Finance Ministers: Sleep tight and have a good weekend
UPDATED VERSION. It's almost one week after Ezam Mohd Nor, chairman of the Movement for Democracy and Anti-Corruption (Gerak), handed to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi a 632-page document which contained allegations of criminal breach of trust and misappropriation involving a senior Cabinet Minister.
According to The Star, the document took Gerak six months to compile, and it contained two police reports lodged against the minister made by a chief executive officer of a public-listed company in 1998, statements by the Malaysian Companies Commission as well as receipts and invoices amounting to millions of ringgit.
Perhaps, for the sake of folks originating from Penang, the PM would like to ask his deputy at MoF, Nor Mohamed Yakcop, whether the implicated senior minister, whoever he is, is sleeping tight and having good weekend.
UPDATES: Today, former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim said he received information that a new company, Focus, has been awarded the contract to print Malaysian currency through a RM600 million loan by Bank Pembangunan.
Anwar asked whether the decision was agreed upon by Bank Negara Malaysia, which should be the only authority commissioning the printing of currency in this country.
He also asked whether this new company can guarantee the integrity of our currency in local and international markets.
We don't know much about Focus that Anwar mentioned, but we do know of paper lama that points to "the only private currency printing outfit outside Europe" mooted by Focus Equity Sdn Bhd, Bukit Tagar.
Folks, if you still have the WWII Japanese banana notes, like the image above, please send some to me.
Comments
First, importing oil soon. Then oilwells going to run dry. Then someone else printing money. Sounds like we're going the Zimbab-way (Zimbabwe)...
Posted by: LC Teh
|
July 6, 2007 01:29 PM
R u gonna use the banana money to feed the monkeys running wild in Parlaiment?
Posted by: groo
|
July 6, 2007 01:53 PM
I got a stack that was handed down to me from my grandparents, with the words "For Use In Sarawak Only" printed on them.
Pass me your postal address and I'll send a few notes over.
Posted by: kennysia
|
July 6, 2007 03:46 PM
Methinks that Anwar does protest too much!
Surely, as a former Finance Minister, he must be aware that many countries have contracted out the printing of their currency notes to specialist printers.
Thus, De La Rue Currency (the successor to Thomas De La Rue) has an ongoing contract to print currency notes for the Bank of England.
And both the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Brunei Currency Board have contracted out the printing of their respective currencies to specialist printers.
It seems premature to comment on Focus without getting full details of what it is all about.
But a little matter of due diligence has never stopped Anwar from jumping the gun!
Posted by: skilgannon1066
|
July 6, 2007 03:52 PM
it's very alarming to hear this news.
Posted by: lamdog
|
July 6, 2007 04:59 PM
Hey, i've got a few of those . . . like KennySia, mine was handed down to me except it doesn't come with the extra "For Use In Sarawak Only"
Posted by: TheThinker
|
July 6, 2007 06:32 PM
Kennysia, can you send some of them to me?
in return, I send you some game cards and a few euros. :-)
Privatizing money printing is a crazy idea. Are they going to make plastic money like Australian notes?
Posted by: Life Feel
|
July 6, 2007 08:07 PM
Please excuse the PM, he is to busy with the new wife and ain't got the opportunity to read the report.
It's been so long you know and has to make up the lost times.
This delivery system is more urgent than the report that involved the rakyat.
By the way, when NMY replied to the PM who the culprit is, he should not look into the mirror.
Posted by: ynos
|
July 6, 2007 08:31 PM
Sad to say....my country is screwed by so called ministers. We the public taken for a ride. Poor and uneducated can only watch and suffer. If only god have eyes, he would sure make doomed the country like another atlantis..... All will die and ceased to exist. Paying for all the crimes caused.
But yet, all is not lost. We got people out there who would take whatever necessary to protect its integrity. Folks like Jeff, RPK, Ezam, many more bloggers and readers. Trying each day, one bit at a day. Oneday, light will shine. That day is in General Elections. Make it count, people...
Posted by: Journey
|
July 6, 2007 11:09 PM
Spotlight on Tajudin as Air Maldives sues MAS
Singapore Business Times - 06 Jul 2007
Spotlight on Tajudin as Air Maldives sues MAS
Suit relates to alleged breach of management contract in 1996
By MICHELLE QUAH
(SINGAPORE) Malaysia's national carrier, Malaysian Airline System (MAS), is being sued by Air Maldives, over an alleged breach of a management contract inked between the two about a decade back.
The Maldivian government, the majority owner of Air Maldives, has itself launched its own suit - over a related deal - against Naluri Corporation, the former flagship company of Malaysian businessman Tajudin Ramli, who used to be MAS's chairman.
Both Air Maldives and the government of the Republic of Maldives have alleged that MAS and Naluri failed to honour their respective agreements to help Air Maldives set up, operate and manage an international air operation.
It's understood that both Malaysian companies are contesting the lawsuits.
An announcement by MAS on the Bursa Malaysia website on May 16 this year said the airline had received a letter from the Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris, giving notice of an arbitration proceeding initiated by Air Maldives 'alleging that MAS had failed to perform its duties under a management agreement entered between MAS and Air Maldives on Jan 16, 1996'.
The announcement went on to say that MAS was taking legal advice to challenge the claim.
MAS added that it was unable to, at that time, state what, if any, effect the claim would have on its financial position - as the notice of arbitration did not specify the amounts claimed by Air Maldives from MAS.
'Neither does it provide sufficient information to enable MAS to meaningfully assess the quantum of Air Maldives' claim,' it added.
There have been no subsequent announcements by MAS on the matter.
Naluri posted an earlier announcement on the Malaysian stock exchange's website. On April 16, 2007, it said it had been served with a Notice of Arbitration by the solicitors acting for the government of the Republic of Maldives.
Attempts by BT to contact both MAS and Naluri for comment were unsuccessful.
Local law firm Allen & Gledhill (A&G) represents both Maldivian parties in their separate suits. When contacted yesterday, A&G partner Kenneth Pereira confirmed his firm was acting for the Maldivian government and Air Maldives - and that they had commenced legal action against Naluri and MAS, respectively.
Mr Pereira declined to give further details, except to say that the Maldivian government was suing Naluri on the grounds that it had failed to perform its duties under various agreements. It is claiming for losses suffered - and damages are estimated at some US$69 million.
It is understood that some years back the Maldivian government sought to develop Air Maldives, a domestic airline, into an international one. It approached MAS, then under Mr Tajudin, for its help.
Air Maldives then signed a memorandum of understanding with Naluri - a company owned by Mr Tajudin - in July 1994, in which Naluri agreed to provide professional and technical expertise to establish international air operations for Air Maldives.
In a shareholders' agreement signed in October 1994, it was agreed that Naluri would provide the necessary funding in case Air Maldives didn't have the means to establish such international air operations. Naluri then became a 49 per cent shareholder of Air Maldives.
Air Maldives is suing MAS in a separate suit, but over a related matter. The two had inked a management agreement in January 1996, in which MAS was to provide management services to Air Maldives - including managing the latter's business, seconding employees and training Air Maldives staff.
Mr Tajudin had been considered Malaysia's national hero, during his stewardship of MAS - but has since slipped into almost complete obscurity, after having sold back the loss-making airline to the Malaysian government in 2000.
When Mr Tajudin borrowed RM1.79 billion in 1994, then worth about S$1.03 billion, to buy a 32 per cent stake in MAS from the government, he was praised as the type of New Malay the country needed.
But, in a shocking development last July, Mr Tajudin said he was forced by former prime minister and then finance minister Mahathir Mohamad to buy MAS in 1994, to help bail out the country's central bank. He said he reluctantly took out a loan for the purchase, pledging other companies he owned as collateral.
The loans became non-performing during the 1997 Asian financial crisis and were taken over by then Malaysian asset management agency Danaharta, along with Mr Tajudin's companies. The Malaysian government's purchase of MAS in 2000 was seen widely as a bail-out for Mr Tajudin.
Dr Mahathir has denied Mr Tajudin's claim that he was forced to buy MAS as a 'national service', saying it was the latter who first indicated his interest in buying the carrier.
Meanwhile, MAS has sued Mr Tajudin for an alleged breach of fiduciary duties.
MAS filed the suit last year, claiming Mr Tajudin had breached his duties during his tenure as the company's director, chairman and principal executive officer, in procuring MAS to enter into various projects and business with third parties in total disregard to the interest of the company.
Naluri - Mr Tajudin's flagship - was named as one of the four co-defendants in the suit filed in the High Court in Malaysia. The others are Promet (Langkawi) Resorts Sdn Bhd, Kauthar Venture Capital Sdn Bhd and Pakatan Permai Sdn Bhd.
The suit alleges that Mr Tajudin had conspired with the co-defendants respectively to cause loss and damage to the company.
Posted by: ktak
|
July 7, 2007 01:04 AM
There is reason behind devaluation of banana notes.
Even during Japan occupation, banana notes suffered from huge inflation. The alliance counterfeiting and distribute millions of banana to cripple the occupied zone economy.
Posted by: moo_t
|
July 7, 2007 10:37 AM
How to repay the RM600 million loan????? Print moneylah.
Posted by: AverageJoe
|
July 8, 2007 11:03 AM
what makes you think PM will read it...and even if he reads it..will he ACT?
Personally..I had a lot of hope when he became PM but such a disappointment...... my mailman can make act more decisively.
Posted by: art chan
|
July 8, 2007 10:57 PM
Dear All, from what little I know there are only 2 or 3 printers of currency in the world and Bank Negara does not print our Ringgits .
AI is trying to tell us that this Focus thingy is the middleman in this deal and since he is not getting any 'emoluments' anymore thats why he bising lah !
Posted by: richL
|
July 9, 2007 10:39 AM
Jeff, why do you need the Jap-Occupation notes?
I have 2 of those.
Posted by: whitehandedgibbon
|
July 9, 2007 09:17 PM