Nor Mohamad Yaakob, the man who blew away lots of our money now corrupting Tasek Gelugor with laptops

 

"Nor Mohamed said that the RM3 million allocation announced for each district by the Prime Minister at the UMNO General Assembly was already available. He said Members of Parliament and heads of Barisan Nasional branches could identify appropriate projects to be carried out in their constituency as the federal government might sometimes be unaware of local needs. He also said that even Opposition MPs could provide viewpoints on the projects that were needed."

Nor Mohamed lied to his teeth when he said that "MPs and heads of BN branches could identify appropriate projects to be carried out in their constituency…" because on the ground, only Umno division chiefs were given the right to lay their hands on the RM3 million political "bonus" ! Go ask any MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP division leaders and see if they have gotten any money out of these RM600 million. In Sarawak where there's no presence of Umno, not a single sen was given to any of the district. It is also untrue that "Opposition MPS could provide viewpoints on the projects that were needed" because he knows pretty well that there was no such mechanism or channel to do so.

It was also wrong for Nor Mohamed to argue that an annual growth of 6% in average was sufficient to achieve developed nation status by 2020. DAP SG Lim Guan Eng, a qualified accountant had earlier pointed out that nothing less than 7.2% growth every year from now was needed to achieve the Wawasan 2020 target.

"We do not want to take from Paul and give to Peter, therefore the (economic) pie has to expand," Nor Mohamed said.

If that's the case, Umno must stop demanding for higher bumi equity and also stop denying that the bumi equity has not reached more than the targeted 30% set out in NEP.

He also said that Malaysia's reserves were currently at US$80 billion.

Asked on the country's indebtedness, Nor Mohamed said Malaysia's external loans currently amounted to RM70.8 billion, of which 17.8 percent was federal government loans.

"The loans are not high and consistent with our expanding economy," he said.

"We hardly borrow overseas and we only do that to maintain our credit rating in the international market. We also prepay our external borrowings sometimes," he said.

Oh, come on, Noh Mohamed. You know that we Malaysians are now living in grace period. The Umno-led government has been depended on heavy borrowings for the past 20 years. The nation will be hit very badly when these loans were up for full repayment in the coming two to three years. We will certainly feel the pinch when our oil production only sufficient to cover our own domestic consumption by 2011.

The minister also dismissed misperceptions that the government should reduce petroleum prices now that oil prices have declined. He said that when the price of petrol was raised by 30 sen, it was computed against a crude oil price of US$58 but thereafter it rose to almost US$74 but has since come to US$63. "It is still higher than US$54 and there is no justification to cut petrol prices," Nor Mohamed said.

We dare to argue that the Umno-led Government would not slash the price of petrol and diesel even if the crude oil price falls to below US$50 per barrel. Umno leaders somehow have the abilities to concoct some storie so that they can continue to line their own pockets with money belongs to the rakyat. Look at the way they spent RM300 million a week on the Monsoon Cup in Terengganu. And didn't AAB just spent RM20 million to beef up the security system of his residence in Putrajaya?

Subject: Why I will not vote for you

Dear Mr Karunanidhi, Ms Jayalalithaa,

I am a 40-year-old male, working as a journalist in Chennai. This is to tell you that I will not be voting for you. If you are interested in the reasons, please read on. If not, press Ctrl+Alt+Bye.

Dear Karunanidhi, do you know how much I’ve longed to vote for your party? Especially after I voted against your party in the last Assembly elections and you swept to power. In Tamil Nadu, I have always voted for the party that lost the polls. No, it’s different from saying the party I voted for have always lost the polls.

Let’s not get into those differences. Let’s talk business. The day before you came out with your manifesto, I had tucked away my plasma television set, buried my Playstation and locked up my iPad, hoping that these would figure in your freebie list. That was not to be. You offered a wet grinder or a mixie. Yes, my wife would’ve voted for you, had Jayalalithaa not offered both, plus a fan for the kitchen.

Ms Jayalalithaa, please don’t grin so much—my wife’s name is missing from the voter’s list. Anyway she is unhappy that she is already married (yes, really) and hence can’t get the Rs 50,000 wedding assistance and that lovely four-gram golden pendant with two leaves you have promised. Though she would like to have six months leave, she has no plan to get pregnant to avail of that maternity vacation and Rs 12,000 allowance you have promised expectant mothers.

Ms Jayalalithaa, my 12-year-old son is not amused either, for you have promised laptops only to Plus-1 and Plus-2 students. The four pairs of uniforms sound good, but if only Stalin delivers that washing machine he has added to his father’s gift box. That pair of school shoes, my son suggests, make it size 9, preferably Nike. He loves his dad, you know. Anyway why should you pamper a schoolboy who is too young to show his finger to the guy with the indelible ink?

As a child myself, I was good at fishing in Kerala’s backwaters, but now I regret not pursuing it as a career. Had I bought a net instead of books then, I would have become a fisherman, at least for the four lean months of fishing when I could sit at home and take the Rs 4,000 you’ve promised. Cattle I love, especially when they are well done, but I don’t think I qualify for that too. As for the free bus pass, I have to wait for 18 more years!

Mr Karunanidhi, Ms Jayalalithaa, don’t feel bad that I’ve marked a copy of this mail to Mr Vijayakanth. That’s because I don’t want him to repeat your mistakes and lose such a valuable voter. Going by my track record of voting for the party that loses, you may hope to win since I am not going to vote for you. But then, remember I am not going to vote for your rival either.

Mr Vijayakanth, call this blackmail or whatever, I will vote for you if you don’t give me my share of freebies. By the way, Captain, I heard Ferrari Enzo is a good car.

Nor Mohamad Yaakob, the man who blew away lots of our money in the forex market, was instrumental in blocking the put option.Nor Mohamad Yaakob, the man who blew away lots of our money in the... of broadband penetration, we have to give out 1 million laptops.

Nor Mohamad Yaakob, the man who blew away lots of our money in the forex market, was instrumental in blocking the put option.

In 1977, I was an undergraduate at UM. In one session of the GED — Great Economic Debate later termed Debat Ekonomi Agung — one of the speakers was Lim Kit Siang. I haven't been to UM for a long time, so I wouldn't know whether there is still the GED sponsored by the FEA.

Somebody from the floor asked him a question concerning Chinese economic predominance in Malaysia. The other speakers were the late Datuk Asri and the other one was Dr Ganapathy ( I can't tell whether this name is correct) I think from UMBC.

His answer was the standard stock in his trade. Yes, he said, the Chinese dominate the economy, but who allowed this state of affairs to exist? In other words, he places the blame on the Malay leadership. Malays just can't win.

Today, almost 50 years later, the same standard response persists. This state of affairs is the result of those in power (mostly Malays) giving Chinese hongs the opportunities. But there's the added twist. In the hands of these people, so claimed the triumphalist, they can become more competitive, etc. The Chinese triumphalist is so oversensitive when criticized.

You are wrong. If YTL is headed by an Umno feller, I would still write the same way I did. I did so when I wrote about Syabas. I did the same when writing about the construction of the 100 story building. It doesn't matter to me if the 2-3 per cent within the 65 per cent group did the decision making. It was wrong and unjust.

I spoke to a very senior former Umno minister on a certain subject. I was complaining of the ease by which GLCs such as MRCB and UEM buy into non-Malay owned property companies under the pretext of achieving economies of scale, etc; these are fairly textbook explanations as to why they are doing it. That's bull. Here at this website we have dedicated ourselves at exposing all bulls.

One of the remarks which the former very senior minister said — the unfortunate truth is that it is the Malays in power who are destroying us. The government didn't bat an eyelid when they went on to save The Mines and Tycoon Lim Kim Siew, the Lion Group and any other Chinese owned business entities. But they threw in all sorts of spanners preventing people like Halim Saad from exercising his put option. Nor Mohamad Yaakob, the man who blew away lots of our money in the forex market, was instrumental in blocking the put option.

What's wrong with those Malays in power? Maybe they have forgotten to be Malays. I see the same futility and hopelessness in the formation of Equinas. In order to help Malays, the Equinas executives have to relearn what it means to be Malays.

The main problem with these people is that, having accomplished their stations, they talked themselves into believing they got there entirely on meritorious grounds. As a result, they expect the other Malays at large to proceed through the same route as they did. They have to get rid of this pompous self-righteousness first.

Look at what is happening to the communications industry. It was once dominated by Telekom Malaysia. Celcom was shaved off and resold time and time again. Other operators applied for cellular licences only to flip deals here and there. The communications industry it seems is the new battlefield where privileged combatants get to flip deals.

There is some uneasiness in the way MCMC does its job. To achieve a certain level of broadband penetration, we have to give out 1 million laptops. Voila, somebody got to supply the 1 million laptops.

In order to be ahead in the market we need the Long Term Evolution (LTE) framework in which the 700MHz spectrum is an integral ingredient. Voila, somebody gets the 700MHz spectrum.

SPRM or MACC, the commission charged eradicating corruption, should be sending in their troops to study the various cartel-like machinations now.

The MACC should also now set its sights on the possible shadowy practices and decision making regarding the award of a monopoly on the 700MHz spectrum to YTL Communications.

Effectively, they are giving a head start to YTL for 5 years. The public isn't aware of this goings on and the 4 telcos in Malaysia were caught holding nothing but their shrinking testicles.

Sure everyone has to have a national regulating agency. The US has its FCC and Malaysia has our MCMC. Maybe we should be investigating how the decision to award the rights to operate the spectrum is given to YTL only. Sorry but we can't be made to believe that it will be used to offer pay-for-view TV programmes.

Why the ballyhooed launching of YES recently, offering the cheapest rate for mobile telecom services, if there isn't a plan in the future to tap into the spectrum? Sorry, YTL, gua takda caya sama lu.

Let us learn from the American experience. Look at what Google did. Even if it did so because of enlightened self-interest. Prior to the bidding process, Google asked that the spectrum be free to lease wholesale and the devices operating under the spectrum be open. Currently many providers such as Verizon and AT&T use technological measures to block external applications.

In return Google guaranteed a minimum bid of US$4.6 billion (RM14.5 billion). What has YTL guaranteed the government?

What did the FCC do? The FCC ruled in favour of Google's requests. Only two of the four requirements were put in place. Google had wanted the purchaser to allow "rental" of the blocks to different providers.

The spectrum, currently owned by broadcasters, has been used for analogue television. But it is set to be turned over to the government. Due to its broadcast-attractive physics (like its ability to penetrate walls), this spectrum is desirable for both broadband communications in general and public-safety uses in particular.

The FCC has described the 700MHz as beachfront property, and has talked up the broadband capabilities of this spectrum swath. About 60MHz of the former UHF (TV) spectrum is going to be reclaimed by the US government and will be reallocated for public safety and commercial broadband networks.

Without access to the (700MHz) spectrum, the other telcos won't be able to expand. With this stranglehold, YTL can either shut out other telcos, or resell bandwidth to them. The other WIMAX provider is P1 but the new spectrum could give YTL total control over the next wave of new technologies in the telco sector. 

Bekas Timbalan Menteri Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani, Datuk Seri Mohd Shariff Omar hari ini menafikan desas-desus, beliau akan bertanding atas tiket Pas pada pilihan raya umum ke-13.

Sebagai bekas Ahli Parlimen kawasan itu, kesetiaannya pada parti tidak harus dipertikai malah beliau masih memegang jawatan Ketua UMNO Cawangan Permatang Haji Hassan, Bahagian Tasek Gelugor, katanya.

Beliau berkata desas-desus yang digembar-gemburkan oleh beberapa penulis blog mungkin disebabkan beliau dilihat berbaik dengan semua pihak termasuk pemimpin parti pembangkang.

"Saya baik dengan semua orang walaupun berbeza fahaman politik. Mungkin mereka nampak saya baik dengan pemimpin Pas, jadi timbul dakwaan itu." katanya kepada pemberita di sini.

Mohd Shariff berkata pada PRU ke-12, beliau memberi laluan kepada

Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop untuk bertanding bagi kawasan parlimen itu atas permintaan Perdana Menteri Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Beliau menyerahkan kedudukannya sekarang kepada Presiden UMNO, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Mohd Shariff, 65, pernah dilantik sebagai timbalan ketua menteri Pulau

Pinang dari tahun 1995 hingga 1999. Sebelum itu beliau memegang jawatan Exco kerajaan negeri dari tahun 1982 hingga 1990... - BERNAMA

And the award goes to......

 Ha! See? They will hold your balls like this. Just like Francis and Alphonso. We all BN ah? We all sikit lembut a bit. Better.

And the "So What? Proves I Know My History" award goes to...Nor Mohd Yakop, the minister in the PM's department for saying,

"Malaysia will revert to 1511 if Opposition wins"

He also said that the country will return to the times of Francis Light and Alphonso de Albuquergue as the Opposition did not have the capability to pursue the Bumiputra agenda.

Phwaaaaaar!!! See how smart the YB is? Lead off with 1511 the year of the Portugese invasion of Malacca. Then, since Penang is under the Opposition slip in the name of Francis Light, the English fler who colonised Pinang. Damn good la this fler.  And then he signs off with one terror statement about the Malays in Penang being neglected. After all, he is the MP for Tasek Glugor.

By the way, for the benefit of us non-Bumi's what IS theBumiputra agenda? At the expense of non-Bumiputras? Can please tell us? Thank you. 

 Was Asas Serba’s offer to take over the 23 toll road concessions for RM50 billion rejected because Nor Mohamad Yaakob wanted it that way?

For that matter, had the offer been made by any other entity for RM50 billion, would such an offer be cavalierly rejected?

I say cavalier because the boss at Khazanah, Azman Mokhtar made just a cursory mention that it had received an offer from Asas Serba. RM50 billion and yet no considered evaluation? 50 billion isn’t exactly small change is it?

He went on to say, PLUS highways are generating cash and profit and the highways belonged to the people. But we are never told the basis for rejecting offers to buy the PLUS highways. Surely the reasons to divest are there because Khazanah and EPF formed a SPV to take over the business.

My point is, if there are reasons justifying the eventual takeover of PLUS highways by the Khazanah-EPF JV, then the same reasons must have existed at the time when Asas Serba or MMC made their offers. Or the people from MMC and Asas Serba didn’t think about these reasons?

We the ‘people’ who own the PLUS highways don’t know what is happening.

Asas Serba offered to buy at RM50 billion. That would make the owners RM50 billion richer. RM50 billion would go into the system and would probably increase liquidity. The government would probably save money by not having to pay compensation in the form of subsidies.

There was also an offer made by MMC group led by Syed Mokhtar alBukhari. It was also rejected. The offer was said to be somewhere in the region of RM15-16 billion.

I always thought the basic role of Khazanah, at least before being headed by Azman Mokhtar, is to function something like Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. Basically it invests in sound companies and let those who are cleverer and better than them, manage and operate the businesses. It’s a sovereign fund anyway.

In that way, it ensures the best returns to it as a stakeholder. It now seems Khazanah wants to micromanage everything which means it is running the business. It is now in business with the luxury of using money belonging to us the people.

Now, as we read the many public statements by Azman Mokhtar, the principle which he uses to reject or spurn an offer is to say it won’t sell a profitable business.

The other excuse he uses is to say a particular business belongs to the people. I like these two principles by which he swears because; we are going to take him on that.

Why did it reject a RM50 billion offer without explaining? It gives rise to suspicions that a reasonably good business offer is rejected on some non-objective reasons.

Why is Khazanah still being controlled by Nor Mohamad Yaakob when it is the finance Minister who should be in charge of it? Hasn’t Husni Hanazlah got the steely determination in his constitution to counter Nor Mohamad Yaakob?

Has Khazanah got a big war chest? Has it got money to spend around? Has Khazanah veered from its original objectives on which it was established?

A look at the management structure of Khazanah gives the impression it’s a club for the alumnus of consultant companies. Mckinsey, Ethos and Bina Fikir.

The ‘best brains’ said Nor Mohamed Yaakob at one Umno general assembly. These people would live and breathe by the code of KPI.

That’s a lot of bull crap. Anyone who attended the fanfare-ish ETP presentation by Idris Jala would be immediately aware of the emptiness in that claim when the young cikus (a large number from McKinsey) manning the many booths were often hung out to dry.

We need to examine the incestuous practice of seconding or hiring consultants in charge of Khazanah and then having the same people consulting out their work to their previous companies. Do we need consultants to hire consultants?

I am still trying to make business sense from the purchase of PLUS highways by the SPV belonging to EPF and Khazanah. By doing so, it’s tantamount to taking PLUS highways private in the same manner what Ananda Krishnan did to his company.

These two already owned chunks of PLUS highways. EPF already owns a 12.3 per cent stake and Khazanah holds 55.2 per cent of the firm that operates the lucrative North-South highway running from the northwestern tip of Malaysia to Singapore.

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and state investment arm Khazanah Nasional formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to take over the assets and liabilities of PLUS at RM4.60 per share.

Why the takeover and how can it be justified?

The target became the subject of public interest when an unknown company called Asas Serba submitted a proposal to take over PLUS highways and the other 19 highway concessions from the respective owners for RM50 billion.

The offer included a reduction of toll rates by 20 per cent. It sounded good. But the offer was received in a lukewarm manner and by Nor Mohamad Yaakob in an openly hostile manner. He went on to say, it cost the government over RM 200 billion to build the highways. In other words he was saying, over his dead body.

Was the offer rejected on sound business reasons? The SPV is taking over the 4 toll concessions held by PLUS for RM23 billion, now RM26 billion? The share was valued at RM 4.60 each. Asas Serba’s offer of RM50 billion was for all 23 toll road concessions. The rest are loss making entities. It didn’t separate what it would have paid for the PLUS toll concessions.

Was it a wrong strategy to lump its offer altogether giving anyone the lame excuse, it’s difficult to know what the offer would be just for the PLUS assets.

So we have no way to ascertain whether had AS lodged an offer for PLUS, could Asas Serba financially manage to keep to its earlier promise of not only cutting toll rates by 20 per cent but also keeping them flat until the end of the current concession agreement.

Keeping it flat or reducing the tools rates is not a major issue, because the government compensates the toll operators anyway. The offer would be superior if in addition to offering that price, reducing the toll rates and keeping them flat over the entire tenure, it can say the government doesn’t have to make any compensation. Did the government get this?

But Asas Serba’s offer was already doomed from the start. First the group is said to be associated with Halim Saad or Daim Zainudin.

Halim’s Saad UEM group was taken over on the excuse that Halim could not exercise his put option. This is an old story which I am hoping to retell. The company he headed wasn’t even bankrupt which would have really necessitated the government taking over his business empire.

His greatest sin it seems to me, looking as an outsider, was his inability to exercise his put option within the time limit and the general impression that he was linked to Daim Zainudin.

If the government then had wanted to help out, they could. Because it helped out other distressed companies such as Lion Group and Azman Hashim’s Ambank. But the other two were not linked to Daim.

Then of course, you have the sage-like evaluations by analysts. One typical evaluation goes like this: suppose AS buys PLUS in a leveraged buyout deal in excess of RM23bil, we wonder just how much financial wriggle room would Asas Serba have if much of PLUS’ cash flow be used to service the debt taken on to fund any takeover. So? You have cash flow- do you just ogle over it? After it takes over, its cash flow belong to them and they will manage it in the best way they could.

Then, in a I-told-you-so very facile aside, a wry comment would go like “If something goes wrong with PLUS after a takeover by Asas Serba, would it then lead to another bailout?”

Others noted that the issue on who would eventually gain control of PLUS and its highways went beyond pricing concerns.

This is purely a private sector business proposal. If Asas serba should fail, the government can always sell it to the next buyer.

Others will offer to buy them out. The mischievous question as to who would gain control over PLUS beyond pricing questions is just that — mischievous. They have got to be controlled by somebody in the end.

Does it matter whether it’s Z or Y. The better question would have been, is Z better than Y.

Asas Serba would certainly employ its cash reserves for some specific objectives. We haven’t been told how they would raise their finance fully. PLUS’s cash flow is an obvious candidate but we cannot discount the possibility of other sources. Now that the offer by Asas serba has been rejected, we don’t have the chance to see the details of their offer.

My question is, have the offers from both Asas Serba and later Syed Mokhtar’s MMC been scrutinized carefully and if they have, by whom? You can’t expect Khazanah and EPF, to offer an objective evaluation.

Asas Serba said it planned to issue bonds with a dividend component to pay for the estimated RM50bil it would cost to complete the transaction. The bonds, which will be issued by the new concession company set up by Asas Serba and other new shareholders, would carry an annual coupon rate of 7 per cent PLUS a share of profits that is equivalent to a 2.5 per cent to 5 per cent effective yield. The bonds with the dividend sweetener will be issued with tenures to be fixed based on the projected cashflow statements of the toll-road companies.

Asas Serba said the share of profits would give bondholders the benefit of sharing the upside of the returns to the new concession company. Its proposal contains a number of options for current shareholders and lenders. The lenders can cash out of their investment, invest in the bonds that the new concession company will issue or stay on as creditors.

Shareholders too can choose to cash out, invest in the bonds or invest as shareholders in the new company.

The company believes that its plan would work as it centers on making the operations of the highways more efficient by reducing costs. The company feels it can cut costs by 15 per cent in a short time and implement programmes to raise non-toll revenue.

Now that the Khazanah-EPF SPV has taken over the PLUS highways, perhaps the best option available to Asas Serba is to take over the remaining 19 tolled highways and show they can make profit from there.

Or as defined by Azman Mokhtar, because highways are the people’s assets, then maybe Khazanah and EPF should plan to take over the remaining highways.

It would be interesting to speculate on who will get to buy the Plus highway should one day, Khazanah and EPF chooses to divest this business just as Azman Mokhtar’s contract is not extended? -