Showing posts with label Rahman Dahlan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rahman Dahlan. Show all posts

Friday, February 09, 2018

Rahman Dahlan’s dismissive attitude towards Malaysian’s inability to afford even daily groceries shows his blatant disregard for the issues of the average Malaysian.

Earlier this week, Mydin owner Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin had said that though the Goverment’s published GDP figures showed strong growth, consumers seemed to be spending less and less on grocery shopping. He suggested that Malaysians just did not seem to have the same amount of money to spend as before, even though the economy has been growing.

Mydin’s comments quickly drew responses from members of the Government, including Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan who was quick to defend the Government’s economic measures. He said that hypermarket sales only made up 8% of total retail sales, which had seen overall growth both in terms of volume and value. He further added that Malaysians did indeed have more money to spend as highlighted by increases in domestic tourist expenditures as well as tourist spending abroad.

Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan’s dismissive attitude towards Mydin’s claim shows just how out of touch the BN Government is from the daily struggles faced by average Malaysians. If even low-priced hypermarkets like Mydin are facing weakened consumer demand, where does the Minister expect Malaysians to be buying their everyday groceries? Does he think Malaysians are going abroad to do their groceries?

Last November, 5 Giant hypermarkets were shuttered by owners GCH Retail (Malaysia).The 2017 Malaysia Retail Industry Report, also noted that consumers were less likely to spend money in the past year owing to the increasing cost of living. The same report noted that hypermarket sales in general had shrunk 3.1% in the first 3 quarters of 2017.

Accordingly, Malaysian consumers were found to be more frugal and judicious with their spending opting to make smaller purchases at different stores to make the most out of the various discount and offers provided by different stores.

All the above information is consistent with the Government’s own statistics. Inflation last year was the highest we’ve seen in years, averaging 3.7%. In particular, food and non-alcoholic beverages saw an increase of 4% over the past year. Regardless of whether someone is shopping in a hypermarket or a pasar tani, these price increases are present everywhere.

The Government should not be flaunting the spending statistics of Malaysians who can afford to travel abroad as proof that all Malaysians are better. Worse, they should not be dismissing the very real and loud complains of average Malaysians who struggle to even afford their daily groceries.

If the BN Government has no sympathy or empathy for the ordinary men on the street, it is time for them to get the boot.  Malaysians deserves a government that looks out for the interest of all Malaysians and does not dismiss the real issues being faced everyday.

Monday, December 18, 2017

Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan should answer why inflated ECRL contract was a direct negotiation with a China company, and not whether it was foreign or locally owned.

Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan once again tried to deflect questions and criticisms of the RM55 billion ECRL project by painting it as “a domestic investment with foreign funding”.

This was in response to the statement issued by former Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin  who responded to questions from the media last weekend on whether the country should be worried over foreign investments from China.

“How much investment did they bring in? Like Forest City? Does the train project (ECRL) bring in money?,” he asked

“If it is a loan, that means we have to pay (it) back. If you have to pay (it) back, does that mean it is an investment? If you were an investor, what would you say? Its not (an investment). It’s a loan,” Tun Daim explained.

Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan then retorted in his statement, “Would Daim and Bersatu be happier if foreigners own and operate the ECRL instead?”

The Minister who is in-charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) is trying to be disingeneuous in his response.

While the fact of the matter is that ECRL is indeed an infrastructure project which funded with foreign debt, the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak himself, together with many other Cabinet Ministers have often used the project as a successful example of Malaysia’s ability to attract sizeable investments from China.

For example, earlier in January this year, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak defended “investments” from China, stating that “This is unfair, because investments from China benefits the nation including us in Pahang, not only large investments like ECRL but the price of palm oil also go up, to simultaneously profit smallholders and settlers,” he said said this at ‘An Evening With the Chinese Community In Pekan’ programme.[1]

Hence Tun Daim is merely trying to correct the ‘managed’ perception that these large infrastructure projects are not ‘investments’ from China, but are effectively huge debts which have to be repaid by Malaysians in the future.

The question isn’t where former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad or Tun Daim or any Malaysian for that matter, “be happier if foreigners own and operate the ECRL instead”.

Instead, Malaysians would “be happier” if the ECRL project was tendered openly and competitively so that our tax-payers will receive best value for our ringgit.  Why was a infrastructure project of this magnitude awarded directly without any competitive tender?  Hence, it begs the question - who will really profit from this contract?

It has already been exposed that the Government’s own appointed engineering consultants, HSS Integrated (HSSI) has estimated in December 2015 the project's value was RM29 billion (RM53.2 million per km), whereas China-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) was awarded the contract at RM55 billion (RM91.7 million per km).

We have demanded for the HSSI to be publicly disclosed and Transport Minister, Dato’ Seri Liow Tiong Lai has promised in Parliament in November 2016 to “publish” the feasibility study when it is “finalised”[2].  However, the HSSI report remains a secret document with the BN Government.

The question which remains unanswered to date – if ECRL were to cost RM30 billion or less, why was CCCC awarded the contract via direct negotiation for RM55 billion, even if there so-called favourable financing terms?  Where would the excess RM25 billion go to?  Would it be used to pay-off some of 1MDB’s debts as speculated so as to cover up the Najib administration’s largest international financial scandal?

Friday, June 23, 2017

Rahman Dahlan disparages US DOJ's US$1.7 bil. asset seizure suit; doesn't deny Mr. & Mrs. MO1 received US$732 mil. cash and US$27.3 mil. pink diamond pendant

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan continued his tirade against the US DOJ again yesterday, accusing the DOJ of publishing a “half-cooked report”.

He even insinuated that the United States of attempting to influence the results of the impending Malaysian election.  "Is it because the election is around the corner and some desperate quarters need a leg-up?" he tweeted.

This is on top of the Minister in charge of the Economic Planning Unit berating the US DOJ the previous day, “you (DOJ) mock, you gave the impression that Rosmah and the diamond did something wrong.  But in the document you submitted, you didn't include the diamond as one of the items that you want to seize. It was unnecessary to put the name there.”

The Minister is saying that since elections is around the corner, the US DOJ should not have filed the updated suit last week as it might influence the results of the election, since it implicates both the Prime Minister and his wife of misappropriating state funds for their own personal benefit?

Is the Minister trying to tell the US that they should have waited until the election is over and the Najib administration has won a new mandate, before publishing such scandalous allegations against those who have misappropriated more than US$5.6 billion of funds from 1MDB?

Does the Minister realise how ridiculous he sounds?  Is he really that half-witted, or is he only pretending to be so?

In responding to Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s criticism, the US DOJ said that they “have to allege enough facts to show a reasonable belief that United States money laundering and other criminal laws were violated and that the subject assets were involved in or traceable to these illegal transactions.”

Surely Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan would know that the way to fight a factual allegation is to provide factual evidence which destroys the allegations.  The daily repetitive attempts by the Minister and his colleagues to taint the US investigations with insinuations of political and other motives not only does not help the cause of the Prime Minister and his wife, they actually worsen the negative perception because the alleged facts have not been challenged.

Malaysians are asking, if the US DOJ is indeed concocting malicious allegations against the Prime Minsiter and his wife as the Cabinet Ministers continue to insist, why haven’t the allegations been denied?

In fact, why hasn't Dato’ Seri Najib Razak produced proof that this bank account(s) never received the purported US$732 million which had originated from 1MDB?  Why hasn't Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor come out to publicly deny that she had indeed acquired, or received as a gift, the alleged US$27.3 million pink diamond pendant?

Their silence speaks a thousand words, while the aimless barking by the Prime Minister’s lieutanants only served to confirm without a doubt in the minds of the people, the truth of the US DOJ scandalous allegations.

Perhaps in his eagerness to castigate the US DOJ, Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan has merely forgotten to establish the facts.

Let me challenge Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan once again, did or did not the Prime Minister, referred to as MO1 in the US DOJ suit, receive more than US$732 million in his personal bank account in Malaysia while his wife, Mrs MO1 acquired a US$27.3 million diamond pendant after trips to Monaco and New York in 2013?

If the EPU Minister can’t answer the above questions, then he should stop making a complete fool of himself and further destroy whatever is left of the good name of Malaysia to a watching international audience.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Why is Rahman Dahlan not outraged by the allegation that US$27.3 mil. of 1MDB funds helped buy a 22-carat pink diamond pendant necklace for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor?

Malaysians are amused by the sardonic entertainment the Barisan Nasional (BN) Ministers are putting up for us on a daily basis in response to the recently updated US DOJ suit to seize an additional US$540 million worth of assets laundered with funds from 1MDB.  This sum is on to of nearly US$1.2 billion in the suits filed since July last year.

At the heart of the scandal is the involvement of a “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1) who received more than US$732 million of the laundered funds in his personal bank account in Malaysia.  What further stunned the nation was when “MO1’s wife” was mentioned in the updated kleptocracy suit, when DOJ alleged that she spent US$27.3 million on a 22-carat pink diamond pendant necklace with that money.

Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein would put up a blank face feigning ignorance and asked “for all we know it could be anyone. ‘MO1’ could be (Second Finance Minister) Johari (Abdul) Ghani.”

This of course runs contrary to Economic Planning Unit (EPU) Minister, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s public admission on BBC in September 2016 that “obviously, if you read the documents, it is the prime minister…”

This confirmation is on top of the Minister’s earlier contemptuous remark made in August 2016 that “only an idiot doesn’t know who MO1 is”.

The question as to whether Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan would tell Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein that the latter is “an idiot” is perhaps best left for the former to answer.  What is perhaps comically incongruent is how two senior Ministers in the Prime Minister’s office held 2 contradictory positions over the simple poser.

They were both however consistent in ignoring the elephant(s) in the room pointed out by the DOJ – that MO1 received more than US$732 million in his personal bank account while Mrs MO1 got her US$27.3 million necklace with money borrowed by the Government’s wholly-owned subsidiary.

Yesterday again, the EPU Minister, who is also BN Strategic Communications Director, confirmed that MO1 is Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, and MO1’s wife would be Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

However, Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan took pains to lament that “you (DOJ) mock, you gave the impression that Rosmah and the diamond did something wrong.  But in the document you submitted, you didn't include the diamond as one of the items that you want to seize. It was unnecessary to put the name there."

The Minister clearly and intentionally missed the woods for the trees.  Instead of asking why “implicate” Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, should the Minister, whose primary responsibility is not to protect the Prime Minister’s wife but the interest of the Rakyat, confirm if the US$27.3 million diamond necklace was indeed purchased with money laundered from 1MDB?

It is worth noting that the EPU Minister did not deny these facts.  He is merely making a hue and cry of the exposure of these “facts”.

Before Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan decides to speak to the press again regarding this issue, let me challenge him to confirm these simple facts exposed by the DOJ with Mrs MO1:

1.     On or about July 5, 2013, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor met New York jeweller, Lorraine Schwartz together with Low Taek Jho and others aboard the 147 meter Topaz, one of the largest private yachts in the world in Monaco.  There group discussed the design of the necklace to hold the 22-carat pink diamond, which itself would be made of smaller diamonds.

2.     On or about September 28, 2013, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor again met Schwartz with Low in a hotel suite in the Mandarin Time Warner in New York in order to show them the layout of the necklace that Schwartz had designed.

3.     The finished 22-carat pink diamond necklace, which included the 22-carat pink diamond as a pendant, was delivered to a friend of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in Hong Kong on or about March 7, 2014, for delivery to the wife of the Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur.

If Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan can provide evidence, on behalf of Mrs MO1 that the above allegations are brazenly untrue, then let me assure the Minister and everyone else in the Cabinet that I will be the first from the opposition bench to sit with him in a press conference to publicly denounce the DOJ allegations.

If not, then let me remind Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan, that as a responsible Minister and citizen, he must report the above transgression to both the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for their respective investigations.

Friday, March 03, 2017

Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan failed to convince anyone that he has not abused his powers to benefit developers while he was the Housing Minister

Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan has been embroiled in the controversy of granting an extension of time (EOT) for the construction of condominium projects by BHL Group of Companies.  The former Urban Well-Being, Housing and Local Government (KPKT) Minister’s move has resulted in the house-buyers failing to secure Liquidated and Ascertained Damages (LAD) from the developer as stipulated in the Sale and Purchase Agreements (SPAs).

The aggrieved house-buyers have filed a judicial review against the Housing Controller and the Minister for the above decision last year.

Last Tuesday, the High Court ruled that the Housing Controller has no power to grant an extension of time to developers who delay the completion of housing projects.  Justice Hanipah Farikullah, who allowed the judicial review application by 71 house buyers, said the minister’s decision to rely on a regulation to allow the extension was against the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Act.

We have called upon Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan to explain why he abused his powers to benefit the developers who have failed to deliver their projects on a timely basis for the house-buyers.

Worse, it has been discovered that the appeal by BHL approved by the Minister was supported by a letter from the wife of the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Apandi Ali, masquerading as a Director of the company.  The existence of the letter raises valid suspicions of bias, cronyism and impropriety.

Yesterday, the former Minister, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan denied that he has abused his power in the process.



"The decision I took was based on the powers clearly given to KPKT minister as stated in Act 118 (Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966)," he said.  He added that the decision in granting EOT was based on merit and was not influenced by support letters.

However, the Court ruling has stated clearly that the Minister has no power under Section 24 of the Housing and Development (Control and Licensing) Act, to empower housing controllers to waive or change any of the terms and conditions of the prescribed statutory agreement.  What “power” is the Minister harping about?

What is however most important, is the fact that Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan had insisted that his decision was based on the “merits” of the case.  However, in his statement, the Minister failed to specify even a single instance of such a “merit” to justify his decision which had rubbed salt onto the wounds of the house-buyers.

What could be so convincing and justifiable in the appeal by the developer, other than the fact that it was put forth by the wife of the Attorney-General, which moved the Minister to arbitrarily extend the completion date of the housing project by 12 months resulting in millions of ringgit of losses by the house-buyers?

Among the primary roles of the Minister is to safeguard the interest of Malaysian home-buyers against incompetent and unscrupulous developers.  Barring perhaps acts of God, the Minister should never interfere in a transaction, especially if it were to clearly result in substantial losses to the house-buyers.

Instead of granting approvals for extensions to Developers and penalising house-buyers, the Minister should have instead given warnings to the Developers that the Government will not hesitate to assist home-buyers in asserting their rights should the former fail to deliver their promises.