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I read with horror the latest initiative by the government to stimulate the economy to overcome the global financial crisis that has now impacted on Malaysia.
Had the government listened to my warnings since December 2006 and prepared a comprehensive strategy in anticipation of the Global Financial Tsunami impacting on Malaysia, there would be no need for the patch work, ad hoc remedies now unfolding.
In the headlines of the Business Times Monday, it was reported that the government plans to use its assets to tap private sector funds to increase revenue that will support the economy amidst slower growth. The Director General of the Economic Planning Unit, Tan Sri Dr. Sulaiman Mahbob said that the monetisation approach will feature open tenders involving both the private sector and government linked companies to “maximise returns” to the government.
Assets identified thus far to implement the scheme are inter-alia, the Rubber Research Institute mammoth land bank in Sungai Buloh, as well as tracts of land in Jalan Cochrane and Jalan Ampang Hilir in Kuala Lumpur. These are the crown jewels of the government.
This scheme reminds me of Henry Paulson’s daylight robbery in aid of Wall Street fat cats. Recall some months ago, Paulson and Bernanke auctioned US Treasury bonds and later arranged swap facilities – the exchange of US treasuries for the junk bonds of the banks, so as to enable the banks, hedge funds etc. to use the treasuries as securities to raise funds to meet capital requirements.
This was done because, the assets of the banks, hedge funds etc. which were at one time rated AAA are all now rated junk and in many instances, worthless. Therefore these banks, hedge funds etc. have no capital assets to continue doing business and or to raise funds.
So Paulson used US government assets (i.e. treasuries) and literally gave them away to these corrupt banks and hedge funds to bail them out of their misery as a result of their greed and corruption.
The abovementioned scheme is but a variation of Paulson’s plunder of government assets to bailout Wall Street. Everyone in the property business has been eyeing these properties for years, but they failed to plunder this crown jewel because in the case of the Rubber Research Institute’s land in Sungai Buloh, it provides a green lung for the rakyat’s environmental health!
Now under the pretext of addressing the financial crisis and stimulating the economy, these robbers are plundering the assets of the taxpayers!
If the private sector as claimed by the Director-General is flushed with cash, and our fundamentals are strong and resilient, the private sector is more than capable to meet the financial crisis.
So what is the real situation?
First we have the Badawi Flip-Flop, now we have the EPU Flip-Flop. First we have the positive forecast that growth of 5% can be achieved in 2009 a few weeks ago, and then the same is revised by Najib in Parliament to 3.9% a week ago.
The government has been saying for months that everything is under control and our fundamentals strong and yet just a few days ago, the Second Finance Minister talks about surviving the crisis. So now it is a matter of survival!
Back to this land scheme – the “asset monetisation approach” – a fanciful name for plain property play, nothing more, nothing less.
The Malaysian property market is a bubble and very soon this bubble will burst. There is so much speculation in the property market that when the bubble burst, borrowers who signed up for adjustable rates will suffer the same fate as those in the USA and UK when prices plunged 30% to 40%.
NPLs will soar and our economy will tank!
Whoever is behind this devious scheme should be brought before Parliament and exposed to the full glare of a public debate whether government assets (tax-payers’ crown jewels) should be auctioned off to some greedy cronies of the Badawi regime.
Like Badawi, the Opposition is also sleeping and is totally oblivious to the daylight robbery – the last hurrah for the cronies before they retire to a life of luxury in Australia, UK, Swiss Alps and tax havens etc.
Tax-payers, you have been forewarned. Do something now, or be robbed to your bare bones. |
