YOURSAY ‘WSJ is merely stating what Malaysians have already known.'
WSJ: Najib used 1MDB's funds for GE13
Kim Quek:
The 500 percent overpricing in 1MDB’s RM2.3 billion purchase of a power plant from Genting may be mind-boggling to many, but it is only the tip of an iceberg of the massive haemorrhage of public funds through the so-called sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, which had accumulated debts of RM42 billion by March 2014.
On power plants alone, 1MDB paid a total of RM18 billion; many of these deals were with IPPs (independent power producers) that concessionaires will soon expire.
Why buy them in the first place when the government can have them for free upon the concessionaire’s expiry? How much of these are really worth buying?
Why buy them in such urgency for which 1MDB had to pay unheard-of exorbitant financing costs if it was not to meet BN’s financial handout for the imminent GE13?
What is even more mind-boggling is that every one of such so-called investments or deals was supposed to be personally approved by PM Najib Razak, according to the 1MDB’s M&A (memorandum & articles of association).
On this particular allegation by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), perhaps Najib can enlighten us with his clarification or will he continue to do his usual shadowboxing?
SRMan: 1MDB bought the power assets at a much-inflated price. The seller then 'donated' back a part of the money to a charity.
Najib being the chairperson of the charity then used a large part of the funds to finance his election campaign in Penang. So in effect, the nasi kandar, beer, satay as well as 'goodwill money' for the voters then were all actually taxpayers' monies.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. What about the other purchases? The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should look into this thoroughly.
Abu Iman: If that is the case, Umno used 'haram' money to win GE13.
Swipenter: One would have thought that Umno would have huge piles of slush funds stashed away for use in elections.
Perhaps their slush funds had also vanished into thin air too, which is not surprising given their unmitigated avarice for all the good things in life.
So a smart alec came out with this idea of 1MBD purchasing assets at overinflated prices and in return, the sellers made political funds to Umno/Najib in the form of multimillion ringgit donations to their appointed charities.
What about the RM24 billion channelled to PFI (private finance initiative)? It would be naive to assume that there were no leakages to personal accounts from these "donations".
Whether the source of these donations was ‘haram’ or ‘halal’ is unimportant. What is important was to win the GE13 at all costs and make the rakyat pay for it later using Goods and Services Tax (GST) and subsidies removal schemes.
Tumbling oil prices threw a spanner in their clever scheme, and they bit off more than they could swallow.
Odin Tajué: The acquisition of the power companies at well above their market worth doubtless raised the suspicion in many of the deal being fishy.
As those of we who have brains between our ears all know, the dubious dealings are not limited to the acquisition alone.
And now that we know one of the reasons for the acquisition of the power companies was to raise party funds, we can be 99.9999% certain that the other reason for it as well as for all the other dubious dealings was to enlarge the private wealth of certain people.
Anonymous_1421406986: Now they have come with another theory, another assumption but bereft of facts.
We have an elderly politician who has fallen for these lies and decided to make more of his own to keep Malaysians entertained.
We have come to a point where we do not know what is true or false, but we happily share them with anyone who bothers to listen to us. Step into any place where people gather for meals, someone is certain to raise it.
Abasir: Former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad was not exactly spot on when he said that this man's actions were "verging on criminal". His actions were criminal and will continue to be so as he desperately uses his office to cover his tracks.
Anticonmen: These corrupt politicians and government servants have many middlemen, lawyers, stakeholders, runners, collectors and facilitators, who act as go-betweens to collect the money and help launder them overseas.
Trillions have been laundered since Mahathir removed all checks and balances one by one in the name of New Economic Policy (NEP), agama, bangsa and negara .
Many of the cybertroopers are actually runners and middlemen who owe allegiance to their master.
Jesse: This is typical Umno Baru’s way of running the nation - wheeling and dealing to benefit themselves. In this case, get cheap assets from rakyat, use it to raise money, buy overpriced assets to benefit cronies who then make big donations, after which spend like there is no tomorrow.
There is no accounting for all the squandering and corrupt practices, and no government institutions dare to act despite breaches of the law. This sort of corrupt practice is now become the norm.
The opposition has been hammering away at it but to no avail. The nation's wealth is squandered and depleted under Umno Baru with the complicity of its BN partners. Imagine all that money that could have been used towards developing the nation.
We would have been a developed nation by now. Why or why are we still allowing this mob to ruin the nation?
Wira: WSJ is merely stating what is already known to Malaysians.
To get, say RM10 million, to the voters, more than 10 times that amount must be spent to allow for thieves and leakages so that a trickle may flow to the voters.
I believe that is the key underlying reason why 1MDB is in such a bad shape today.
No wonder PM’s 1MDB reports were closed-door
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