MAHATHIR THE “ BILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN ? ”

In recent days Raja Petra and Datuk Seri Najib have been posting some interesting articles on their social media platforms. https://www.malaysia-today.net/2020/07/05/dr-mahathirs-rm200-billion-business-empire-before-1mdb/  &  https://www.facebook.com/157851205951/posts/10157183319445952/

 

These articles are about the most successful businessman ever to live in Malaysia but many Malaysians still don’t know much of this business empire, while some were not even born yet at that era. Before we analyse the details of this man’s business empire let’s quickly fast forward to the recent Pakatan Harapan’s 22-month reign of incompetence after the GE14. During this period we saw the emergence of former New Straits Times editor A KADIR JASIN - who often would chime in as his capacity as the Media Advisor for the coalition. Long before he became a media advisor, Kadir Jasin has been a proxy for the most hard-working billionaire businessman of Malaysia. As others especially the Malays according to this billionaire are just plain lazy.

A well-known blogger, Kadir Jasin is also known for his loyalty not just to former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir but also to Tun Daim Zainuddin, often coming in with all the right noises from time to time. While we all know he did not do a good job considering how Pakatan Harapan was consistently torn apart by the local media from all sides, one must wonder why he’s still relevant despite being a retired media practitioner. Based on new evidence that has appeared and including Kadir’s own confession on hi FB account (which he later removed) he has been holding wealth on behalf of a certain person.  And that person is non other than Tun Dr Mahathir under camouflage of the political party UMNO.

 

Recently, details regarding Kadir Jasin’s shareholding of MRCB (Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad) during the golden days of crony capitalism in the 90’s surfaced online, suggesting that he was not just a mouthpiece of Tun Dr Mahathir, but one of his proxies and cronies as well.

In a now-deleted post, Kadir Jasin highlighted that he was a proxy shareholder of MRCB for UMNO from 1993 until 2000, during which MRCB was part of many projects and owned various assets from banks, power producers, engineering companies, to media outlets like NSTP and TV3. What assets was Kadir Jasin controlling for Mahathir back then through his stake in MRCB? Here is a list that Datuk Seri Najib Razak has shared in his article :

- close to a hundred construction, engineering and manufacturing companies

- 23% stake in RHB Bank

- the Ipoh-Lumut toll highway

- 30% of Port Dickson Power (IPP)

- 25% of Malakoff Berhad (IPP)

- 44% of NSTP media company

- 50% of TV3

- entire KL Sentral project

- Emartel (013) telecommunication company

 

Besides these assets under Kadir Jasin, in the other article by Raja Petra, he mentioned that Halim Saad, Tajudin Ramli , Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary, the late Yahaya Ahmad and also Samsuddin Abu Hassan were also all proxies of Tun Mahathir which were controlling various companies, projects and assets worth up to RM200 Billion Ringgit. Various recent court case testimonies and other details have emerged to support this claim. Has any other Malaysian been as rich or successful as this?

Former Minister of Finance DS Anwar Ibrahim once highlighted how he once helped MRCB to a few slices of the economic pie with various projects during the late 90’s - including the KL Sentral project then. More than 20 years later, we are still revisiting a chapter of Malaysia’s illustrious story on crony capitalism.

 

While Kadir Jasin stressed that he was just the proxy shareholder of UMNO, what he did not mention was who were the other significant shareholders. A quick look at the financials of MRCB from 1999 will show three main shareholders are listed alongside Kadir Jasin, one Dato’ Abdul Rahman Maidin and one Realmild Sdn Bhd. Many may not recall that Realmild was a constant feature in political gossips in the late 90’s as it was a suspected SPV for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who owns 70% of the company. (https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/146806?fbclid=IwAR0QctssYVQRY3fdJbWJjcqfjtPIdXL-q-rP3EYTlf3jLTHQ9X9xoeAsZyM  published on 29^th October 2010)

This brings us to the bigger question: was A Kadir Jasin a proxy to UMNO or Tun Dr Mahathir?

If we were to conclude that Kadir Jasin was in fact a proxy shareholder not to UMNO, but to Tun Dr Mahathir himself, just imagine the wealth that he managed to strip off from the rakyat when MRCB divested from many of its holdings and assets. One must wonder the level of wrath the rakyat would have had if social media were to exist back then and if the public knew about all this. And this is the same Kadir Jasin who consistently talks about kleptocracy.

 

At the end of his shareholding of MRCB in 2000, Kadir Jasin did point out that he did not transfer the MRCB shares back to UMNO, but to a third party. While Kadir Jasin painted the story as though he was just lending a helping hand to the then government, or even Tun Dr Mahathir, it is illogical to think that he did not receive at least a slice of the pie by being a “proxy shareholder”.

It should be expensive after all, to have one of the nation’s top editor to be your mouthpiece and proxy shareholder.

 

These days, Kadir Jasin is more interested in attacking DS Najib Razak and painting him as a kleptocrat, when he himself enabled a former Prime Minister and participated alongside him to prop up a kleptocratic regime. The wheels always turn, and Kadir Jasin would do well to remember the plethora of kleptocracy during Mahathir’s first tenure: from Maminco, Perwaja, Bank Bumi, Bakun dam, the daylight robbery of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, etc. And Mahathir is also famous to many other failed projects and bailouts :

At his current age Kadir Jasin should reflect on how he helped to maintain one of Malaysia’s most notorious case of nepotism by helping Mahathir to hoard the wealth of the nation for him and his family. Some experts say that the entire Mahathir family has a net worth of more than USD40 billion, highly unlikely for this to be the result of hard work, and high contrast to the living standards of most Malaysians. It is utterly insulting for Kadir to think that the rakyat will just gloss over these issues - whole many of us deplore Najib Razak for the alleged corruption that happened during his tenure, we all remember how it was when Mahathir reigned supreme. In fact a common question in social circles among Malaysian businessmen is which Tun is richer…Mahathir or Daim Zainuddin? While many believed Daim was the obvious correct answer, the recent evidence and Kadir’s own FB posting suggests that Mahathir was in fact the richest billionaire ever in Malaysia. And this does not even include the wealth of his children.