Datuk Chua Tee Yong is confused. He is aware that Talam owes the Selangor government RM392 million. If that is the case, then why would the Selangor government “acquire” RM676 million of assets from Talam?
He alleged that “this is a clear cut case of bailout whereby PR Selangor Government used the Rakyat money to help a listed company by buying a lot of its assets.”
What the Selangor government did was to have Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI) legislated to takeover the debts Talam owed to UNISEL (RM255 million), Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor Bhd (RM115 million) and Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (RM22 million). This means that MBI will do the collection for the above debts amounting to RM392 million directly from Talam.
These debts were not previously accounted for, and no efforts were made by the respective Selangor subsidiaries to collect these debts. Hence to ensure that all outstanding debts due to the state government are collected, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim himself has made it his personal mission to ensure that the Selangor rate-payers will not be shortchanged.
So how did MBI collect the debt?
After months of hard-nosed negotiations, Talam had agreed to make the full payment of RM392 million in the form of cash and assets, in 2 tranches. The first tranche was in 12 March 2010, while the second was in 9 April 2010. The settlement of Talam debt to MBI was fully disclosed in Bursa Malaysia and the related financial documents are publicly available on the above dates on Bursa’s website.
In summary, Talam paid RM12.7 million in cash and settled the balance in property assets. Were we shortchanged by the assets?
Some of these assets still had outstanding balances with the bank. This means that if the state were to take over these assets, the state will need to “settle” these outstanding loans. In this case, MBI took over RM676 million of assets from Talam, which had RM266.2 million of loans outstanding and RM30.5 million of other fees to be paid. Hence the net value accruing to MBI for these properties after deducting the loans and fees, will be RM379.2 million.
By adding RM379.2 million to RM12.7 million, Talam would have settled in full its debts of RM392 million. This means that MBI had collected RM392 million worth of additional cash and assets as part of the exercise.
I would like to ask Datuk Chua who is not only a trained accountant, but a former Chief Financial Officer of a Government-linked Company, where is it in the above debt recovery exercise has the rakyat’s money been abused?
Datuk Chua in his statement, accused that “… the PR Selangor Government has acquired RM676 mil of assets to bailout TALAM.” Datuk Chua must enlighten me as to how taking RM676 million worth of property with net asset value of RM379.2 million bailing out Talam? We are taking assets away from Talam, not giving them more assets!
If I were Talam, I would be mighty upset because under the BN reign, I didn’t need to pay back a single sen to the state government agencies, but under PR, I’m forced to give up hundreds of millions of assets in order to settle my debts.
Datuk Chua also said that “from this deal, TALAM walked away with cash over RM266 mil which is paid to Talam bankers. The exact figures I have not worked out yet.” I can only assume that Datuk Chua hasn’t “worked [it] out yet” because he hasn’t got a clue what is going on.
In fact I’m completely stunned because surely he could have worked out that even though Talam managed to “settle” the RM266 million outstanding with their bankers for the loans they took for the properties, Talam gave up RM676 million worth of assets to MBI in return? And based on the Mathematics we learnt in school, I believe RM676 million is far larger than RM266 million.
Datuk Chua attempted to confuse the public even further with his own blunder and confusion by arguing that “instead of just recovering RM392 mil debt, PR Selangor Government bought up to additional RM284 mil worth of assets from TALAM to assist the company.”
Conclusion
I will conclude that Datuk Chua failed to differentiate between “buying” assets and “taking over” assets as part of a debt recovery exercise.
I strongly suggest that Datuk Chua and his team of Selangor MCA leaders, including MCA Selangor Youth Chief Dr Kow Cheong Wei, MCA Selangor Public Services and Complaints Chairman Dato' Theng Bok and veteran comeback politician, Datuk Yap Pian Hon, who stood with him over these baseless and frivolous allegations, to publicly apologise for misleading the Malaysian public with their inadequate understanding of corporate finance.
They should stop making a complete fool of MCA and themselves. This “advice” includes their latest claim that the Selangor Government had “overpaid” for a piece of land from Talam.
They have 24 hours to repent and withdraw their baseless accusations. If not, I’ll hold another press conference same time tomorrow to shred to pieces their allegations that Selangor had “overpaid” for land in the above debt recovery exercise, whether it is RM41 million or more.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query talam. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query talam. Sort by date Show all posts
Sunday, July 08, 2012
Friday, September 07, 2012
Chua Tee Yong Doubts KPMG Too?
Datuk Chua Tee Yong is proving himself to be the worst MCA Minister, first with his bogus RM1 billion Talam Debt Bailout claim and now, insinuating incompetence and fraud by in the audit by independent auditors KPMG by referring to the US Enron scandal.
On 3 July 2012, Datuk Chua Tee Yong commenced a series of malicious allegations against the Selangor state government led by Pakatan Rakyat with concocted claims that Selangor abused RM1 billion to bailout Talam Corporation by purchasing the latter’s properties at high prices, allowing the latter to recover from financial distress. This has included the fictitious claim that Talam’s shares were lifted from suspension on Bursa Malaysia as a result of Selangor’s actions.
We have already proven that Talam was never suspended on Bursa Malaysia, and the company completed its financial regularization plan, which was approved by Securities Commission in 2009, well before any agreements was signed with the current Selangor state government.
Despite the embarrassment of making false allegations, as well as the detailed explanations given with regards to the fact that no money was ever paid to Talam Corporation by the state government and the non-existence of any RM1 billion abuse of any kind, MCA prodigy has been relentless in touring Selangor’s hills and lakes to continue the accusations that the state government either “over-paid” or made unsound investment decisions which disadvantaged the state, and benefited Talam.
The state government led by Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has taken the simple step of appointing independent international auditors KPMG to conduct a due diligence on the Talam deal immediately to ensure that the Malaysian public not only gets to hear from the state government, they have a open and transparent mechanism to evaluate the state’s competence.
The independent auditors have completed their due diligence study and were given access to every document requested to conduct the investigations.
KPMG has confirmed in its report that “the Selangor State Government entered into two debt settlement agreements with Talam in order to recover an amount of RM392 million of debts owed by Talam…” where “the debt settlement was in the form of settlement assets, comprising 9 plots of land, 2 properties and 60% shares in a subsidiary of Talam and cash/debt assignment.
Most importantly, the auditors concluded that “the settlement agreements entered into with Talam were purely a debt settlement arrangement” which means there is only collection from Talam, and no payment to Talam to purchase any properties from the latter as repeatedly accused by Datuk Chua and his merry men.
In fact, after reviewing all documents on the transactions, including valuation reports conducted by both the Federal government agencies as well as private property valuers, KPMG was happy to concluded that “the Selangor State Government made a sound commercial decision”. KPMG further added that “the gross consideration is sufficient… to recover the Talam debts, with no debt waiver by Menteri Besar Incorporated”.
There can be no stronger endorsement on the decisions made by the state government under the Talam debt settlement agreement to prove not only that they were above board, they were also made in the interest of the state. There was no “haircut” undertaken by Selangor in the recovery exercise.
Instead of hiding from sheer embarrassment, Datuk Chua Tee Yong has decided to humiliate himself further by stating in his tweet yesterday, “(an) audit report depends on the scope of the work. Enron and a lot of (other) cases show that (an) audit and its results are limited to the documents available," he said in a tweet.”
Datuk Chua Tee Yong is fast proving himself to be the least competent of the many incompetent MCA Ministers and Deputy Ministers in the Cabinet. After clamouring for independent reports, Datuk Chua is now insinuating that he knows more, or has in his possession more documents than was supplied to KPMG in the latter’s audit. He is now clearly insinuating that KPMG is not competent in its audit exercise and has taken part in audit fraud by comparing the Talam audit to the mega Enron audit scandal in the United States.
Datuk Chua is shameless in making such accusations especially since he himself claims to be a qualified Australia-certified Chartered Accountant.
If he has any further evidence to the contrary, we have set up a forum or debate in his constituency of Labis this coming weekend on 9th September 7.30pm for him to prove himself in front of his own constituents.
The state government has now officially appointed us, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, William Leong and Tony Pua to be the official spokespersons for the government on this issue. There is no longer basis for Datuk Chua to give excuses that we do not represent the state and hence are unfit to “debate” him.
If Datuk Chua is not even willing to defend himself in front of his own voters who put him in office, then he should just forever hold his peace on the Talam issue and start focusing on more pressing issues in the Ministry of Agriculture such as recovering the RM250 million outstanding from National Feedlot Corporation.
On 3 July 2012, Datuk Chua Tee Yong commenced a series of malicious allegations against the Selangor state government led by Pakatan Rakyat with concocted claims that Selangor abused RM1 billion to bailout Talam Corporation by purchasing the latter’s properties at high prices, allowing the latter to recover from financial distress. This has included the fictitious claim that Talam’s shares were lifted from suspension on Bursa Malaysia as a result of Selangor’s actions.
We have already proven that Talam was never suspended on Bursa Malaysia, and the company completed its financial regularization plan, which was approved by Securities Commission in 2009, well before any agreements was signed with the current Selangor state government.
Despite the embarrassment of making false allegations, as well as the detailed explanations given with regards to the fact that no money was ever paid to Talam Corporation by the state government and the non-existence of any RM1 billion abuse of any kind, MCA prodigy has been relentless in touring Selangor’s hills and lakes to continue the accusations that the state government either “over-paid” or made unsound investment decisions which disadvantaged the state, and benefited Talam.
The state government led by Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has taken the simple step of appointing independent international auditors KPMG to conduct a due diligence on the Talam deal immediately to ensure that the Malaysian public not only gets to hear from the state government, they have a open and transparent mechanism to evaluate the state’s competence.
The independent auditors have completed their due diligence study and were given access to every document requested to conduct the investigations.
KPMG has confirmed in its report that “the Selangor State Government entered into two debt settlement agreements with Talam in order to recover an amount of RM392 million of debts owed by Talam…” where “the debt settlement was in the form of settlement assets, comprising 9 plots of land, 2 properties and 60% shares in a subsidiary of Talam and cash/debt assignment.
Most importantly, the auditors concluded that “the settlement agreements entered into with Talam were purely a debt settlement arrangement” which means there is only collection from Talam, and no payment to Talam to purchase any properties from the latter as repeatedly accused by Datuk Chua and his merry men.
In fact, after reviewing all documents on the transactions, including valuation reports conducted by both the Federal government agencies as well as private property valuers, KPMG was happy to concluded that “the Selangor State Government made a sound commercial decision”. KPMG further added that “the gross consideration is sufficient… to recover the Talam debts, with no debt waiver by Menteri Besar Incorporated”.
There can be no stronger endorsement on the decisions made by the state government under the Talam debt settlement agreement to prove not only that they were above board, they were also made in the interest of the state. There was no “haircut” undertaken by Selangor in the recovery exercise.
Instead of hiding from sheer embarrassment, Datuk Chua Tee Yong has decided to humiliate himself further by stating in his tweet yesterday, “(an) audit report depends on the scope of the work. Enron and a lot of (other) cases show that (an) audit and its results are limited to the documents available," he said in a tweet.”
Datuk Chua Tee Yong is fast proving himself to be the least competent of the many incompetent MCA Ministers and Deputy Ministers in the Cabinet. After clamouring for independent reports, Datuk Chua is now insinuating that he knows more, or has in his possession more documents than was supplied to KPMG in the latter’s audit. He is now clearly insinuating that KPMG is not competent in its audit exercise and has taken part in audit fraud by comparing the Talam audit to the mega Enron audit scandal in the United States.
Datuk Chua is shameless in making such accusations especially since he himself claims to be a qualified Australia-certified Chartered Accountant.
If he has any further evidence to the contrary, we have set up a forum or debate in his constituency of Labis this coming weekend on 9th September 7.30pm for him to prove himself in front of his own constituents.
The state government has now officially appointed us, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, William Leong and Tony Pua to be the official spokespersons for the government on this issue. There is no longer basis for Datuk Chua to give excuses that we do not represent the state and hence are unfit to “debate” him.
If Datuk Chua is not even willing to defend himself in front of his own voters who put him in office, then he should just forever hold his peace on the Talam issue and start focusing on more pressing issues in the Ministry of Agriculture such as recovering the RM250 million outstanding from National Feedlot Corporation.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Will Chua Tee Yong Ensure NFC's RM250 Million Is Recovered?
I concede that Deputy Agriculture Minister, Datuk Chua Tee Yong has been most exasperating in his crusade against the Selangor state government over the RM392 million debt recovery exercise from Talam Corporation Bhd.
Datuk Chua Tee Yong has made the serious allegation of the Selangor government under Pakatan Rakyat bailing out Talam to the tune of RM1 billion. According to Datuk Chua Tee Yong, the Selangor state has not only “paid” Talam RM392 million, we had help them settle nearly RM300 million in debt in order to rescue Talam from financial distress. It was because of the Selangor RM1 billion bailout, Talam was able to regularise its accounts and get out of its Practice Note 17 (PN17) status on Bursa Malaysia.
It has since been proven beyond doubt that Datuk Chua Tee Yong got his facts completely wrong, and made highly laughable accounting assumptions to come up with the above allegations. Instead of a bailout, the Selangor government was able to collect back from Talam the full amount of RM392 million from Talam in the form of cash and assets. The RM392 million was legacy debt from the Barisan Nasional administration since the 1990s which were never properly accounted for nor were they collected.
In fact, Talam shareholders must be rueing the day Pakatan Rakyat took over the Selangor government in 2008 because they had to pay up their debts within 2 years, as opposed to under the BN administration which did not make any serious attempts to collect these debts for more than a decade.
What is appalling is the fact that Datuk Chua Tee Yong continued his tirade against the Selangor state government, particularly over the valuation of the assets taken over from Talam with near daily press conferences. Despite continued embarrassment for getting his facts wrong or incomplete, the Deputy Agriculture Minister is happily touring Selangor visiting lakes and mountains to make all sorts of claims over the valuation of these properties.
Datuk Chua Tee Yong must surely not be so incompetent as not to know that these properties were valued not only by professional certified valuers but also by Jabatan Perkhidmatan dan Penilaian Hartanah (JPPH) (Property Valuation & Services Department), which is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government’s Ministry of Finance. If both the professional valuers and JPPH were able to arrive at an agreeable valuation on the pieces of land – regardless of whether there’s a lake or mountain on it – then who is Datuk Chua Tee Yong to give these pieces of land a different value?
Has Datuk Chua decided that he will make a better property valuer than he will as an accountant?
If Datuk Chua spends as much effort as he does visiting all parts of Selangor to carry out the responsibilities of his Ministry, then perhaps the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) scandal would not have reached the ugly state it is suffering from today.
Let me ask Datuk Chua Tee Yong to state how many times has he visited the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) in the past year to resolve the NFCorp scandal? Did he even visit the NFC a single time to perhaps count the number of cows being bred in the farm instead of making multiple fishing trips to the scenic Bestari Jaya lakes?
Has Datuk Chua Tee Yong delivered his ministerial responsibilities by finding out why a RM250 million soft loan was extended to NFCorp owned by UMNO Wanita Chief Datuk Shahrizat Jalil’s family in 2008, 2 years before a project implementation agreement was even signed between Ministry of Agriculture and NFCorp?
In fact, has Datuk Chua ever took the trouble to find out why NFCorp has not paid a single sen back to the Government despite the RM250 million loan being due for its first repayment installment since January 2012? Can Datuk Chua provide an assurance to all Malaysians that every sen of the RM250 million will be collected back, whether in the form of cash or assets just as the Selangor government has managed to successfully collect back the RM392 million Talam debts?
If not, then perhaps Datuk Chua could give Malaysians a reason why he is fit to be the Deputy Minister of Agriculture other than to be the errand boy for the Selangor Umno warlord and Minister, Datuk Noh Omar.
Datuk Chua Tee Yong has made the serious allegation of the Selangor government under Pakatan Rakyat bailing out Talam to the tune of RM1 billion. According to Datuk Chua Tee Yong, the Selangor state has not only “paid” Talam RM392 million, we had help them settle nearly RM300 million in debt in order to rescue Talam from financial distress. It was because of the Selangor RM1 billion bailout, Talam was able to regularise its accounts and get out of its Practice Note 17 (PN17) status on Bursa Malaysia.
It has since been proven beyond doubt that Datuk Chua Tee Yong got his facts completely wrong, and made highly laughable accounting assumptions to come up with the above allegations. Instead of a bailout, the Selangor government was able to collect back from Talam the full amount of RM392 million from Talam in the form of cash and assets. The RM392 million was legacy debt from the Barisan Nasional administration since the 1990s which were never properly accounted for nor were they collected.
In fact, Talam shareholders must be rueing the day Pakatan Rakyat took over the Selangor government in 2008 because they had to pay up their debts within 2 years, as opposed to under the BN administration which did not make any serious attempts to collect these debts for more than a decade.
What is appalling is the fact that Datuk Chua Tee Yong continued his tirade against the Selangor state government, particularly over the valuation of the assets taken over from Talam with near daily press conferences. Despite continued embarrassment for getting his facts wrong or incomplete, the Deputy Agriculture Minister is happily touring Selangor visiting lakes and mountains to make all sorts of claims over the valuation of these properties.
Datuk Chua Tee Yong must surely not be so incompetent as not to know that these properties were valued not only by professional certified valuers but also by Jabatan Perkhidmatan dan Penilaian Hartanah (JPPH) (Property Valuation & Services Department), which is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government’s Ministry of Finance. If both the professional valuers and JPPH were able to arrive at an agreeable valuation on the pieces of land – regardless of whether there’s a lake or mountain on it – then who is Datuk Chua Tee Yong to give these pieces of land a different value?
Has Datuk Chua decided that he will make a better property valuer than he will as an accountant?
If Datuk Chua spends as much effort as he does visiting all parts of Selangor to carry out the responsibilities of his Ministry, then perhaps the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) scandal would not have reached the ugly state it is suffering from today.
Let me ask Datuk Chua Tee Yong to state how many times has he visited the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) in the past year to resolve the NFCorp scandal? Did he even visit the NFC a single time to perhaps count the number of cows being bred in the farm instead of making multiple fishing trips to the scenic Bestari Jaya lakes?
Has Datuk Chua Tee Yong delivered his ministerial responsibilities by finding out why a RM250 million soft loan was extended to NFCorp owned by UMNO Wanita Chief Datuk Shahrizat Jalil’s family in 2008, 2 years before a project implementation agreement was even signed between Ministry of Agriculture and NFCorp?
In fact, has Datuk Chua ever took the trouble to find out why NFCorp has not paid a single sen back to the Government despite the RM250 million loan being due for its first repayment installment since January 2012? Can Datuk Chua provide an assurance to all Malaysians that every sen of the RM250 million will be collected back, whether in the form of cash or assets just as the Selangor government has managed to successfully collect back the RM392 million Talam debts?
If not, then perhaps Datuk Chua could give Malaysians a reason why he is fit to be the Deputy Minister of Agriculture other than to be the errand boy for the Selangor Umno warlord and Minister, Datuk Noh Omar.
Friday, July 06, 2012
Chua Tee Yong Should Stop Embarassing Himself over Talam
Datuk Chua Tee Yong should stop embarrassing his Party and himself further over the ficticious RM1 billion Talam bailout by the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor state government
For two days, Datuk Chua Tee Yong tantalised the Malaysian public and teased Pakatan Rakyat leaders with the spectre of a RM1 billion scandal by the Pakatan Rakyat state government.
He started on 30 June 11.47am:
We were of course unable to make any comments or respond to the ridicule heaped upon us by the BN cybertroopers before Datuk Chua’s press conference because his tweets contained absolutely no information with regards to the RM1 billion allegation. But after discover what his RM1 billion “questionable deal” was, we were simply shocked by how Datuk Chua Tee Yong got all his substantive facts over the deal wrong, to the extent that we weren’t sure whether it was a R266 million, RM676 million or RM1 billion scandal by the state government.
I will be holding a press conference tomorrow to strip Datuk Chua Tee Yong’s complicated accounting allegations naked tomorrow morning.
For now, I’d like to refer to Talam Corporation’s press announcement made yesterday afternoon. It is clear from the points of fact raised in the statement that the Deputy Minister of Agriculture got his basic assumptions completely wrong.
Datuk Chua had alleged that “before the deal…, Talam was still under PN17 with lots of debts”. He further added that “The shares of Talam cannot be traded in the stock exchange before the deal…” Hence he concluded that “this was a clear-cut case of a bailout where the Selangor government used the rakyat’s money to help a listed company by buying its assets”.
Factual error #1 is that Talam has on its own accorded completed the financial Regularisation Plan approved by 1st July 2009, well before the “deal” with the state government at the end of 2009. Hence the “deal” had nothing to do with Talam’s financial Regularisation Plan, and hence cannot be a bailout as alleged by Datuk Chua.
Factual error #2 is that even when Talam is a PN17 company, its shares were never suspended as a result and was freely traded on the stock exchange. Datuk Chua, of all persons, being a former Chief Financial Officer of a Government-Linked Company should not be making such a mistake!
Datuk Chua should learn that before making an “expose” he must get his basic facts right of the pie will be in your face.
The worst part of this ridiculous expose is the sheer audacity by Datuk Chua and MCA to label the Selangor government’s collecting of RM391 million long outstanding debts incurred during the Barisan Nasional era, a “bailout” of the debtor Talam. It is no wonder BN’s management of GLCs and its crony companies is so screwed.
But that’s my very own “teaser” for the day. Tomorrow I will explain clearly how Datuk Chua failed his accounting test in this “Questionable Deal”.
For two days, Datuk Chua Tee Yong tantalised the Malaysian public and teased Pakatan Rakyat leaders with the spectre of a RM1 billion scandal by the Pakatan Rakyat state government.
He started on 30 June 11.47am:
“I am shocked by a 1 billion questionable deal in selangor. I hope the information I receive is correct.”Followed by another one at 3.48pm on the same day:
“The 1billion questionable deal is by the pr government. Shocking...”And another at 8.50pm:
“The rm1billion deal by PR govt is shocking cos of how well they have concealed it. #prdeal”Then at 10.59am on 1 July:
“Pr 1billion questionable deal Involve lots of rakyat money,state companies, private company. Lots of transaction.#prdeal”Again a similar tweet at 3.36pm:
“PR govt claims 2 b transparent, do d best for d ppl n rakyat is boss but this 1 billion questionable deal shows it is all empty talk.#prdeal”And finally on 2 July he announced that he will hold a press conference over the issue the next day:
“I will be giving a press conference tomorrow on "PR 1 Billion Questionable Deal". #prdeal”And what a press conference it was. The “Questionable Deal” not only confounded the reporters present, Pakatan Rakyat leaders were just stunned.
We were of course unable to make any comments or respond to the ridicule heaped upon us by the BN cybertroopers before Datuk Chua’s press conference because his tweets contained absolutely no information with regards to the RM1 billion allegation. But after discover what his RM1 billion “questionable deal” was, we were simply shocked by how Datuk Chua Tee Yong got all his substantive facts over the deal wrong, to the extent that we weren’t sure whether it was a R266 million, RM676 million or RM1 billion scandal by the state government.
I will be holding a press conference tomorrow to strip Datuk Chua Tee Yong’s complicated accounting allegations naked tomorrow morning.
For now, I’d like to refer to Talam Corporation’s press announcement made yesterday afternoon. It is clear from the points of fact raised in the statement that the Deputy Minister of Agriculture got his basic assumptions completely wrong.
Datuk Chua had alleged that “before the deal…, Talam was still under PN17 with lots of debts”. He further added that “The shares of Talam cannot be traded in the stock exchange before the deal…” Hence he concluded that “this was a clear-cut case of a bailout where the Selangor government used the rakyat’s money to help a listed company by buying its assets”.
Factual error #1 is that Talam has on its own accorded completed the financial Regularisation Plan approved by 1st July 2009, well before the “deal” with the state government at the end of 2009. Hence the “deal” had nothing to do with Talam’s financial Regularisation Plan, and hence cannot be a bailout as alleged by Datuk Chua.
Factual error #2 is that even when Talam is a PN17 company, its shares were never suspended as a result and was freely traded on the stock exchange. Datuk Chua, of all persons, being a former Chief Financial Officer of a Government-Linked Company should not be making such a mistake!
Datuk Chua should learn that before making an “expose” he must get his basic facts right of the pie will be in your face.
The worst part of this ridiculous expose is the sheer audacity by Datuk Chua and MCA to label the Selangor government’s collecting of RM391 million long outstanding debts incurred during the Barisan Nasional era, a “bailout” of the debtor Talam. It is no wonder BN’s management of GLCs and its crony companies is so screwed.
But that’s my very own “teaser” for the day. Tomorrow I will explain clearly how Datuk Chua failed his accounting test in this “Questionable Deal”.
Monday, July 09, 2012
Selangor Did Not "Overpay" for Talam Land
Datuk Chua Tee Yong had on 5th July 2012 claimed that the Selangor state government has “overpaid” for a piece of land taken over from Talam Corporation Berhad. This piece of 2,263.53 acres of leasehold land in Bestari Jaya was valued at only RM139.09 million by an independent professional valuer although the State government had valued it at RM181.08 million. Hence the accusation that Selangor has overpaid by RM41 million.
Datuk Chua’s accusation is not only cheeky, it is deliberately misleading by using selective statistics. Just as there were some pieces of land which the valuer Mitra Valuers & Property Consultants Sdn Bhd had valued lower than the state valuation, there were also many other pieces of land which was valued higher than the state valuation.
For example, the state government valued a 341acres piece of Bukit Beruntung 2 freehold land at RM89.1 million, Mitra had valued the same piece of land for RM100.8 million or RM11.7 million “gained” by the state.
Similarly, another piece of land, 686.93 acres of Bukit Beruntung 2 freehold land was valued at RM179.5 million by the state, but was valued by Mitra to be much higher at RM198.9 million. That’s a “gain” of RM19.4 million to the state.
Why did Datuk Chua Tee Yong not praise Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim for his astute business sense over these pieces of land?
What is important however, isn’t whether each of these 13 pieces of land taken over from Talam Corporation are valued higher or lower than the independent professional valuer. What is important is that the overall value of all 13 pieces of land taken over by the state as settlement for the Talam debts are fair in value.
In this case, the state has measured the combined value of these parcels of land to be RM676.1 million. However, the very same Mitra Valuers had valued these 13 parcels of land to be worth RM685.2 million, which means that they are worth more than the value the state has attached to these properties!
In fact, despite many of these properties having been acquired in the 1990s, the book value of these properties in Talam’s financial statement is an even higher figure, RM690.2 million. This means that the state government got these pieces of land at a RM14.1 million discount to Talam’s book value of these assets. The above information is publicly available on Bursa Malaysia, in the Circular to Shareholders on the Debt Settlement Proposal issued on 15 March 2011.
Datuk Chua in his anxiety to discredit the Selangor state government has completely missed the woods for the trees. Or he has decided to shoot blindly, before he was able to obtain all relevant information.
As an accountant, Datuk Chua should be giving praise to the Selangor state government for not only being able to recover all its RM392 million debt with Talam, it was able to do so by taking over assets at a lower value that what they are worth as measured by an independent professional valuer, accepted by the Securities Commission!
It would perhaps be more productive for Datuk Chua to scrutinise the other land transactions which took place during the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration where state land was alienated to their cronies at prices way below market value.
Can Datuk Chua investigate or explain how the Tanjong Karang Umno Division paid a premium of only RM130,244 for a piece of 1.2ha commercial land in April 2002 despite the market valuation by the state government being fixed at RM3.3 million?
Or can Datuk Chua demand accountability and transparency from the former BN state government for alienating another piece of land to Tanjong Karang Umno Division for only RM47,039 when the 0.437ha land is worth more than a million ringgit based on the state’s own valuation?
These dodgy land deals have been exposed by the DAP Sekinchan state assemblyman in the last 2 days. They proved that while the Pakatan Rakyat government seeks to maximize returns to the rakyat by securing more than what is valued, the BN government was the complete opposite by giving away enormous premium discounts to its cronies.
We have over the last 2 days responded to and refuted every single one of Datuk Chua Tee Yong and the Selangor MCA leaders allegations. None of their accusations of abuse could hold any water. Hence it is time for Datuk Chua and his cohort to be brave and courageous in facing up to their mistakes, publicly concede that they were mistaken and apologise to the Selangor state government for tainting the good name of the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government.
Datuk Chua’s accusation is not only cheeky, it is deliberately misleading by using selective statistics. Just as there were some pieces of land which the valuer Mitra Valuers & Property Consultants Sdn Bhd had valued lower than the state valuation, there were also many other pieces of land which was valued higher than the state valuation.
For example, the state government valued a 341acres piece of Bukit Beruntung 2 freehold land at RM89.1 million, Mitra had valued the same piece of land for RM100.8 million or RM11.7 million “gained” by the state.
Similarly, another piece of land, 686.93 acres of Bukit Beruntung 2 freehold land was valued at RM179.5 million by the state, but was valued by Mitra to be much higher at RM198.9 million. That’s a “gain” of RM19.4 million to the state.
Why did Datuk Chua Tee Yong not praise Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim for his astute business sense over these pieces of land?
What is important however, isn’t whether each of these 13 pieces of land taken over from Talam Corporation are valued higher or lower than the independent professional valuer. What is important is that the overall value of all 13 pieces of land taken over by the state as settlement for the Talam debts are fair in value.
In this case, the state has measured the combined value of these parcels of land to be RM676.1 million. However, the very same Mitra Valuers had valued these 13 parcels of land to be worth RM685.2 million, which means that they are worth more than the value the state has attached to these properties!
In fact, despite many of these properties having been acquired in the 1990s, the book value of these properties in Talam’s financial statement is an even higher figure, RM690.2 million. This means that the state government got these pieces of land at a RM14.1 million discount to Talam’s book value of these assets. The above information is publicly available on Bursa Malaysia, in the Circular to Shareholders on the Debt Settlement Proposal issued on 15 March 2011.
Datuk Chua in his anxiety to discredit the Selangor state government has completely missed the woods for the trees. Or he has decided to shoot blindly, before he was able to obtain all relevant information.
As an accountant, Datuk Chua should be giving praise to the Selangor state government for not only being able to recover all its RM392 million debt with Talam, it was able to do so by taking over assets at a lower value that what they are worth as measured by an independent professional valuer, accepted by the Securities Commission!
It would perhaps be more productive for Datuk Chua to scrutinise the other land transactions which took place during the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration where state land was alienated to their cronies at prices way below market value.
Can Datuk Chua investigate or explain how the Tanjong Karang Umno Division paid a premium of only RM130,244 for a piece of 1.2ha commercial land in April 2002 despite the market valuation by the state government being fixed at RM3.3 million?
Or can Datuk Chua demand accountability and transparency from the former BN state government for alienating another piece of land to Tanjong Karang Umno Division for only RM47,039 when the 0.437ha land is worth more than a million ringgit based on the state’s own valuation?
These dodgy land deals have been exposed by the DAP Sekinchan state assemblyman in the last 2 days. They proved that while the Pakatan Rakyat government seeks to maximize returns to the rakyat by securing more than what is valued, the BN government was the complete opposite by giving away enormous premium discounts to its cronies.
We have over the last 2 days responded to and refuted every single one of Datuk Chua Tee Yong and the Selangor MCA leaders allegations. None of their accusations of abuse could hold any water. Hence it is time for Datuk Chua and his cohort to be brave and courageous in facing up to their mistakes, publicly concede that they were mistaken and apologise to the Selangor state government for tainting the good name of the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Chua Tee Yong Needs To Do Better Homework
The latest RM57 million “overpayment” alleged by Datuk Chua Tee Yong proves not only the fact that he doesn’t do his homework, he also cannot read and count
#1. Datuk Chua can’t read and count
MCA today accused the Selangor government of "overpaying" RM57.3 million to Talam Corporation Bhd for 53.74 hectares of land in Danau Putra, Selangor.
Datuk Chua had claimed that the land was over-valued, because it was 80 percent submerged under water. He asked “Why is the PR Selangor government buying land which is 80 per cent submerged underwater and requires more than RM50 million to fill up before they can commence development?”
Referring to the exact same document which Datuk Chua was using to demonstrate his knowledge during the press conference, the land valuation report by Chartwell ITAC International indeed highlighted the fact that “the cost of filling is estimated of about RM51,500,000”.
However, Datuk Chua seems to have failed to read in the same paragraph of the report (page 77 of the Talam Shareholders’ Circular dated 15 March 2012) that Chartwell has already “made further adjustment to our valuation by excluding the estimated cost of earth filling of the area under water”.
After deducting the above, Chartwell arrived at a professional valuation of RM93.5 million for the land which is even higher than the valuation of RM87.7 million given by state government. Hence Datuk Chua’s accusation that the state has failed to take into account of the submerged land and overpaid as a result, is another simple case of double-counting. Datuk was basically trying to deduct the cost of filling the land again, even after it has been taken into consideration by the professional valuer.
#2. Datuk Chua failed to do his homework again
Datuk Chua had asked "How come [one of the four parels of] land was auctioned off? And why was the aforesaid plot priced at 2.86 times the auction amount and, assuming the price was RM5.20psf, why did the Selangor government overpay by RM57 million?"
He further added that due to some legal complications, the land was auctioned off on Sept 7 that year. However, Chua admitted that he did not know state the nature of the legal action that led to the property being auctioned.
Datuk Chua has failed to secure information with regards to the legal “complication” above which might have protected him against making another wild unsubstantiated allegation against the Selangor state government.
A look at the publicly available January 2012 Talam Corporation Bhd Annual Report will immediately disclose the history of the legal complication. Bangkok Bank Bhd (BBB) had erroneously auctioned the above said property on 7 September 2010 despite being aware that the land is part and parcel of properties being disposed to Menteri Besar (Incorporated) (MBI) under a settlement agreement entered into on 12 March 2010.
Talam has taken legal action against the bank to recover the losses from the land, where the bank auction purchaser bought for RM15 million, well below the transacted value with MBI of RM48.7 million.
However, what proves to be a stroke of business savvy and negotiating genius of the Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim-led MBI was the fact that regardless of the outcome of the legal dispute, the interest of the state in collecting the outstanding debt is not at all compromised. Talam has disclosed in the Annual Report that “the disposal of this property will not have any significant impact on the MBI settlement agreement”. The Company stated that “if necessary, the Company will identify a piece of land to replace the abovementioned to MBI”.
(Page 124 in the Notes to Financial Statement of the 2012 Annual Report)
This proves that the State Government will not lose a single sen over the above transaction unlike what was alleged by Datuk Chua Tee Yong. It would perhaps have been more productive if he starts shifting his focus to how Talam was able to amass such a huge RM392 million debt with the state government, and perhaps he might be able to find some mud against BN then.
We have shown clearly with facts, figures and documents to prove that all the alleged scandals raised during Datuk Chua’s press conferences were completely without basis. Datuk Chua has proven to be an incompetent leader of the MCA Young Professionals Bureau, making mistakes after mistakes during press conferences. Datuk Chua should perhaps stop the attempts to dig a deeper hole for himself while attempting to cover up his RM1 billion mega-blunder.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
PNSB - Spectacular Turnaround Under Pakatan Rakyat
Contrary to the frivolous allegations by Datuk Chua Tee Yong, the financial performance of Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) has improved by leaps and bounds under the Pakatan Rakyat leadership
Last week Datuk Chua Tee Yong has continued his crusade against the Selangor state government over the Talam “scandal” by alleging that the Selangor state wholly-owned subsidiary Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) was forced to take a supersized RM230 million loan to acquire land from Menteri Besar (Incorporated) as part of the Talam debt settlement agreement.
The question we are asking Datuk Chua and his merry men is what exactly is wrong with taking a RM230 million to acquire RM450 million worth of land assets, as audited, valued and recognized in the PNSB 2010 financial accounts? Where is the impropriety in that?
As highlighted in my press conference last week, and in case Datuk Chua isn’t aware, PNSB is a property development company. It has to acquire land to develop and construct, in order to sell and make a return for the company. It is no different from any property development company, privately held or publicly listed or government owned. Hence the acquisition of land for future potential development is the normal course of business for a property development company! Where exactly is the “scandal” in the above transaction?
However, by thrusting PNSB into the limelight, it gave me an opportunity to review the financial performance of PNSB in detail. To my pleasant surprise, the performance of PNSB has improved by leaps and bounds under the new Pakatan Rakyat leadership, beyond even my cautiously optimistic expectations.
A quick look at the profit and loss statements of PNSB showed that it made losses for 4 consecutive years since 2005 including the transition year of 2008.
However, as the above chart illustrates, that PNSB has been increasing its after tax profits (税后利润) 3 consecutive years in a row from RM8 million to RM23.4 million to RM28.4 million in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. This also means 2 consecutive years of record profits for PNSB in 2010 and 2011.
How is it that a Chartered Accountant (特许会计师) with qualifications from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) (墨尔本皇家理工大学) can accuse PNSB of being forced to be indebted, when its financial turnaround (财政周转) from the days of Barisan Nasional has been nothing short of spectacular?
Datuk Chua accused PNSB of depleting its cash reserves (现金储备) which stood at RM76.0 million in 2008 and RM77.6 million in 2009. However, the accounts of PNSB clearly showed a massive increase in cash reserves to RM167.0 million as at December 2011.
Datuk Chua accused the State Government of causing PNSB to increase its debts by RM230 million to acquire properties in Bukit Beruntung and Bestari Jaya. However, Datuk Chua must certainly be impressed with the fact that the total assets (总资产) of PNSB has increased by leaps and bounds from RM111.4 million in 2008 to RM761.0 million and RM823.8 million in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
In addition, and probably more tellingly, the Net Tangible Assets (有形资产净值) of PNSB has improved by 17.7% from RM11.55 per share in 2009 to RM13.59 per share in 2011.
I have never been trained in accounts whether in school or in university and I don’t claim to be a qualified accountant or accounting analyst. So, despite the initial rejection by Datuk Chua Tee Yong, I hope that he will reconsider the offer to debate the Talam debt “scandal” which he has raised, perhaps at least to teach me how to do proper accounting.
He should also take up the debate mantle to erase the damage to his reputation as a double-counting accountant and justify once and for all that Selangor under Pakatan Rakyat has committed a RM1 billion bailout of Talam Corporation, instead of him committing a billion ringgit blunder.
If Datuk Chua prefers a neutral venue instead of holding the debate at Wisma MCA, we can do it at The Star auditorium so that his allegations can be given maximum reach and coverage.
It would be a shame for him to turn down his very first invite to a public debate, unlike the MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek who had courageously faced DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng in live debates not once, but twice.
Once again, I very much look forward to Datuk Chua’s favourable reply.
Last week Datuk Chua Tee Yong has continued his crusade against the Selangor state government over the Talam “scandal” by alleging that the Selangor state wholly-owned subsidiary Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) was forced to take a supersized RM230 million loan to acquire land from Menteri Besar (Incorporated) as part of the Talam debt settlement agreement.
The question we are asking Datuk Chua and his merry men is what exactly is wrong with taking a RM230 million to acquire RM450 million worth of land assets, as audited, valued and recognized in the PNSB 2010 financial accounts? Where is the impropriety in that?
As highlighted in my press conference last week, and in case Datuk Chua isn’t aware, PNSB is a property development company. It has to acquire land to develop and construct, in order to sell and make a return for the company. It is no different from any property development company, privately held or publicly listed or government owned. Hence the acquisition of land for future potential development is the normal course of business for a property development company! Where exactly is the “scandal” in the above transaction?
However, by thrusting PNSB into the limelight, it gave me an opportunity to review the financial performance of PNSB in detail. To my pleasant surprise, the performance of PNSB has improved by leaps and bounds under the new Pakatan Rakyat leadership, beyond even my cautiously optimistic expectations.
A quick look at the profit and loss statements of PNSB showed that it made losses for 4 consecutive years since 2005 including the transition year of 2008.
However, as the above chart illustrates, that PNSB has been increasing its after tax profits (税后利润) 3 consecutive years in a row from RM8 million to RM23.4 million to RM28.4 million in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. This also means 2 consecutive years of record profits for PNSB in 2010 and 2011.
How is it that a Chartered Accountant (特许会计师) with qualifications from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) (墨尔本皇家理工大学) can accuse PNSB of being forced to be indebted, when its financial turnaround (财政周转) from the days of Barisan Nasional has been nothing short of spectacular?
Datuk Chua accused PNSB of depleting its cash reserves (现金储备) which stood at RM76.0 million in 2008 and RM77.6 million in 2009. However, the accounts of PNSB clearly showed a massive increase in cash reserves to RM167.0 million as at December 2011.
Datuk Chua accused the State Government of causing PNSB to increase its debts by RM230 million to acquire properties in Bukit Beruntung and Bestari Jaya. However, Datuk Chua must certainly be impressed with the fact that the total assets (总资产) of PNSB has increased by leaps and bounds from RM111.4 million in 2008 to RM761.0 million and RM823.8 million in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
In addition, and probably more tellingly, the Net Tangible Assets (有形资产净值) of PNSB has improved by 17.7% from RM11.55 per share in 2009 to RM13.59 per share in 2011.
I have never been trained in accounts whether in school or in university and I don’t claim to be a qualified accountant or accounting analyst. So, despite the initial rejection by Datuk Chua Tee Yong, I hope that he will reconsider the offer to debate the Talam debt “scandal” which he has raised, perhaps at least to teach me how to do proper accounting.
He should also take up the debate mantle to erase the damage to his reputation as a double-counting accountant and justify once and for all that Selangor under Pakatan Rakyat has committed a RM1 billion bailout of Talam Corporation, instead of him committing a billion ringgit blunder.
If Datuk Chua prefers a neutral venue instead of holding the debate at Wisma MCA, we can do it at The Star auditorium so that his allegations can be given maximum reach and coverage.
It would be a shame for him to turn down his very first invite to a public debate, unlike the MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek who had courageously faced DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng in live debates not once, but twice.
Once again, I very much look forward to Datuk Chua’s favourable reply.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Talam Debt Recovery: A Testament of Pakatan Good Governance
The Selangor administration led by Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has proven that its integrity, accountability and good governance in managing the state’s finances and serves as a preview of how Pakatan Rakyat will run Putrajaya
The recent “egg-in-the-face” expose by Datuk Chua Tee Yong over an alleged RM1 billion land scandal in Selangor has instead allowed the state administration to showcase our integrity and accountability in managing the rakyat’s money, in stark contrast to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
The facts which has surfaced over the past few days since Datuk Chua’s sensational expose that was given front page treatment by BN-owned mass media has proven that Datuk Chua not only could not tell the difference between debit and credit columns of a balance sheet, he had the uncanny subtraction ability of “two minus one equals three” (2 – 1 = 3).
The records show that Talam Corporation Berhad was allowed to incur debts of RM392 million to the Selangor government during the BN administration before 2008. These debts were never properly documented or recorded in the books of the state government companies – Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL), Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor and Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB). What is worse was the fact that there was no effort made by the BN administration to collect these debts.
However, the new Pakatan Rakyat state led by Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has demonstrated that with political will, no company will be able to escape from paying its debts to the Government. Within a year after discovering the discrepancy in the state-owned companies’ financial records, Tan Sri Khalid has via the Menteri Besar (Incorporated) (MBI) recouped every sen of the RM392 million debt from Talam Corporation in the form of cash and properties.
The most remarkable thing about the entire exercise was the fact that the Selangor government did not have to suffer any haircuts in the debt recovery exercise despite the fact that Talam itself was just recovering from severe financial difficulties. On the contrary, the state government was able to RM676 million of property assets which was valued by an independent valuer to be worth more at RM685 million.
On the whole, despite having spent hundreds of millions of ringgit more in terms of welfare subsidies and grants for the people of Selangor, such as the RM130 million 20m3 free water subsidy for every household each year, the Mesra Usia Emas Programme for the elderly and the RM300 million infrastructure grant from MBI, the state financial reserves have increased from only RM733 million in 2008 when Pakatan Rakyat took over, to a whopping RM1.9 billion as at May 2012.
This stands in stark contrast with the BN federal government which continues to fund itself with debt and deficit. Instead of collecting in full the court-ordered judgement of RM589.15 million from Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli, the BN administration has chosen to write off the debt in its entirety, causing massive losses to the rakyat of Malaysia.
What rubs salt to wound is the fact that these debts were incurred as a result of the privatization of Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) to Tan Sri Tajudin and his subsequent bailout which cost tax-payers more than RM3.2 billion. MAS had then ratcheted up more than RM8 billion in debt before it was handed back to the Government in 2001.
As a result of such massive bailouts as well as write off of debts owed by crony companies, the Federal Government debt has increased by leaps and bounds from RM242 billion in 2007 to RM363 billion in 2009 and RM456 billion in 2011. This represents an 88.4% increase in Federal Government debt in just 4 years! The above has yet to take into account the unseen debts guaranteed by the Federal Government which stands at RM117 billion as at December 2011.
The above examples offers incontrovertible testimony that Pakatan Rakyat will be much better managers of the country’s finances compared to BN. We will ensure that all debts are collected and are utilized to the benefit of the rakyat. We will stop bailouts of political cronies and ensure that brakes are applied to the runaway debt train.
There is no question that by ruling the country with the principles of competency, accountability and transparency, as showcased in the examples above, Pakatan Rakyat is the proven coalition to allow Malaysians to achieve their full unrealized potentials.
The recent “egg-in-the-face” expose by Datuk Chua Tee Yong over an alleged RM1 billion land scandal in Selangor has instead allowed the state administration to showcase our integrity and accountability in managing the rakyat’s money, in stark contrast to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
The facts which has surfaced over the past few days since Datuk Chua’s sensational expose that was given front page treatment by BN-owned mass media has proven that Datuk Chua not only could not tell the difference between debit and credit columns of a balance sheet, he had the uncanny subtraction ability of “two minus one equals three” (2 – 1 = 3).
The records show that Talam Corporation Berhad was allowed to incur debts of RM392 million to the Selangor government during the BN administration before 2008. These debts were never properly documented or recorded in the books of the state government companies – Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL), Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor and Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB). What is worse was the fact that there was no effort made by the BN administration to collect these debts.
However, the new Pakatan Rakyat state led by Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has demonstrated that with political will, no company will be able to escape from paying its debts to the Government. Within a year after discovering the discrepancy in the state-owned companies’ financial records, Tan Sri Khalid has via the Menteri Besar (Incorporated) (MBI) recouped every sen of the RM392 million debt from Talam Corporation in the form of cash and properties.
The most remarkable thing about the entire exercise was the fact that the Selangor government did not have to suffer any haircuts in the debt recovery exercise despite the fact that Talam itself was just recovering from severe financial difficulties. On the contrary, the state government was able to RM676 million of property assets which was valued by an independent valuer to be worth more at RM685 million.
On the whole, despite having spent hundreds of millions of ringgit more in terms of welfare subsidies and grants for the people of Selangor, such as the RM130 million 20m3 free water subsidy for every household each year, the Mesra Usia Emas Programme for the elderly and the RM300 million infrastructure grant from MBI, the state financial reserves have increased from only RM733 million in 2008 when Pakatan Rakyat took over, to a whopping RM1.9 billion as at May 2012.
This stands in stark contrast with the BN federal government which continues to fund itself with debt and deficit. Instead of collecting in full the court-ordered judgement of RM589.15 million from Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli, the BN administration has chosen to write off the debt in its entirety, causing massive losses to the rakyat of Malaysia.
What rubs salt to wound is the fact that these debts were incurred as a result of the privatization of Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) to Tan Sri Tajudin and his subsequent bailout which cost tax-payers more than RM3.2 billion. MAS had then ratcheted up more than RM8 billion in debt before it was handed back to the Government in 2001.
As a result of such massive bailouts as well as write off of debts owed by crony companies, the Federal Government debt has increased by leaps and bounds from RM242 billion in 2007 to RM363 billion in 2009 and RM456 billion in 2011. This represents an 88.4% increase in Federal Government debt in just 4 years! The above has yet to take into account the unseen debts guaranteed by the Federal Government which stands at RM117 billion as at December 2011.
The above examples offers incontrovertible testimony that Pakatan Rakyat will be much better managers of the country’s finances compared to BN. We will ensure that all debts are collected and are utilized to the benefit of the rakyat. We will stop bailouts of political cronies and ensure that brakes are applied to the runaway debt train.
There is no question that by ruling the country with the principles of competency, accountability and transparency, as showcased in the examples above, Pakatan Rakyat is the proven coalition to allow Malaysians to achieve their full unrealized potentials.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Chua Tee Yong's RM1 Billion Mega-Blunder
Datuk Chua Tee Yong has on 3rd July made headlines in all media by accusing the Selangor state government of committing a RM1 billion land scandal, bailing out financially stricken property developer Talam Corporation.
Since then we have showed clearly that there was not only no bailout, Talam was forced to repay its debts to the state government amounting to RM392 million which were all accrued during the Barisan Nasional regime.
We have also proven that Datuk Chua not only could not tell the difference between debit and credit columns of a balance sheet, he had the uncanny subtraction ability of “two minus one equals three” (2 – 1 = 3) which resulted in the impossible figure of RM1 billion mega-blunder.
However, since then, Datuk Chua has failed to respond or clarify on his mega-billion ringgit blunder. He only said during his press conference on 5th July 2012 that he’ll reply “once he has gathered further information”.
"I will give you (the answer) when I receive further information, as I am receiving some on that," he said.
As of today at 11 July 2012, Datuk Chua has still not responded to or corrected his mega-blunder and this only proves that there was never a RM1 billion scandal and the Selangor state government never bailed out Talam as accused by Datuk Chua and MCA.
Never before in the history of Malaysia has a Deputy Minister “exposed” a RM1 billion “scandal” which subsequently become a RM1 billion mega-blunder, and Datuk Chua Tee Yong will suffer the ignominy of becoming the very first in the country.
Since then we have showed clearly that there was not only no bailout, Talam was forced to repay its debts to the state government amounting to RM392 million which were all accrued during the Barisan Nasional regime.
We have also proven that Datuk Chua not only could not tell the difference between debit and credit columns of a balance sheet, he had the uncanny subtraction ability of “two minus one equals three” (2 – 1 = 3) which resulted in the impossible figure of RM1 billion mega-blunder.
However, since then, Datuk Chua has failed to respond or clarify on his mega-billion ringgit blunder. He only said during his press conference on 5th July 2012 that he’ll reply “once he has gathered further information”.
"I will give you (the answer) when I receive further information, as I am receiving some on that," he said.
As of today at 11 July 2012, Datuk Chua has still not responded to or corrected his mega-blunder and this only proves that there was never a RM1 billion scandal and the Selangor state government never bailed out Talam as accused by Datuk Chua and MCA.
Never before in the history of Malaysia has a Deputy Minister “exposed” a RM1 billion “scandal” which subsequently become a RM1 billion mega-blunder, and Datuk Chua Tee Yong will suffer the ignominy of becoming the very first in the country.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
What's PNSB's Debt Got To Do With Talam?
If there’s something to take home positively from the series of “exposés” from Datuk Chua Tee Yong and his band of Selangor MCA cheerleaders, it is that he will doggedly persist with making increasingly ludicrous allegations against the Pakatan Rakyat state government, even if it is at the expense of exposing himself as a half-baked accountant.
To date, he has not even responded to the billion ringgit mega-blunder he has made, or other alleged scandals over the land asset recovery by the Selangor state which were exposed as unscandalous. He now alleges that the Selangor state subsidiary Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) was forced to take a supersized RM230 million loan to acquire land from Menteri Besar (Incorporated) as part of the Talam debt settlement agreement.
Firstly, it does not at all make any sense for PNSB to take a RM230 million loan just to recover outstanding debts of RM22 million from Talam. Secondly, Datuk Chua himself admitted that he was not able to ascertain that PNSB had taken the hefty loan to purchase the plots of land in the Hulu Selangor constituency as the state firm’s 2011 audited accounts are not yet available. Hence he’s really just shooting in the dark!
But even if we were to assume that he is spot-on, that a RM230 million loan was indeed taken by PNSB to acquire RM450 million worth of land assets, as audited, valued and recognized in the PNSB 2010 financial accounts, where is the impropriety in that?
In case Datuk Chua isn’t aware, PNSB is a property development company. It has to acquire land to develop and construct, in order to sell and make a return for the company. It is no different from any property development company, privately held or publicly listed or government owned. And if Datuk Chua isn’t familiar, it’s a concept called “land-banking”. Hence the acquisition of land for future potential development is the normal course of business for a property development company! Where exactly is the “scandal” in the above transaction?
What’s more, as a trained accountant, Datuk Chua should know that getting into debt is not in itself an adverse event for the company. Otherwise, Malaysia’s largest property developers SP Setia Bhd, Sunway Bhd or IOI Corporation Bhd must be among the worst run companies because they carry debts of RM2.44 billion, RM2.42 billion and RM5.46 billion respectively in their books.
What is important is whether the liabilities that a company undertakes are sufficiently backed by its assets, and whether these assets can generate higher returns than the cost of funds. In this particular case, it is clear that the RM450 million of additional assets as pointed out by Datuk Chua himself, is worth nearly double that of the debt. So what’s the problem?
Saturday, July 07, 2012
Chua Tee Yong Double Counts Talam "Scandal"
Datuk Chua Tee Yong had claimed that the “PR Selangor Government must explain to the Rakyat the acquisition on the RM676 mil worth of assets and the usage of RM392 million allocation which total to the RM1 billion questionable deal.”
Firstly, from a mathematical standpoint, using RM392 million to acquire RM676 million of assets does not add up to a RM1 billion questionable deal. That’s elementary double-counting.
It's like saying he used RM40,000 to acquire a RM60,000 car. It's either a RM20,000 cock-up, or a RM40,000 abuse or a RM60,000 con-job. It's NOT a RM100,000 scandal.
But that’s not important. What is important is whether the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Selangor government had abused tax-payers’ monies to bailout financially troubled company, Talam Corporation as alleged by Datuk Chua. Check out subsequent posts for details.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Will Chua Tee Yong Accept Debate on Talam Debt?
Datuk Chua has become an embarrassment for the MCA as he stumbles from one mega-blunder to another. I call upon Datuk Chua to end his misery once and for all, with a public and open debate in any language, at a time and place of his choosing, even if it is held at Wisma MCA over the “Talam Debt Recovery: A Billion Ringgit Bailout or a Billion Ringgit Mega-Blunder”.
Given Datuk Chua’s unwavering confidence over the issue, and the dedicated support of The Star in highlighting all of his press conferences on the front page of the paper, I am certain that the public will be looking forward to see how the rising star of MCA demolish, once and for all, the reputation of the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Selangor.
While the MCA Presidential Council has barred its President from further debates, I am confident that there is no blanket ban against all MCA leaders from participating in debates against DAP leaders. I very much look forward to Datuk Chua’s favourable reply.
Given Datuk Chua’s unwavering confidence over the issue, and the dedicated support of The Star in highlighting all of his press conferences on the front page of the paper, I am certain that the public will be looking forward to see how the rising star of MCA demolish, once and for all, the reputation of the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Selangor.
While the MCA Presidential Council has barred its President from further debates, I am confident that there is no blanket ban against all MCA leaders from participating in debates against DAP leaders. I very much look forward to Datuk Chua’s favourable reply.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
RM7 billion New Highway Concession for Who?
DAP rakes Putrajaya over RM7b highway deal
By Debra Chong January 28, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — The DAP has blasted the Najib administration for awarding a lucrative RM7 billion highway deal, to be tolled for a record 60 years, to a company known principally for making and selling granular and powder-activated carbon.
Public-listed Kumpulan Europlus Bhd (KEuro) told Bursa Malaysia late on Thursday it had also won a RM2.24 billion government soft loan and a three per cent interest subsidy on commercial loans for a period of 22 years, on top of Putrajaya paying RM980 million in land acquisition cost to join Banting in south Selangor a total 316km to Taiping in north Perak.
Industry observers have described the new highway project as the closest alternative to the congested North-South Expressway.
“This deal reeks of cronyism and this does not bode well for Najib’s transformation programme,” the opposition party lawmaker Tony Pua (picture) told The Malaysian Insider, speaking of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's New Economic Model (NEM) to make the country a high-income nation by 2020.
The PM has been seeking to burnish his credentials as a reformer and so spur Malaysia’s growth as a global an investment hub.
In the filing to Bursa Malaysia, KEuro disclosed that its subsidiary, West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd (WCE), has received an approval letter dated the same day from the federal government to build and operate the Banting-Taiping highway for the next 60 years estimated to cost RM7.07 billion.
It said the 224km of the highway will be tolled compared to 92km that will be toll-free.
The public-listed company also disclosed receiving a RM2.24 billion government soft loan starting from next year and an interest subsidy of only three per cent on commercial loans for a period of 22 years to build the highway apart from the government bearing the estimated RM980 million in land acquisition cost for the highway project.
“This is shocking! Why [did they get] such good terms?” Pua asked.
“Taxpayers are being doubly abused. First, they will have to pay for the construction of the road and then will be asked to pay for the use of the road,” he said.
The DAP publicity chief pointed out that KEuro’s president and chief executive Tan Sri Chan Ah Chye was also onboard the controversial housing developer Talam Corporation Bhd, and that both companies had fallen into debt in the past.
“Despite that, it has continued to win support from the Najib administration and got a sweetheart deal in order to see through the project,” Pua said.
“Why is the government giving it to him [Chan]?” he asked, noting that Chan owns a controlling 27.58 per cent in KEuro, with the second major shareholder at 22.7 per cent going to multi-industry giant IJM Corporation Bhd.
Pua said that KEuro had made only RM15 million in revenue and RM5 million in profit in the first nine months of last year after racking up RM24.1 million in losses on revenue of RM20.5 million in 2010.
“Now they are awarded a highway that is expected to cost RM7.07 billion to build. It’s a property developer with records of abandoned housing projects. It has no experience in building highways that I can recall,” Pua said, clarifying that IJM has, but not KEuro.
“Here we are in Pakatan Rakyat putting in our common policy framework to restructure and remove tolls while the BN government is putting on their agenda privatisation policies that impose additional tolls on ordinary Malaysians and prioritise their cronies.”
Pua urged the government to call off its deal with KEuro, which he said had yet to be signed; and to open the project to competitive tender so that the public will not be burdened by tolls for 60 years.
“It’s the longest [toll concession] ever, longer than with PLUS,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said.
Pua, who is among the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) bloc’s economic experts, related that the West Coast highway project had been mooted and first approved during the administration of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad — Najib’s mentor — but had stalled in the late 1990s.
“Because of the Asian economic crisis, Europlus could not raise the money to build the highway,” he said.
He added: “It’s an old deal that should have been terminated when Europlus first failed to build the highway.”
KEuro is described as an investment holding company in stock exchange records and its businesses are organised into three divisions, namely manufacturing and trading of industrial products, construction, and leasing, management services and investment holding.
By Debra Chong January 28, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — The DAP has blasted the Najib administration for awarding a lucrative RM7 billion highway deal, to be tolled for a record 60 years, to a company known principally for making and selling granular and powder-activated carbon.
Public-listed Kumpulan Europlus Bhd (KEuro) told Bursa Malaysia late on Thursday it had also won a RM2.24 billion government soft loan and a three per cent interest subsidy on commercial loans for a period of 22 years, on top of Putrajaya paying RM980 million in land acquisition cost to join Banting in south Selangor a total 316km to Taiping in north Perak.
Industry observers have described the new highway project as the closest alternative to the congested North-South Expressway.
“This deal reeks of cronyism and this does not bode well for Najib’s transformation programme,” the opposition party lawmaker Tony Pua (picture) told The Malaysian Insider, speaking of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's New Economic Model (NEM) to make the country a high-income nation by 2020.
The PM has been seeking to burnish his credentials as a reformer and so spur Malaysia’s growth as a global an investment hub.
In the filing to Bursa Malaysia, KEuro disclosed that its subsidiary, West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd (WCE), has received an approval letter dated the same day from the federal government to build and operate the Banting-Taiping highway for the next 60 years estimated to cost RM7.07 billion.
It said the 224km of the highway will be tolled compared to 92km that will be toll-free.
The public-listed company also disclosed receiving a RM2.24 billion government soft loan starting from next year and an interest subsidy of only three per cent on commercial loans for a period of 22 years to build the highway apart from the government bearing the estimated RM980 million in land acquisition cost for the highway project.
“This is shocking! Why [did they get] such good terms?” Pua asked.
“Taxpayers are being doubly abused. First, they will have to pay for the construction of the road and then will be asked to pay for the use of the road,” he said.
The DAP publicity chief pointed out that KEuro’s president and chief executive Tan Sri Chan Ah Chye was also onboard the controversial housing developer Talam Corporation Bhd, and that both companies had fallen into debt in the past.
“Despite that, it has continued to win support from the Najib administration and got a sweetheart deal in order to see through the project,” Pua said.
“Why is the government giving it to him [Chan]?” he asked, noting that Chan owns a controlling 27.58 per cent in KEuro, with the second major shareholder at 22.7 per cent going to multi-industry giant IJM Corporation Bhd.
Pua said that KEuro had made only RM15 million in revenue and RM5 million in profit in the first nine months of last year after racking up RM24.1 million in losses on revenue of RM20.5 million in 2010.
“Now they are awarded a highway that is expected to cost RM7.07 billion to build. It’s a property developer with records of abandoned housing projects. It has no experience in building highways that I can recall,” Pua said, clarifying that IJM has, but not KEuro.
“Here we are in Pakatan Rakyat putting in our common policy framework to restructure and remove tolls while the BN government is putting on their agenda privatisation policies that impose additional tolls on ordinary Malaysians and prioritise their cronies.”
Pua urged the government to call off its deal with KEuro, which he said had yet to be signed; and to open the project to competitive tender so that the public will not be burdened by tolls for 60 years.
“It’s the longest [toll concession] ever, longer than with PLUS,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said.
Pua, who is among the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) bloc’s economic experts, related that the West Coast highway project had been mooted and first approved during the administration of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad — Najib’s mentor — but had stalled in the late 1990s.
“Because of the Asian economic crisis, Europlus could not raise the money to build the highway,” he said.
He added: “It’s an old deal that should have been terminated when Europlus first failed to build the highway.”
KEuro is described as an investment holding company in stock exchange records and its businesses are organised into three divisions, namely manufacturing and trading of industrial products, construction, and leasing, management services and investment holding.
Saturday, December 01, 2012
BN Will Bankrupt Malaysia, Not PR
UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak attempted to scare Malaysian voters that by voting Pakatan Rakyat, the latter will bankrupt the country in 3 years.
Najib said, the opposition under Anwar’s leadership was espousing poor policies, pointing to its plans to ensure an average of RM4,000 a month as household income, abolition of tolls and the PTPTN debt, RM500 special allowance for teachers and hiking the royalty payment to 20 percent for oil-producing states.
“If all these are done in the first year, the federal budget deficit will spiral to almost 30 percent. By 2015, our debt to GDP will sky-rocket to 140 percent.
“In three years time, we will reach a critical stage where we will lose our economic sovereignty, like Greece,” he said.
Without even going into the details of the accusations over Pakatan Rakyat policies which have been well rebutted by my colleagues previously, Najib’s claims are completely preposterous.
Pakatan Rakyat has unveiled our Alternative Budget for 2013 which has clearly spelt out our expenditure proposals which are much less extravagant and much more prudent than that by the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government. We have proposed an expenditure of RM234 billion and projected a deficit of 3.5%, as opposed to BN’s RM252 billion and a 4% deficit. How did Najib pluck a 30% or a incredulous RM300 billion deficit from thin air?
In fact, if the BN Federal Government scandals are anything to go by, it is the current administration’s continued profligacy which will cause the country to be "bankrupt" if they are voted back into power.
We have seen how the BN Government provide all sorts of unacceptable excuses not to collect back RM250 million of soft loan extended to UMNO Wanita Chief Datuk Shahrizat Jalil’s family in the failed National Feedlot Corporation projects where the money was abused to purchase luxury condominiums. Similarly, Datuk Seri Najib has instructed that RM589.6 million of outstanding debt from Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli to Federal Government subsidiaries be completely written off for no good reason.
At the same time, we have surfaced RM140.2 billion worth of contingent liabilities or Federal Government guaranteed debts which are not included in our official debts of RM502 billion. The contingent liabilities or hidden debts are rising at an exponential rate as a means for the BN Government to bail out its cronies and failing GLCs such as the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ). In fact, the heavily indebted Port Klang Authority has officially requested the Finance Ministry to write up RM2.1 billion out of its RM4.6 billion debt incurred as a result of government guarantee.
On the other hand, Pakatan Rakyat Governments have proven our prudence in managing state finances. The Selangor State Government for example has successfully recovered RM392 million worth of debt from Talam Corporation incurred during BN’s administration. Similarly, open and transparent policies have resulted in repeated surpluses in both the Penang and Selangor administrations. Penang achieved a record budget surplus of RM138 million in 2011 after successive surpluses since 2008. Similarly, the Auditor-General has also confirmed a surplus of RM180.5 million in 2011, a 45% increse from RM124.2 million achieved in 2010. The finacial reserves of the Selangor state government has also increased from a mere RM400 million in 2008 to a whopping RM2.4 billion today.
Pakatan Rakyat will implement prudent spending and will reallocate funds for our proposed expenditure, by cutting wasteful expenditure, restructuring subsidies target groups and eliminating corruption via open, transparent and competitive tenders and procurement systems.
Hence the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Malaysians throughout the country can evaluate and compare the performance of the BN administration versus the Pakatan state administrations over the past 5 years and make informed judgements. Pakatan Rakyat has more than proven that we are more than capable of strengthening the country’s finances and economy, while on the other hand, the continued corruption, abuse of power and profligacy under BN will inevitably lead to economic disaster for the nation.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Better Mum or Dumb?
This piece of parliamentary interaction (Hansard Pages 64/65), which I thought quite amusing, happened last Thursday while Azmin Ali [PKR-GOMBAK] had his turn debating the 2009 Budget, and was emphasizing on the fact that the budget is already rendered irrelevant due to the changes in the global economic circumstances.
Dato' Abd Rahman Dahlan [BN-KOTA BELUD] was eager and anxious to interject GOMBAK a few times, and was finally given permission by the latter.
Dato' Abd Rahman Dahlan [BN-KOTA BELUD] was eager and anxious to interject GOMBAK a few times, and was finally given permission by the latter.
[KOTA BELUD]: Terima kasih Tuan Yang di-Pertua, terima kasih Yang Berhormat Gombak. Tadi pada mula perbahasan Yang Berhormat Gombak ada mengatakan bahawa pihak pembangkang menuntut Menteri Kewangan yang baru untuk membentangkan bajet yang baru berdasarkan keadaan ekonomi semasa dunia. Saya ingin hendak tanya kepada Yang Berhormat Gombak pada tahun 1998, pada waktu itu Ketua Pembangkang yang berangan-angan menjadi Perdana Menteri sekarang ini adalah Menteri Kewangan. Pada waktu itu situasi ekonomi dunia juga meruncing seperti sekarang ini.And rightly so, GOMBAK went straight for the “kill”:
Saya hendak tanya kepada Yang Berhormat Gombak, Ketua Whip yang berangan-angan menjadi Menteri Kewangan kononnya. Pada waktu itu beliau adalah setiausaha sulit kepada Menteri Kewangan tetapi pada waktu itu saya tidak teringat walau saya tahu pada waktu itu Menteri Kewangan yang Ketua Pembangkang sekarang ini tidak membentangkan bajet alternatif walaupun pada waktu itu ekonomi dunia merudum dan pasaran saham jatuh, kadar faedah melonjak angkara Ketua Pembangkang menaikkan interest rate. Pada waktu itu Kementerian Kewangan, Menteri Kewangan yang bertanggungjawab tidak membentangkan bajet alternatif. Ini adalah satu hipokrit, satu putar belit, lidah bercabang, talam dua muka. Tolong jawab.
[GOMBAK]: Tuan Yang di-Pertua saya gembira kerana memberi laluan kepada Yang Berhormat Kota Belud sebab kalau dia tidak bercakap tidak nampak dia tidak cerdik. Akan tetapi bila dia buka sahaja mulut nampak kedangkalan dan kejahilan seorang pemimpin UMNO. Apa yang berlaku tahun 1997, 1998 boleh check rekod dalam Dewan Rakyat. Dalam menangani krisis kewangan pada ketika itu Menteri Kewangan membentangkan dua kali revised bajet dalam Dewan Rakyat. Masa itu dia budak hingusan di Sabah sahaja dia tidak tahu.And I couldn't resist adding further:
[PETALING JAYA UTARA]: Terima kasih Yang Berhormat Gombak.KOTA BELUD sank low in his chair after that, and not adding anything else during GOMBAK's 40 minute speech ;-)
Adakah benar bahawa pada tahun 1997 pada masa itu kita tidak ada pergerakan harga minyak seperti pergerakan yang kita tengok hari ini. Di mana harga USD140 se barrel turun kepada USD70 . Pada masa itu harga minyak adalah hanya antara USD12 dan USD15 sahaja. Pada masa itu hasil negara kita, hasil kerajaan negara kita tidak rely kepada hasil daripada Petronas kita tidak hanya lebih kurang 10% sahaja. Tidak macam hari ini di mana Petronas sumbangannya lebih kurang 46.4% daripada kesemua hasil negara kita. So situasi sudah tidak sama. Tidak boleh gunakan isu 1997 untuk 2009. Terima kasih.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Crime Rising in Selangor
There has been increasing concern over the recent months over the crime rates in the country, especially in Klang Valley and urban areas.
On May 27, 25 year old internet marketeer Chin Xin-Ci had a meat cleaver pressed against her throat before being shoved into the car in an attempted kidnap and car robbery in The Curve. On June 7, teacher Teoh Soo Kim was found at the Talam oil palm estate in Kuala Selangor after she had been abducted from Bandar Kinrara, beaten up and her car stolen. Two days later, Bersih steering committee member Wong Chin Huat was left with a bloody face after being assaulted while jogging in Petaling Jaya in the morning. There is no doubt that there are many other unreported cases.
However, the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had said that the recent cases of violent crime were “isolated”. He said “blowing a few cases out of proportion would create a perception that Malaysia was unsafe country, when official data showed otherwise”.
The problem is, when we request for official detailed crime statistics from the Minister, such statistics are not at all forthcoming. This was not the case before 2009 when detailed statistics were readily made available to Members of Parliament.
I’ve finally received the official reply from the Home Minister to my written answer question posed in the March 2012 parliamentary session after more than 3 months of waiting. And yet, the answers are intentionally incomplete so as to give the people an incomplete picture of the real crime situation. I’ve posed the same questions to the Minister on several other parliamentary sessions over the past 2 years, and each time, I get the same reply with very little information.
In this latest question, I’ve asked for a detailed breakdown of crime statistics broken down by districts (Petaling Jaya, Klang, Serdang etc.) and type of crime (Violent crime: murder, rape, armed robbery, unarmed robbery, assault; Property theft: Motor vehicles, snatch theft, burglary etc.) in Selangor for each year since 2006.
The Minister has refused to provide the relevant detailed breakdowns. Instead, he gave only the total number of violent crime and property theft for each of these years. There was no further breakdown by districts in Selangor or by type of crime.
I’ve also asked that the same national statistics be given, broken down by states and type of crime. However, the Minister once again gave only the total number of crime incidence for the entire country since 2006. He refused to break it down by states, or by the type of crime.
Clearly Najib’s administration is trying to provide only positive looking summary data to improve the perception of his government. PEMANDU does the exact same thing by obfuscating crime data which will give a positive perception to the Government in its National Key Result Area (NKRA) reports. For example, one will not be able to find any of the above data which I’ve requested in PEMANDU’s Annual Report in 2010 for the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) on the NKRA on Crime.
Despite that, with the little data that is provided in the latest parliamentary reply, we could already tell that crime is once again on the rise, especially in Selangor. In 2010, the total number of violent crimes in Selangor was 7,853 cases but has increased to 8,141 cases in 2011. Similarly, the total number of theft cases increased from 31,838 to 36,161 cases over the same period. In total, the crime index for Selangor has worsened by 11.6% from 39,691 to 44,302!
This is despite the fact that many major cities in the Klang Valley has been turned into “war zones” with barricades, security checkpoints and boom-gates set up in various residential zones at the residents’ own expense. These private security measures have contributed to significantly reducing crime incidence in these areas.
The above data proves that there are many possible areas of weakness in the Government’s fight against crime which it is trying to hide from the public. While the overall crime levels may have dropped from 2009 to 2010 due to the initial flurry of police activities after the NKRA on crime was launched, it appears that crime is definitively on the rise again in 2011, and could have increased further in 2012.
We call on the Government to be completely transparent with its crime data. In fact, the latest annual report of the Royal Malaysian Police which can be downloaded from their website is the 2008 copy.
There is absolutely no point of the Home Minister and PEMANDU singing praises of the Government with half-truths and blaming the people’s real fear of crime on “perception”. Instead, the Government should tackle the serious crime issue head on, by recognizing the increase in crime, especially in Selangor and announce the necessary steps to halt the deteriorating circumstances.
On May 27, 25 year old internet marketeer Chin Xin-Ci had a meat cleaver pressed against her throat before being shoved into the car in an attempted kidnap and car robbery in The Curve. On June 7, teacher Teoh Soo Kim was found at the Talam oil palm estate in Kuala Selangor after she had been abducted from Bandar Kinrara, beaten up and her car stolen. Two days later, Bersih steering committee member Wong Chin Huat was left with a bloody face after being assaulted while jogging in Petaling Jaya in the morning. There is no doubt that there are many other unreported cases.
However, the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had said that the recent cases of violent crime were “isolated”. He said “blowing a few cases out of proportion would create a perception that Malaysia was unsafe country, when official data showed otherwise”.
The problem is, when we request for official detailed crime statistics from the Minister, such statistics are not at all forthcoming. This was not the case before 2009 when detailed statistics were readily made available to Members of Parliament.
I’ve finally received the official reply from the Home Minister to my written answer question posed in the March 2012 parliamentary session after more than 3 months of waiting. And yet, the answers are intentionally incomplete so as to give the people an incomplete picture of the real crime situation. I’ve posed the same questions to the Minister on several other parliamentary sessions over the past 2 years, and each time, I get the same reply with very little information.
In this latest question, I’ve asked for a detailed breakdown of crime statistics broken down by districts (Petaling Jaya, Klang, Serdang etc.) and type of crime (Violent crime: murder, rape, armed robbery, unarmed robbery, assault; Property theft: Motor vehicles, snatch theft, burglary etc.) in Selangor for each year since 2006.
The Minister has refused to provide the relevant detailed breakdowns. Instead, he gave only the total number of violent crime and property theft for each of these years. There was no further breakdown by districts in Selangor or by type of crime.
I’ve also asked that the same national statistics be given, broken down by states and type of crime. However, the Minister once again gave only the total number of crime incidence for the entire country since 2006. He refused to break it down by states, or by the type of crime.
Clearly Najib’s administration is trying to provide only positive looking summary data to improve the perception of his government. PEMANDU does the exact same thing by obfuscating crime data which will give a positive perception to the Government in its National Key Result Area (NKRA) reports. For example, one will not be able to find any of the above data which I’ve requested in PEMANDU’s Annual Report in 2010 for the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) on the NKRA on Crime.
Despite that, with the little data that is provided in the latest parliamentary reply, we could already tell that crime is once again on the rise, especially in Selangor. In 2010, the total number of violent crimes in Selangor was 7,853 cases but has increased to 8,141 cases in 2011. Similarly, the total number of theft cases increased from 31,838 to 36,161 cases over the same period. In total, the crime index for Selangor has worsened by 11.6% from 39,691 to 44,302!
This is despite the fact that many major cities in the Klang Valley has been turned into “war zones” with barricades, security checkpoints and boom-gates set up in various residential zones at the residents’ own expense. These private security measures have contributed to significantly reducing crime incidence in these areas.
The above data proves that there are many possible areas of weakness in the Government’s fight against crime which it is trying to hide from the public. While the overall crime levels may have dropped from 2009 to 2010 due to the initial flurry of police activities after the NKRA on crime was launched, it appears that crime is definitively on the rise again in 2011, and could have increased further in 2012.
We call on the Government to be completely transparent with its crime data. In fact, the latest annual report of the Royal Malaysian Police which can be downloaded from their website is the 2008 copy.
There is absolutely no point of the Home Minister and PEMANDU singing praises of the Government with half-truths and blaming the people’s real fear of crime on “perception”. Instead, the Government should tackle the serious crime issue head on, by recognizing the increase in crime, especially in Selangor and announce the necessary steps to halt the deteriorating circumstances.
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Official Invite to Datuk Chua Tee Yong to Visit BN Land Grab Sites
Datuk Chua Tee Yong has proven himself to be obsessed with “land scandals” especially in Selangor.
The independent audit by the international reputable auditing firm, KPMG as well as the Selangor state government White Paper tabled at the latest state assembly sitting proving beyond doubt that the Government under the leadership of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has collected back every single sen of the RM392 million debt oustanding from Talam Corporation. These debts were incurred during the reign of Barisan Nasional (BN) and was never collected while BN wa in power.
Despite the above, Datuk Chua is remarkably persistent in his jihad to find the elusive needle in the haystack to prove his RM1 billion non-existent land scandal in Selangor under Pakatan Rakyat.
Given his insatiable quest for “land scandals” in Selangor and the obvious need to lead the ineffective Selangor MCA leadership, I would like to offer the perfect opportunity to Datuk Chua to uncover the real land scandals in Selangor.
I would like to invite Datuk Chua Tee Yong, the MCA “land scandals” and accounting expert, to jointly visit the 24 parcels of state land which which were given to Barisan Nasional component parties – UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan – between 2000 and 2008. These pieces of land were transferred to BN parties for nominal sums despite being worth in excess of RM200 million.
Selangor Barisan Nasional component parties have been quick to defend the land-grab despite the obvious corruption, abuse of power and conflict of interests involved. Selangor UMNO Information Chief Abdul Shukor Idrus, who is also the state assemblyman for Kuang who argued that “what’s wrong with giving the land to UMNO” as reward for the “contributions by UMNO in fighting for indepedence and developing this country”.
MCA Selangor Secretary and ADUN for Kuala Kubu Baru, Datuk Wong Koon Mun agreed with is UMNO colleague, claiming that there’s nothing wrong with alienating land to MCA, by comparing the political party to “temples and schools” which were also given land on the cheap. Wong even added that the sites served as de facto centres for community life, including as community hall and even as schools and kindergartens, in lieu of purpose-built buildings.
The joint bi-partisan visits to the 24 sites will confirm if the land given to UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan were indeed utilised for the “community” or were they a clear cut abuse of power to profit the party and its cronies.
During the site visit with DAP state assembly persons, Ng Suee Lim and Hannah Yeoh to a 87,188 square feet piece of land in Ara Damansara given to UMNO Bahagian Subang yesterday, we found no kindergarten or community hall for use by local residents. Instead we found a 200-unit condominium – Suria Damansara Condominium worth more than RM500 million when it was first launched in 2006.
The purpose of the site visits will be:
1. To confirm if these sites were indeed used for the community, or were they like the UMNO land above, sold or developed commercially for profit.
2. Where profit was made – 23 out of the 24 pieces of land were commercial land – to determine how much profit did UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan made from these land, as a result of getting them dirt cheap from the BN state government
It is critical for Datuk Chua to agree to the joint site visits to prove that there is no element of corruption and abuse of power by BN in the award of these land to themselves, and more important there was zero element of profit resulting from the above transactions.
And if the bi-partisan visits are able to prove that UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan have profited hundreds of millions of ringgit from these “land scandals”, then as the shining light within MCA fighting for justice for Selangorians and integrity in Government, Datuk Chua must declare that all the unethically obtained profits must be returned to the Selangor state government for the benefit of her citizens.
If not, then it will be unfortunate that Datuk Chua will prove himself as another dye-in-the-wool hypocrite from MCA and Barisan Nasional, who seeks only to protect his own interest and that of his party, at the expense of the ordinary man-on-the-street.
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