[Opinions] Readers Views

This is a comment posted by one of our blog readers, thought I’d share it with everyone to read. It was originally posted in response to my article Asas Serba; the Forum on Rationalisation of Subsidies

His blog can be found at: Sarawak Headhunter

Sarawak Headhunter wrote:

After the first privatisation failed, how is it possible that a second privatisation, by parties who were involved in that first privatisation, is even being considered by the government? Hasn’t the government learnt its lesson? Or are we about to witness another Great Highway Robbery about to take place? ALL at the expense of the Malaysian taxpayer and tollpayer.

Ibrahim Bidin was instrumental in helping Halim to rob Plus – on behalf of Daim Zainuddin, Mahathir and UMNO – it must be said, and to cover up that robbery as well.

Even if Halim really isn’t involved this time, what about Daim Zainuddin on behalf of Najib? This is not mere speculation, as Sarawak Headhunter will make clear below. Halim was in any event nothing more than a highly-paid glorified nominee for Daim Zainuddin. The pertinent question now is who is Ibrahim Bidin going to be a highly-paid glorified nominee for?

With the kind of cashflow that Plus has, they can very well afford to cut the toll rates, but we better believe that they are not going to do anyone any favours by doing this, palatable though it may sound – it is just a trick.

They will undoubtedly get much more back from the extension of the concession period, but then again we must not be so naive as to believe that they will wait for the extension period to commence the robbery.

The robbery will commence immediately and will go into full gear when they can leverage the future earnings from the toll collections over the extended concession period. This was partly how it was done earlier. The same modus operandi will probably be used again.

How else would Najib maintain his power and position in UMNO? And how else would Najib and UMNO be able to steal the next General Elections from Pakatan Rakyat?

The vast amounts of money (tens of billions) which Daim Zainuddin siphoned off from Plus and other corporate vehicles – which were supposed to be UMNO’s but became only UMNO-linked through nominees like Halim Saad after the deliberate demise of the old UMNO (masterfully engineered by Zaki Tun Azmi) – was what kept Mahathir and UMNO in power for so long.

Now Najib out of desperation is trying to steal a page from this old book so that both he and UMNO can stay in power.

How much Daim Zainuddin used for this purpose and how much he kept for himself is another story. As far as Sarawak Headhunter is concerned, Daim Zainuddin is Malaysian Public Enemy no. 1 (Mahathir is only no. 2 and Taib Mahmud no. 3).

The tens of billions which they intend to rob through this and other piratisation schemes will be used to bribe the whole hierarchy of UMNO to maintain the status quo during each UMNO party elections and also the Malaysian voters as a whole during general elections.

Moves are right now being put into motion for Najib’s men to take over all the money-making apparatus of the Government, especially Khazanah and PETRONAS.

According to the executives, however, it could form part of a new plan where the government would divest some of the assets of government-linked companies like United Engineers and Slime Darby to private hands.

Don’t say we were not warned or we were not aware of what they planned to do. They have already done it under Mahathir’s regime and they will continue to do it under Najib’s regime.

This 2nd Great Highway Robbery will be done in broad daylight, in full view of the Malaysian public and will be executed by these executive nominees like Ibrahim Bidin with the connivance of a compliant administration and lawyers, accountants, merchant bankers, stock brokers and supposed government regulators as co-conspirators.

All will be done in the name of “Malay” interests and anyone who denounces it will be counter-denounced as a “traitor” to the Malay race.

This is “kacang” as they say, after all don’t they also control the banks and other government investment agencies who would be more than willing to fund it, since they can justify – at least on paper – its viability? Paper losses will be taken care of later of course – the theory being that since they will still control Parliament and thus the Federal Government, this will also be “kacang”.

Peanuts to them, hundreds of billions to the rest of the Malaysian people.

Will enough number of Malaysian voters continue to be fooled or bribed into giving these crooks – who hide behind the name of the Malays and Islam – yet another mandate in the coming Sarawak State Elections or in the next General Elections?

Take note of this key word – “leveraged”. The mastermind behind all this was not Halim but Daim Zainuddin.

The amount of Renong’s losses was close to RM25 billion. How could a conglomerate with assets of over RM40 billion rack up debts or rather losses of close to RM25 billion? This was the amount that was siphoned off by Daim Zainuddin, less maybe a couple of billion for mismanagement expenses.

When the government finally took over UEM, it wasn’t a simple matter of losing patience, the government nationalisation was the cover-up. Hasn’t anyone wondered why with the government taking over, the tolls still kept on increasing, the reason always being given that otherwise the government would would have to compensate the toll operator?

If the government now owns the toll operator, why would it have to compensate itself?

The answer is that they are still covering up, now using government money – the people’s money – of course, the latest “compensation” recoverable as at 30th June this year being RM2.18 billion, according to this report in the Star.

Only in Malaysia could the ruling elites have engineered such a perfect crime and get away with it and still lay claim to the gratitude of the Malays in whose name it was committed but who have benefited only marginally.

But sooner or later they will have to answer for all that they have done. Judgment Day will come and they may find themselves on the Highway to Hell. The toll will be their souls.

The latest heard of Halim is that he has teamed up with another former Daim Zainuddin nominee, Samsuddin Abu Hassan. Is Daim still pulling their strings and also that of Ibrahim Bidin?

Keep a watch out Malaysia, be very very careful and ever vigilant!

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