Recently, the past has fast cascaded into the present – or to be more
specific, the Mahathir past cascading into the Najib present.
Today the High Court in Kuala Lumpur…
Recently, the past has fast cascaded into the present – or to be more
specific, the Mahathir past cascading into the Najib present.
Today the High Court in Kuala Lumpur fixed March 5 to decide whether
to end the multi-billion ringgit legal battle between Malaysian Airlines
(MAS) and Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli, by striking out MAS’ mega claims
against Tajudin as well as his RM500 million counter-claim against the
government and the national carrier.
Tajudin has been entangled in a complicated series of expensive
suits, countersuits and appeals with various parties arising from his
failure to service a billion ringgit loan he took to purchase a major
stake in MAS in 1994.
Tajudin was the executive chairman of the airline from 1994 to 2001.
In 2002, MAS lodged its first police report against Tajuddin,
accusing him of allegedly causing the flag carrier to suffer losses in
excess of RM8 billion.
According to a report to the Anti-Corruption Agency, a major
contributor to the record losses under Tajudin was the relocation of
MAS’s cargo operation in Amsterdam and Frankfurt to a single hub in
Hahn, Germany, where the airline was forced to enter into a
disadvantageous aircraft lease contract with a company, which was later
linked to Tajudin’s family.
The new cargo hub operation had caused MAS to suffer losses of
between RM10 million and RM16 million a month before the project was
terminated after the government regained control of MAS in 2001.
The termination resulted in a RM300 million arbitration claim against MAS by the company.
MAS has had a turbulent past decade after the government bought back
the airline from the former corporate high-flyer at RM8 per share or
about double the market price at the time. The airline was at the time
saddled with a debt reported to be RM9.5 billion.
In 2009, Danaharta and two of its subsidiaries won a RM589.143
million suit against Tajudin. The case arose after the tycoon borrowed
RM1.792 billion from a group of syndicated lenders in1994 to purchase a
32 per cent stake in MAS.
However, from 1994 to 1998 he failed to service the original loan, causing it to become a non-performing loan (NPL).
In 1998, Danaharta acquired the NPL from the lenders but Tajudin also
failed to settle his debts to Danaharta until it was in default of
RM1.41 billion as at October 8, 2001.
As part of a settlement agreement, Tajudin was to pay RM942 million
in four instalments over three years and that he was permitted to redeem
his charged shares at a minimum price per share.
Tajudin, however, defaulted in the payment of the quarterly interest
payable under the settlement agreement and on April 27, 2002, the
plaintiffs terminated the settlement agreement and demanded RM1.61
billion from him.
On April 29, 2002, Danaharta, together with its subsidiaries
Danaharta Urus Sdn Bhd and Danaharta Managers Sdn Bhd, sold part of the
charged shares consisting entirely of Technology Resources Industries
(TRI) shares at RM2.75 per share, resulting in total proceeds of
RM717.39 million.
As at December 31, 2005, the amount outstanding was RM589.14 million
and on May 11, 2006, Danaharta and the subsidiaries commenced action to
recover the money. The national asset management company won its case
against Tajudin in 2009.
But the ex-MAS chief filed a counter suit claiming RM13.46 billion from some 22 parties and individuals.
Tajudin alleged, in his affidavit, that he was directed by former
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former Finance Minister Tun Daim
Zainudin in 1994 to buy a controlling stake in MAS to bail out the
government.
Tajudin had claimed that former premier Mahathir had made him buy MAS
to help bail out Bank Negara after the central bank suffered massive
foreign exchange losses due partly to speculation in foreign currency
markets as a “national service” with an “Overriding Agreement” to
indemnify him against any losses suffered.
Although Tajudin’s claim has been denied by Mahathir, the former Prime Minister’s rebuttal has little credibility.
Last August, Putrajaya intervened and commenced action to put an end
to the controversial legal battle by ordering all suits against Tajudin
to be dropped.
On February 14, Danaharta and Tajudin reached “out-of-court
settlement”, the terms of which remain confidential between the two
parties, where all suits pertaining to the RM589.14 million that Tajudin
was ordered to pay to the firm in 2009, would be dropped and Tajudin
agreed to withdraw a total of 27 appeals, 11 against Danaharta.
The question, whether the RM580 million out-of-court “renunciation”
of Tajudin’s debts is proof that Malaysians today are still paying for
the RM100 billion financial scandals perpetrated in the 22 years of
Mahathir premiership, has been asked but not answered.
There is now the seccond question – whether a settlement of the
multi-billion ringgit litigation between MAS and Tajudin, with the
striking out of their mutual claims against each other, would also be in
consequence of the same factors and forces resulting in the government
“surrender” of the RM580 million court judgment against Tajudin?
It is indeed time to revisit the RM100 billion “black hole” created
by Mahathir’s financial scandals in his 22 years of premiership,
especially if the present generation of Malaysians are to pay for the
sins of Mahathir’s past premiership.
There can be no better start to revisit Mahathir’s financial scandals
in his 22 year as Prime Minister than to refer to Chapter 6
“Scandal, What Scandal?” of Barry Wain’s
“Malaysian Maverick – Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times”, which started with the following two paragraphs:
“Dr. Mahathir’s administration took office in 1981 with
the slogan bersih, cekap amanah – clean, efficient, trustworthy. Almost
immediately, however, it became embroiled in financial scandals that
exploded with startling regularity, some of them truly spectacular. A
few were of an order of magnitude that could have bankrupted most
developing countries. But tropical Malaysia was generously endowed with
natural resources, notably offshore hydrocarbon deposits, and commanded
by a leader committed to rapid development. The expanding economy
absorbed the shock of much of the dissipated wealth, and where
necessary, the gaps left by the missing billions were plugged with the
proceeds of oil and gas exports.
“Almost all the scandals involved the government directly, or senior
officials and businessmen closely connected to UMNO. In some cases,
impropriety – whether illegal or merely ill-advised – was officially
authorized or condoned for an allegedly higher purpose. Public funds
were stolen in various ways, or simply poured into a big black hole in
the name of ventures that bordered on the reckless, improbable or
criminal. The extent of the losses – and in some cases the way the
money disappeared – was never fully documented. Dr. Mahathir’s
administration generally did not hold Malaysians accountable for the
financial disasters, and often laid the blame on others. By the early
1990s cynics remarked that it had been a good decade for bad behavior,
or a bad decade for good behavior.”
In this chapter, Barry Wain estimated that Mahathir’s financial scandals would have created ”a big black hole” of RM100 billion.
With the Mahathir past fast cascading into the Najib present whether
because of the MAS “double bail-outs” triggered by the 1992/3 RM30
billion Bank Negara forex scandal, they are all powerful reasons
demanding full accounting for the RM100 billion “black hole” caused by
Mahathir’s financial scandals of 22 years.
A man was being held by police on Monday after allegedly trying to set fire to his grown-up daughter in central Paris.
