normanfernandez

POLITICS. QUESTIONS MALAYSIANS WANT DR. MAHATHIR TO ANSWER.

For a man who held in complete contempt anyone who dared to question his policies and decisions, it comes at a complete surprise that in retirement Tun Dr Mahathir has suddenly taken the high moral ground and is now unrelenting in his pursuit for answers for decisions taken by the present government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Since Tun Dr Mahathir demands answers, it is only right and justified that the same ordinary public which he now claims to be part of also requires him to answers the following questions :

QUESTIONS FOR MAHATHIR

1. What was the basis of inviting Libyan-American Sadeq Mustaffa to Malaysia to set up InventQjaya Sdn Bhd and to also give a grant of RM440 million? What was the benefit for Malaysia and how has Malaysia benefitted?


2. What was the justification for privatizing profitable state owned enterprises like Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional and Pos Malaysia?


3. What was the basis of granting Indah Water Konsortium a concession to manage the national sewerage system? Could you explain the RM1.4 billion soft loan to IWK which is clearly irrecoverable losses?


4. You insinuate Khairy Jamaluddin. Did you not assist your son Mirzan by rescuing Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad (then owned by Mirzan) and which had debts of RM1.7 billion using funds from Petronas? Was it not your administration which forced Malaysian International Shipping Company (MISC) to acquire the assets of Konsortium Perkapalan Nasional?


5. Did your government not sell Malaysian Airline System without an open tender to Tajuddin Ramli who had no knowledge whatsoever in running an airline? Why did your government bail out Tajuddin Ramli by paying RM8 per share when the shares were trading at RM3.60 in the open market.


6. Did your administration not bail out Time DotCom Bhd which was saddled with a RM5 billion debt? Why did your government bail out Time dotCom Bhd by using RM904 million from Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen to buy up 273.9 million unwanted Time dotcom shares incurring an instant loss of RM280 million?


7. Did you not force Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to buy 81.6 million unsubscribed public portion of the initial public offering (IPO) of Time Dotcom Bhd at RM 3.30 per share when the shares were trading at only between RM1.95 and RM2.10 and in the process incurring an instant loss of RM100 million?


8. Did you not bail out the light rail transit operators Projek Usahasama Transit Ringan Automatik Sdn Bhd (Putra) which belonged to Renong and Sistem Transit Aliran Ringan Sdn Bhd (STAR) using almost RM600 million from EPF which still resulted in EPF having to write off RM135 million and a share loss of RM96million?


9. Did your administration not award North South Expressway concession to UEM (who then formed PLUS) and then provide them with a loan of RM1.6 billion which was half of the tender price of RM3.2 billion. What was the justification in your administration grant PLUS such overgenerous terms which included annual increment of toll rates, guaranteed traffic volumes?


10. What was the justification of your administration in 1998 in awarding the RM24.3 Billion contract to PSC Industries Berhad, together with and an advancement of more than RM2.5 Billion to build naval patrol boats? Why were they also given exclusive rights to service the Malaysian navy’s entire fleet? Could you confirm that the first two ships built by PSCI could not even pass pre-delivery trials? How would you answer to the Public Accounts Committee’s revelation that it will cost the government another RM120 million just to salvage the first two vessels nearing completion after seven years?


11. What was the basis of awarding Ekran Bhd the contract to build the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam in sarawak? Why did your administration take over the construction of the Dam by bailing out Ekran by almost RM 200 Million for “work done”?


12. What was the justification for your administration in MAMINCO to corner the London tin market which instead resulted in MAMINCO losing RM150 million?


13. Was your administration not vitriolic about George Soros and other currency traders and hedge fund managers and yet presided over speculation in the foreign exchange markets which ultimately cost Bank Negara almost RM9.3 billion losses?


14. What are the total losses of Perwaja Steel and how much of public funds have been used to cover these losses of Perwaja Steel?


15. What was the basis for your administration, at the expense of Malaysian tax payers, to force Tenaga Nasional Berhad toaccept such grossly unfair and unjustified terms in purchasing energy from independent power producers?


16. What was the justification of privatizing government medical stores to Southern Task Sdn Bhd which then hiked up the price of medicines?


17. Perhaps you could reveal how much of Petronas monies have been used by your administration in bailouts and projects of folly.

Naturally there are many more questions the Malaysian public would want answers to but answering these questions first would be a good start.

This article first appeared in Malaysiakini July 5, 2006.

Norman Fernandez
Johor Bahru.