Screenshots: Arif Shah... From 22nd to top in a day

Members of the media corp who covered the Barisan Nasional machinery at the Permatang Pauh by-election couldn't have missed these fast-changing scenes yesterday.

Arif Shah Omar Shah, the Umno lone ranger chosen at the last-minute as the candidate to fight Anwar Ibrahim in the by-election, was reduced to tears in awe and joy when his candidacy was announced by DPM Najib Razak last night.

There was a great contrast. As early as late morning yesterday, Arif was seen showing tantrum in the BN operation room. He was visibly upset with the draft Umno by-election committee. There were 22 names, and his was at the twenty-second, rock bottom.

He wanted due respect to be given for he was, and still is, the sole Yang Berhormat who survived the scalpel in a state constituency (Seberang Jaya) within the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency. Umno lost in the other two, to PKR (Penanti) and Permatang Pasir (PAS), respectively.

Arif got his way. By 5.00pm yesterday, he was shaking hands with everyone who came his way, wearing a broad smile on his round-face laced with his signature locks of white hair, a canny familiarity to his brother's, the former ship-builder once dubbed the Onassis of Malaysia, Amin Shah Omar Shah.

Why another Omar Shah?

Why did Najib choose Arif over the front-row contender, Abdul Jalil Abdul Majid, who was defeated in the Penanti state constituency in GE2008?

Arif Shah and Amin Shah are both fluent in Mandarin and the Hokkien dialect, the lingua franca for the Chinese community in Permatang Pauh. That's where the similarities end between the siblings.

Years ago, in 2004, Najib being the Defence Minister, had chosen an Omar Shah sibling to commission the building of naval vessels for the Royal Navy. The company was PSC-Naval Dockyard, a subsidiary of Penang Shipbuilding & Construction Sdn Bhd, which was owned by UMNO crony, Amin Shah Omar Shah.

That became the perfect recipe for financial blunders. Quote:
PSC-Naval Dockyard was contracted to deliver six patrol boats for the Malaysian Navy in 2004 and complete the delivery by last April (2006). Those were supposed to be the first of 27 offshore vessels ultimately to cost RM24 billion plus the right to maintain and repair all of the country's naval craft. But only two of the barely operational patrol boats had been delivered by mid 2006. There were 298 recorded complaints about the two boats, which were also found to have 100 and 383 uncompleted items aboard them respectively.

The original RM5.35 billion contract ballooned to RM6.75 billion by January 2007. The auditor also reported that the ministry had paid out RM4.26 billion to PSC up to December 2006 although only RM2.87 billion of work had been done, an overpayment of RM1.39 billion, or 48 percent. In addition, Malaysia’s cabinet waived late penalties of RM214 million. Between December 1999, according to the Auditor General, 14 “progress payments” amounting to RM943 million despite the fact that the auditor general could find no payment vouchers or relevant documents dealing with the payments.

The auditor general attributed the failure to serious financial mismanagement and technical incompetence stemming from the fact that PSC had never built anything but trawlers or police boats before being given the contract. Once called “Malaysia’s Onassis” by former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, Amin Shah was in trouble almost from the start, according to a report in Singapore’s Business Times in 2005. The financial crisis of 1997-1998 meant he was desperate to find funds to shore up ancillary businesses, Business Times reported.

After a flock of lawsuits, the government ultimately cut off funding in 2004 amid losses and a net liabilities position. Boustead Holdings effectively took control from Amin Shah...

Amin Shah has since been declared a bankrupt last year (See Screenshots October 19, 2007).

Will the Najib-Defence Ministry Naval Vessels debacle re-surface? Will Najib be made the lightning rod to re-opening the Amin Shah Omar Shah debacle in Permatang Pauh? Voters will tell.

The 'Merdeka Campaign'

Meanwhile, Anwar has themed the by-election as the "Merdeka Campaign", a campaign to rid Malaysia from political tyranny, and "to save our nation from all wrongdoings, mischief and oppressive governance".

In GE2008, with a 81.54% voter turn-out rate, Arif Shah retained the Seberang Jaya state seat, beating the PKR candidate with a slim 533-vote majority.

Whereas, in the Permatang Pasir state seat which saw a 82.57% turn-out rate, PAS candidate beat BN with 5,433-vote majority.

On the other hand, in the Penanti state seat which saw a 82.13% voter turn-out rate, PKR candidate defeated BN candidate Abdul Jalil with a 2,219-vote majority.

For the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail beat BN candidate with a 13,398-vote majority. Voter turn-out rate was 82.06%. There were 636 spoilt votes and 29 unreturned ballot papers.

This time, voters will decide if the "the boy with or no leakage behind" could swing the votes for the BN.

The country shall then decide if Abdullah's 2-year escape clause may prove "one week is too long in politics" to be wrong.

Comments

They can pin nothing on Anwar. The charge looks more and more trumped up by the day. So it has come to a smackdown pitching oratorial skills. Anwar talks about the need for change. The Shah guy only taunts the crowd by asking why Anwar doesn't campaign in KL. One is substance, the other form.

Of all possible candidates in its entire membership roll, Umno chooses this guy to remind the rakyat how billions have disappeared without any satisfactory explanation, even after national audit. What more need be said about the state of financial mismanagement of Malaysia, let alone the fast-fix desperation of those still handling the financial management of this country?

Meanwhile the only excuse that Umno could offer for the money politics charge against itself was that what had happened from the two top ones came by decision of its supreme council. Is this an acceptable answer? Just as the other pm-in-waiting could only suggest that matters be not made more complex when asked about what is widely known as project-IC in EM'sia.

After a while, the rakyat get tired of everything. Change is the only constant.

Posted by: Neil | August 14, 2008 06:06 PM

'From a jack to a king' (song title)
A little surprise in a spring
To get into the voting ring
Let's see what good this will bring

Posted by: samgoh10 | August 14, 2008 11:03 PM

They're going into this as if it's a 'Deal or No Deal' game show. I have an uneasy feeling about this whole thing. PR will have to keep watching their backs and make sure there's nothing lurking under the carpets to trip them up.

Posted by: LC Teh | August 15, 2008 07:58 AM

Hi, Jeff

While I respect your backing Anwar Ibrahim, I hope that you will be fair and balanced in analysing his views and proposals on the Malaysian economy.

Take, for example, his pledge to reduce petrol and diesel prices when he becomes the PM. How does he propose to do this, and at the same time, reduce fuel subsidies and bring the federal budget into balance from a deficit situation?

Because, as I see it, his numbers don't add up.

If I use Singapore as an example, the petrol price there has gone down 29 Spore cents (69 sen) per litre between July 9 and Aug 6. The price of diesel has gone down 23 cents (55 sen) per litre during the same period.

Furthermore, as pointed out in a Spore newspaper report, the pump prices for petrol and diesel are not directly linked to crude oil prices.

The wholesale price of petrol, for instance, makes up about 50 per cent of the pump price.

Excise duties and Goods & Services Taxes make up another 30 per cent of the pump price.

The rest of the cost comes from the petrol companies' operating costs - land, logistics, utilities, salaries etc- all of which are subject to inflation.

Current pump prices in Singapore (before discounts)are:

92-octane petrol: S$1.963 (RM4.67) per litre
95-octane petrol: S$1.996 (RM4.75) per litre
98-octane petrol: S$2.07 (RM4.93) per litre
diesel: S$1.803 (RM4.29) per litre

You are of course aware of the gross disparity between the per capita incomes in Singapore and Malaysia - which translates directly into the "affordability" of petrol and diesel in the two countries.

So, unless Anwar has some method of generating cost savings, his numbers, at least vis-a-vis the proposed reduction in petrol prices, just don't add up.

And don't get me started on the Malaysian ringgit and why it's worth only 40-something Spore cents!

Posted by: skilgannon1066 | August 15, 2008 04:50 PM

I wonder, is this another 'Check mate' move by Badawi and gang? Now everyone is talking about the missing 10 billion ringgit, and the person involved is none other than Najib himself - the defense minister.

I doubt Najib will be Badawi's successor, even if he manage to, he'll definitely lose in GE13.

Posted by: calvin_fernandez | August 16, 2008 09:06 PM

Dear Jeff....I'm surprised and a little disappointed in you.

Your political buddy Anwar has already said that there will be no personal attacks for this by-election. But the purpose of this post is very obvious - to link Arif to his disgraced and scandalous brother. If this is not a sneaky way way of attacking Arif, then I don't know what is. It definitely is below-the-belt!

I read your blog very often, and I admire your fair views and comments. You have always been critical whenever the government screws up, even when you were with (or support) Gerakan. However, ever since you've become a DAP man (and an MP to boot), your recent posts and criticisms on the government has a certain nastiness and meaness about them. I understand it is the norm to critic your "opponents", but please try to keep it civil. Please bring back the Jeff Ooi I knew and respected. Thank you.

JEFF OOI says: Umno in its present form (Abdullah-Najib-Khairy J -- is the root of all evils in Malaysian politics. Give me an alternative and will listen. Or else be prepared to get the nation screwed. I don;t support Anwar in so much as in him as an individual, but for now I will support the movement to topple BN/Umno that leads. Umno and its race-baed politics hadn't changed since GE2008, had it?

Posted by: dvmartini | August 17, 2008 04:41 AM

The PSC-Naval Dockyard deal was signed in 1999, just weeks before the GE, and 20% of the contract price was paid up-front. All the RMN officers in Lumut that I know say that it is overpriced (RM 900 million each for a patrol boat).

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Posted by: myHCI | August 17, 2008 10:04 PM

The is another shortcoming with Arif Shah's support as the state assemblyman. This is supposedly part of his legitimacy to challenge Anwar.

Apparently Arif's Seberang Jaya DUN seat majority dropped to 553 in GE 2008. But then postal voters increased by 404 before GE2008.

So had there been no increase in these postal votes after GE 2004 ...

See our analysis at http://malvu.blogspot.com/2008/08/permatang-pauhs-490-postal-voters.html