rebuild Sales

“We expected the impact of MH370” on second-quarter performance, Ahmad Jauhari said. “Given that, our team put in much hard work and effort to regain market confidence and rebuild sales. Tragically, just as we were beginning to see signs of recovery in all regions, we were dealt the blow of MH17.”

Flight 17 carried 298 people and was shot down in Ukraine July 17 on a route Malaysia Airlines said was declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The Ukrainian government blamed the downing on pro-Russian rebels in the country’s eastern part.

Average weekly bookings fell 33 percent immediately after the incident, the airline said yesterday. Unverified images of near-empty Malaysia Airlines planes have circulated on social media since MH17 crashed. The airline will review its European routes, Khazanah said today.

Malaysia Airlines said it retired its older Boeing Co. 737-400 aircraft at the end of June, six months earlier than planned, to save fuel costs and increase productivity. It had a fleet of 127 aircraft at mid-August.

The company’s cash and cash equivalent dropped to 2.38 billion ringgit at the end of June, compared with 3.25 billion ringgit at the end of March, it said.

The net loss widened to 307 million ringgit last quarter from a year earlier, the company said. Revenue fell to 3.59 billion ringgit. The carrier will probably lose more than 1 billion ringgit in 2014 and continue to report losses through 2016, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-28/malaysia-airlines-reports-sixth-quarterly-loss-before-delisting.html

Why Is Malaysia Hiding Its Report on MH370?

By Clive Irving. Published by The Daily Beast on 28 April 2014.

Day 50 of the search for Flight MH370 has come and gone without one fragment of the Boeing 777 being found. This is extraordinary. The greatest mystery in aviation history eludes explanation in spite of the enormous effort being made in the far reaches of the Indian Ocean.

Two questions prevail over many others: Are enough resources being devoted to the underwater search? Is it realistic to persist with the search during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter when the conditions can only get worse?

A reasonable way of assessing the answers to both questions is to measure the effort against the only similar exercise in recent experience: the search for Air France Flight 447 in the south Atlantic that began in 2009.

First of all, it’s striking that the Flight 447 search was never a continuous and open-ended effort. It was carried out over a period of a little more than two years in four discrete, limited-time operations. The first began immediately after the Airbus disappeared at the beginning of June 2009, and concluded, with a final tally of floating wreckage and bodies, at the end of that month.

The second was carried out for three weeks between July and August 2009. Although this search located nothing, it did provide valuable information that contributed to eventual success. A multi-beam echo sounder attached to the hull of a French research ship mapped the profile of the seabed—a formidable combination of deep valleys, sharp ridges, and sand-covered plateaus—that would greatly increase the efficiency of the autonomous underwater vehicles, UAVs, deployed in later searches. (The British Royal Navy’s HMS Echo has been performing the same sonar mapping work in the search zone west of Perth, Australia.)

The third search, a year later, was divided into two phases and in total lasted from April 2 to May 24, without result. It deployed much more sophisticated deep-water equipment, including a towed Orion deep-water sonar scanner and three highly advanced remote-controlled Remus UAVs from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. (There has been discussion of sending an Orion, owned by the U.S. Navy but operated by a company called Phoenix International, to Australia to supplement the Bluefin-21.)

The fourth operation, which was again split into two phases, lasted from March 24 until May 13, 2011 and was successful. It was one of the three Remus vehicles, again operated by the Woods Hole team that on April 2 detected a concentration of debris at a depth of nearly 13,000 feet. The recovery of the debris and bodies was made by another vehicle, the Remora III, operated by Phoenix International.

It was only then that the searchers realized that in the first 2009 operation two towed ping detectors, similar to the one deployed three weeks ago in the search for Flight MH370, had passed very close to the debris field without detecting it, which warns us that ping location is far from being a perfected science.

The flight data recorder was retrieved and taken to the BEA headquarters in Paris. Steps were taken to ensure total transparency. The data from the recorder was downloaded in the presence of investigators from Brazil (many of the passengers were Brazilian), the United Kingdom and Germany (both partners in Airbus), the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, and two representatives from the French judicial system.

It is clear that the search for the remains of the Air France Airbus A330 was carefully planned, systematic and well-resourced, each operation timed for the season when the south Atlantic was at its least challenging in terms of weather.

Of course, the searchers had a boost that the search for Flight MH370 does not have: the early discovery of wreckage. But, even with that advantage, the Atlantic search demonstrated that there is no point in using the most effective deep-diving equipment until the area can be narrowed to a searchable size. Then, and only then, can the technology work—first the location of debris and then its recovery.

In the search for Flight MH370, the Australians seemed confident that they had a sufficiently focused target zone of 154 square miles, hard decisions now have to be made. The single Bluefin-21 UAV could be supplemented by either Orion or Remus-type UAVs, but none has yet been requested and those available would take at least two weeks to arrive, either from Europe or the U.S.

Or, given the likelihood of worsening sea conditions as winter deepens, a decision could be taken to call off the search for at least six months. That would be politically unpalatable, given the very vocal anguish and frustration of the families of the missing. But it would also be realistic.

As well as questions about the future of the search, there are others raised by the persistent lack of transparency in Kuala Lumpur about the crash investigation. 

Last week the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, told CNN’s Richard Quest that an initial report on Flight 370 had been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the ICAO. That was somewhat surprising. It’s not customary for air accident investigation reports to go to the ICAO. It’s the responsibility of each nation’s accident investigation agency to release the reports directly to the public as they see fit, according to long-established protocols that demonstrate the independence of the investigators from both political and industry influence.

As it happens, the case of Air France 447 serves as an international benchmark for the integrity of crash investigations.

Only one month after Flight 447 disappeared, French investigators issued their first brief report. They could not explain the sequence of events leading to the accident, but were able to rule out scenarios that could have fed public alarm and conspiracy theories. The airplane had not broken up in the sky. It had hit the water with great force, but there was no evidence from pieces of wreckage of either fire or an explosion.

Five months later, without any additional physical evidence to work with, the BEA issued an update on their investigation. By then they were able to identify a critical sequence of events—and what had probably triggered them. The Airbus’s speed gauges, external devices called pitot tubes, were vulnerable to icing in turbulent weather at high altitude. Consequently they had given false readings which, in turn, had caused the autopilot system to shut down.

And the BEA was already emphatic about an issue that had suddenly been made urgent by the challenges encountered in searching for the Airbus’s black boxes. Among their recommendations to the European Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, and the ICAO, were:

“To make it mandatory, as rapidly as possible, for airplanes performing public transport flights over maritime areas to be equipped with an additional ULB [underwater locator beacon] capable of transmitting on a frequency and for a duration adapted to the pre-localisation of wreckage;

“To study the possibility of making it mandatory for airplanes performing public transport flights to regularly transmit basic flight parameters (for example position, attitude, speed, heading).”

This was, it should be emphasized, in November 2009.

There was never any doubt about the BEA’s commitment to go public with what they found. They were well aware of the public anxiety that follows a large loss of life in unexplained circumstances.

At the same time though, as they pressed on with their investigation, the BEA was under the increasing scrutiny of four powerful interests, Air France, Airbus, the aerospace conglomerate Thales who manufactured the speed gauges, and the two very aggressive unions that represent French airline pilots.

The investigators were careful to preface their reports with this caveat: “…the investigation is not conducted in such a way as to apportion blame or to assess individual or collective responsibility. The sole objective is to draw lessons from this occurrence which may help to prevent future accidents or incidents.”

The BEA’s final report in July 2012, reflecting the value of the data retrieved from the black boxes, ran to more than 200 pages. It was descriptive, prescriptive, and exemplary in its clarity.

Careful not to blame, it nonetheless left no doubt that that the fate of Flight 447 required urgent action on at least three issues: the flawed speed gauges, Air France’s failure adequately to train pilots to take control after an autopilot failure in the “blind” situation of a night flight, and to equip airliners with live streaming of data that would end the dependency on black boxes in accidents over water. (They also recommended that the battery life of the pingers used to locate sunken black boxes be extended from 30 to 90 days—something that the Florida manufacturer of the Boeing 777’s pingers is now finally offering.)

So, why did the Malaysians not follow this model and, instead of sending their report to the ICAO in Montreal, release it themselves?

Everybody involved in assisting the Malaysians has been very tight-lipped about what is going on.

Boeing staff have been in Kuala Lumpur working alongside technicians from the NTSB. In a statement, Boeing said: “We continue to serve as technical adviser to the NTSB and in that role we have been an active and engaged party to the investigation.” The British, represented by the Air Accidents Investigation Board, AAIB, are equally buttoned-up: They explained that they are there as part of a large international effort because the Boeing 777 was powered by Rolls-Royce engines, but concluded, “it is not appropriate for the AAIB to comment further on the investigation.” Investigators from the BEA spent a week in Kuala Lumpur advising on the organization and operation of undersea searches, but they left late in March.

In any case, the investigation has had no physical evidence to work with. Something as basic as the timeline of Flight MH730 from when it took off to when it was last spotted on radar has never emerged in a form that could inspire confidence—the whole issue of radar coverage and intercepts has been used more to fuel speculation for bizarre theories than to bring dependable detailing to the narrative.

Boeing and the U.S. investigators are in an uncomfortable place. No doubt lawyered up for future liability litigation Boeing is, at the same time, trapped in an investigation that few aviation experts have any confidence in. With the Malaysians in charge, there is a clear risk for Boeing of being compromised by a process that is not sealed off from political influence and agendas.

The Malaysian prime minister did say that the report sent to the ICAO was pressing for the mandatory adoption of live data streaming from airliners, which is rather like a bank manager who has not installed alarms complaining that it was too easy to rob his bank. He did tell Richard Quest that the report might be released this week.

To put it mildly, transparency is not exactly second nature to Malaysian politicians. It’s a single-party state unused to public scrutiny. By sending their first report to the ICAO, the Malaysian politicians can argue that they have shared responsibility for it with the appropriate United Nations agency. In fact, the ICAO is culpable in the inexcusable failure to act on the BEA’s 2009 recommendation that critical performance data should be live-streamed from airplanes flying over water.

Link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/28/why-is-malaysia-hiding-its-report-on-mh370.html

Blessed with oil money, but why is Malaysia in huge debt?

By Ng Kee Seng. Published by The Ant Daily on 14 January 2014.

Can any oil producing country in the world make all her citizens millionaires via prudent management and savings?

Norway achieved that on Jan 8, 44 years after striking oil in the North Sea in 1969. But it only set up its oil sovereign wealth fund (SWF) in 1990, meaning it took the Norwegians only 23 years to be millionaires.

According to a Reuters report, everyone in Norway became a theoretical crown millionaire on Jan 8 in a milestone for the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices.

The fund owns about one per cent of the world’s stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts.

A preliminary counter on the website of the central bank, which manages the fund, rose to 5.11 trillion crowns (US$828.66 billion or RM2.7 trillion), fractionally more than a million times Norway’s most recent official population estimate of 5,096,300.

It was the first time it reached the equivalent of a million crowns each, central bank spokesman Thomas Sevang said.

Not that Norwegians will be able to access or spend the money, squirreled away for a rainy day for them and future generations. Norway has resisted the temptation to splurge all the windfall since its oil strike.

Finance Minister Siv Jensen told Reuters the fund, called the Government Pension Fund Global, had helped iron out big, unpredictable swings in oil and gas prices. Norway is the world's number seven oil exporter.

“Many countries have found that temporary large revenues from natural resource exploitation produce relatively short-lived booms that are followed by difficult adjustments,” she said in an email.

The fund, equivalent to 183 per cent of 2013 gross domestic product, is expected to peak at 220 per cent around 2030.

“The fund is a success in the sense that parliament has managed to put aside money for the future. There are many examples of countries that have not managed that,” said Oeystein Doerum, chief economist at DNB Markets.

Note the key word: Parliament. In Malaysia, only the prime minister has access to national oil producer Petronas’ funds and accounts.

Malaysia is the 27th largest oil producer in the world, rolling out 693,700 barrels/day. Only 114 countries were listed as at 2009 and 2010. Norway rolls out 2,350,000 bbl/day.

What’s the financial position of Malaysia? A federal debt of up to RM800 billion! (as revealed by then Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir at end of 2012).

And do we have such an oil SWF to save for rainy days for the rakyat and country? None.

According to a written reply in Parliament by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Petronas had contributed RM3 billion to the National Trust Fund (or Kwan, the acronym for Kumpulan Wang Amanah Negara) as at June 2011.

He also said the money had been invested in various financial instruments and that Kwan’s fund currently stood at RM5.43 billion.

Just a measly RM5.43 billion compared with Norway’s RM2.7 trillion!

The administration and management of the trust is handled by Bank Negara with a panel under Kwan monitoring the collection of funds. And, digest this moronic joke: Najib said Kwan was set up to ensure that revenue from dwindling natural resources would benefit future generations.

After 39 years (Petronas was founded in 1974), all we have today is a federal debt of at least RM800 billion, and the international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia stood at RM441.7 billion (equivalent to US$134.9 billion) as at Dec 31, 2013.

Now, it is clear why the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government is cutting down on subsidies. Its federal debt is so high that it cannot continue to borrow to serve the rakyat as before or Malaysia will go bust like Greece.

It’s time for Malaysians to take stock of the federal government’s lack of transparency and accountability in its financial management of the country’s wealth.

It’s utter nonsense and a disgrace for the 24-year-old Kwan to have a paltry savings of RM5.43 billion, unless Najib now wants to claim that the figure was erroneous and blame it on a scapegoat who prepared the written reply in Parliament.

What can RM5.43 billion (US$1.9 billion) do to help Malaysians and Malaysia during rainy days, like when our oil wells run dry?

Why is there no oil-based SWF for Malaysia?

Petronas is today a global player in oil and gas exploration.

Why is the government just satisfied with an annual RM100 million contribution to Kwan since 1988?

Where has Petronas’ hundreds of billions of ringgit in revenue over the past 38 years gone to?

Did Petronas’ oil and gas exploration presence in 32 countries outside Malaysia also contribute or help facilitate the bulk of the RM1.08 trillion in capital flight in the last decade?

Why avoid establishing an oil-based SWF for the people and country? Is it because financial transparency and accountability would be a pain?

Crude oil and natural gas are Malaysia’s two most abundant resources but their sustainability is being questioned with the country projected to become a net oil importer in a few years.

Now, let’s take a more detailed look on why other oil producing countries are doing better in terms of oil-based or non-commodity-based SWF management:

Kuwait (10th at 2,494,000 bbl/day), Libya (17th at 1,790,000 bbl/day), Kazakhstan (18th at 1,540,000 bbl/day), Algeria (15th at 2,125,000 bbl/day), South Korea (64th at 48,180 bbl/day) and Singapore (82nd at 10,910 bbl/day).

Malaysia’s non-commodity Khazanah Nasional, founded in 1993, is ranked 23rd with US$34 billion (RM110 billion) in assets and a Linaburg-Maduell Transparency Index (LM-TI) of 5.

The world’s largest SWF, Norway’s Pension Fund Global, was in 2009 registered with assets worth US$664.3 billion (RM2 trillion) with a perfect 10 LM-TI.

UAE-Abu Dhabi’s oil-based Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, established in 1976, is ranked second with US$627 billion (RM2 trillion) and a 5 LM-TI.

At third spot, China’s non-commodity SAFE Investment Company, which was founded in 1997, now manages assets worth US$567.9 billion (RM1.8 trillion), with a 4 LM-TI.

That’s the top three SWFs in the world. Now, let’s focus on our neighbours.

Singapore’s non-commodity Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, which was set up in 1981, is ranked 8th with assets at US$247.5 billion (RM802 billion) and a 6 LM-TI.

Following at 9th rank is another Singapore non-commodity SWF, Temasek Holdings, which was established in 1974. It has US$157.5 billion (RM510 billion) in assets and a perfect 10 LM-TI.

Even countries like Kuwait, which was severely damaged by Iraq’s bombing and brief occupation, Libya, Kazakhstan, Algeria and South Korea, which were far poorer than Malaysia in the 60s, 70s and 80s, are all managing their country’s wealth better than Malaysia.

Malaysia’s economic and financial standing is baffling, don’t you think so?

Link:

http://www.theantdaily.com/news/2014/01/14/blessed-oil-money-why-malaysia-huge-debt

Ng Kee Seng believes that God helps those who help themselves. In a healthy democracy, every Malaysian has a role in politics and nation-building.

The Son Najib Is Unlike The Father Tun Razak At All

"Remembering my father, Tun Razak" by Nazir Razak . Published by The Malaysian Insider on 14 January 2014.

Anything spent on it would have to come from public funds, and there was no way he was going to allow the state coffers to be depleted on something as frivolous as a swimming pool.

"What will the people think?" he thundered...

As the custodian of the nation's coffers, his frugality was legendary. "You had to account for every cent, or he would be on your back," one former minister told me.Well, I knew that already. Not just from the swimming pool episode, but many anecdotes.

My elder brothers often talk about one of the rare opportunities they had to accompany him on an official trip to Switzerland. He made sure he paid their expenses himself, he was so careful with the cost of the trip to the government that he moved his whole entourage to a cheaper hotel than originally booked, and they dined over and over again at the cheapest restaurant in the vicinity of the hotel.

And then there was his final trip to Europe in October 1975 for medical treatment. He must have known that it could well be his last trip, yet he did not allow my mother to accompany him to save his own money; probably concerned about her financial situation after his passing. She only managed to join him weeks later on the insistence of the cabinet and with a specially approved government budget for her travel.

His integrity was another trait that came up often in conversations. He was guided by what now seems a somewhat quaint and old-fashioned concept of public service; that a public servant is first and foremost a servant of the people whose trust must never be betrayed...

Many were later astonished to learn he had been suffering from leukaemia, given that when in office, he was constantly on the move, attending to official duties, immersing himself in the minutiae of policy and, of course, his famous surprise visits to constituencies around the country that allowed him to hear directly from the people about what was happening on the ground.

Of course, few people forget to recount Tun Razak's dedication to rural development. He was "People First", long before the sound bite.

But above all, what they unanimously emphasised was Tun Razak's commitment to national unity – towards building a nation where every single one of its citizens could find a place under the Malaysian sun. That vision was encapsulated in the two initiatives that my father spearheaded in the wake of the May 13, 1969 tragedy – the formulation of the Rukunegara in 1970 and the New Economic Policy in 1971. The Rukunegara reconciled indigenous cultural traditions and heritage with the demands of a modern, secular state.

The NEP's goal, as outlined in the policy announcement, was the promotion of national unity to be undertaken via a massive experiment in socio-economic engineering through the twin thrusts of eradication of poverty irrespective of race and economic restructuring to eliminate identification of economic function with ethnicity.

The debate on the NEP rages on today. I myself have publicly remarked that something has gone awry in its implementation. The fixation on quotas and the seemingly easy route to unimaginable wealth for a select few have created an intra-ethnic divide in class and status, while fuelling inter-ethnic tensions. Both these developments serve to undermine, if not completely negate, the overarching goal of Tun Razak's NEP, strengthening national unity.

What went wrong? Some have argued that the fault was affirmative action itself.  For me, it was because its implementation was skewed by the focus on the tactical approach rather than the commitment to the strategic goal. The NEP has certainly helped eradicate poverty and reduced economic imbalances by spawning a Malay middle class.

However, in terms of the larger vision, the best that can be said about the NEP is that it initially helped blunt the edges of racial conflict in the aftermath of May 13. Thanks in part to the NEP, Malaysia did not follow Sri Lanka, which became embroiled in decades of strife between the immigrant Tamils and the indigenous Sinhalese.

That is no small achievement. But the NEP promise of strengthening national unity has not been realised. In fact, there are signs that inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic tensions are once again approaching worrying levels. What can be done? There is a Malay proverb: "Sesat di Hujung Jalan, Balik ke-Pangkal Jalan." Loosely translated, it means "When one has lost one's way, one should return to the beginning."

And "the beginning" here, in my view, is the values, commitment, vision and inclusiveness demonstrated and embodied by Tun Razak. I have mentioned earlier the remarks about his integrity, commitment to the concept of public service and his vision of a progressive, prosperous and united Malaysia. But let me close here by emphasising two other highlights of his legacy.

One, he was a true democrat. Two years after running the country as head of the National Operations Council, he disbanded the committee and restored democratic rule. He held virtually dictatorial power as the NOC chief, but his worldview and values rested on a foundation of democratic rule, not dictatorship. His decision-making style exemplified this as well: he brought in all who needed to be involved and engaged in a consultative discussion before any major decision was adopted. He never excluded those with contrarian views, he encouraged multiplicity of opinions in order to have the best chance of making a right final decision.

Two, while he was committed to helping improve the material quality of life for the majority Bumiputeras to avert another "May 13", he viewed this as a national prerogative rather than a racial one. That, to me, explains his determination to involve Malaysia's best and brightest in this quest, regardless of their racial or ethnic origin.

Just check out those who served him and his administration back then. They were and are, Malaysians all, united in their determination to rebuild this nation from the ashes of May 13. That was Tun Razak's legacy to Malaysia. We can best honour it by returning to "Pangkal Jalan".

Read more here:

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/remembering-my-father-tun-razak

"Malaysia’s Najib Faces Party, Public Protest" 

published by The Asia Sentinel on 13 January 2014.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak enters 2014 beset by growing hostility from both the public and within his own political party, the United Malays National Organization, characterized by a deluge of New Year messages across cyberspace celebrating the “year of barang naik,” Malay language for rising prices of items.

That is a play on the initials BN, for Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition. It has become an opposition battle cry to the point where Najib mentioned it himself in a recent speech

Najib is making an astute move now, after national and intraparty elections have been completed, taking on the necessary but unappetizing task of dismantling decades of subsidies that have driven government debt close to the statutory limit of 55 percent of gross domestic product. In the wake of both sets of elections, he is temporarily invulnerable to both opposition and intraparty assaults.

However, electricity tariffs have risen by 15 percent, sugar subsidies have been cut. Last September, Petronas, the national energy company, cut fuel subsidies in a move that it said would save the government RMB1 billion annually. Public anger at the cutting of the subsidies is substantial and growing.

In addition, many in the party rank and file are still furious over widespread spending to keep the current leadership in place in the September intraparty elections.

That has brought the prime minister under unprecedented attack from bloggers aligned with the wing of the party controlled by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who are delivering an extraordinary onslaught on his lifestyle and that of his wife, even going so far as an unprecedented call for attention to corruption within UMNO itself. The attacks had been expected from the time Najib blocked Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz, from becoming one of the party’s three vice presidents in the September polls.

Najib has sought to deflect criticism, saying the price hikes have been caused by factors such as the global economy and extreme weather that cut into the fish catch and drove up the price of vegetables. The government has also sought to spread the pain by cutting government ministers’ allowances by 10 percent, banning civil servants from business class flights, restricting expenses on official government functions. However, that hasn't mollified voters, who staged public protests over New Year’s.

Najib also enraged voters by leaving for most of the holidays, going to Las Vegas and other watering holes with his wife, Rosmah Mansor, whose free-spending ways have alienated large swaths of the conservative Malay Muslim community. He is being called “Mr Nowhere” because of his absences from the country.

“A putsch is in the air, definitely, as the frustration with Najib's free spending and extravagant lifestyle increases,” a Malay businessman told Asia Sentinel. “Najib is in the weakest position any prime minister in Malaysia has ever seen.”

Calls have been rising to have Mohamad come back to the government administrative center of Putra Jaya as an “adviser” to right the ship, something that appears highly unlikely. Mahathir himself made light of the idea.

In the meantime, bloggers who have been described as aligned with Mahathir have been raising their game, making broadly based attacks on Najib and even other UMNO officials, calling attention to what appears to be corruption in the award of highway contracts.

Kadir Jasin, a former New Straits Times editor and close longtime Mahathir ally, wrote recently that “To many UMNO leaders, the measure of the party’s success is big cars, big houses and expensive watches whose names they can’t even mention.”  In particular, Rosmah has been criticized repeatedly for her taste in vastly expensive watches.

Kadir also called attention to “people with no formal appointments and duties (who) are known to use government on pretext of serving the country,” an apparent reference to Rosmah’s November commandeering of an official government jet to fly to Qatar to attend an international forum.

“Do they know that even the Queen (of England) uses trains and charters planes when travelling overseas? They should because many like the PM studied in the UK. Air transport for the British Royal Family and the government of the UK is provided, depending on circumstances and availability, by a variety of military and civilian operators. But most often they fly using scheduled commercial flights, normally the British Airways.”

“We are complaining about the wrong things he is doing in accommodating the wishes of his wife,” Kadir wrote. “We are asking the government to be accountable. The PM should answer these allegations. The way he bragged about his wife in public, he was in fact saying that his wife has more influence than him with foreign leaders.”

“Outsyedthebox” suggested that Najib, who had never finished his economics degree, actually “imbibed from the “Proton school of management” (the money-losing national car) “where it is a good thing to buy something high and sell it low.  Or buy something high and then sell it even higher to people who have few options.: 

“Mahathir’s and (former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin’s) hands are all over the place but the point is that Najib and his wife are providing all the ammo,” a source said. “Without the ammo, Mahathir would be hard pressed to rally his troops against Najib.”

Everything “down to the price of ice has increased in a manner of two weeks,” said another UMNO loyalist. “Everything in Malaysia shot up in one month without notice. The government keeps the ringgit so weak against the US dollar, the cost of living keeps bouncing, salary increases are nothing. Crime is up, corruption is up. People are getting really upset.”

During the waning days of the premiership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as the rank and file sought to push him out, “similar contempt was restricted to some segments of UMNO and the ruling elite,” a source told Asia Sentinel. “With Mahathir, it was disgust and contempt from intellectuals and rights groups. But with Najib – it's across the board and it extends to his wife and friends.”

Link: http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/malaysias-najib-faces-party-public-protest/

Church Members Mistreat Homeless Man in Church Unaware It Is Their Pastor in Disguise

Seeded by The WOPR on 18 September 2013.

Pastor Jeremiah Steepek transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the 10,000 member church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning.

He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service, only 3 people out of the 7-10,000 people said hello to him.

He asked people for change to buy food – no one in the church gave him change.

He went into the sanctuary to sit down in the front of the church and was asked by the ushers if he would please sit in the back.

He greeted people to be greeted back with stares and dirty looks, with people looking down on him and judging him.

As he sat in the back of the church, he listened to the church announcements and such.

When all that was done, the elders went up and were excited to introduce the new pastor of the church to the congregation.

“We would like to introduce to you Pastor Jeremiah Steepek.” The congregation looked around clapping with joy and anticipation.

The homeless man sitting in the back stood up and started walking down the aisle. The clapping stopped with all eyes on him.

He walked up the altar and took the microphone from the elders (who were in on this) and paused for a moment then he recited,

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

‘The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ [Matthew 25: 34-45]

After he recited this, he looked towards the congregation and told them all what he had experienced that morning. Many began to cry and many heads were bowed in shame.

He then said, “Today I see a gathering of people, not a church of Jesus Christ. The world has enough people, but not enough disciples. When will YOU decide to become disciples?”

He then dismissed service until next week.

Following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ should be more than just talk. It ought to be a lifestyle that others around you can love about you and share in.

Link: http://the-wopr.newsvine.com/_news/2013/09/19/20572264-church-members-mistreat-homeless-man-in-church-unaware-it-is-their-pastor-in-disguise

Dedicated To Those Who "Hate Politics"

Vote wisely!

Accountability: A Simple Comparison Between PR & BN

PAKATAN RAKYAT

In a move similar to the Selangor state government, the Penang Pakatan Rakyat state government handed over official cars used by its state leaders to the state secretary today.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said now that the state assembly has been dissolved, state leaders including himself are only caretakers to continue running the state administration.

“As a caretaker government, we will not handle any management of state assets, we will not make any commitments to open tender and all our family members are barred from involvement in any government contracts,” he said. As the state leaders will not be attending official state events, Lim said it was appropriate to hand over the official cars to the state secretary for safekeeping. “We will be using our own personal cars for party matters and during this campaign period,” he said.

Read more here:

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/penang-hands-over-state-cars

BARISAN NASIONAL

Malaysiakini reporter Koh Jun Lin has reported being faced with threats of assault by Barisan Nasional staff when he tried to find out about the use of federal government Information Department vans and equipment at a party ceramah in Batu, Kuala Lumpur.

In his report on the encounter, Jun Lin said the party’s event organiser, Suhaimi Yahya, had shouted: “Hey! You are lucky I haven’t smacked you yet. . .” At this point, an unidentified man wearing a BN shirt stepped in and forced Malaysiakini to leave the venue, shouting “Go back”, “Don’t cause trouble”, and “Don’t you dare look back”.

Jun Lin’s run-in with the BN workers had come when he tried to ask about the use of Information vans and equipment at the opening of the party’s election centre for Batu constituency. A speaker van was used to broadcast speeches, while two other Information vehicles were parked nearby, Jun Lin reported.

Barisan Nasional deputy chairman Muhyiddin Yassin had been the guest-of-honour earlier in which he spoke to about 300 supporters criticising the outgoing MP, Tian Chua of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Government equipment is not allowed to be used for party purposes under any circumstances and especially so by a caretaker government during election campaigns — but the Alliance and the Barisan Nasional coalitions have paid scant regard to procedure and good constitutional behaviour in the past.

Read more here:

http://uppercaise.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/bn-staff-threaten-mkini-reporter-with-smacking/