MGG Pillai Commentary View

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How to be rich and successful, force others to believe that or make them bankrupt

A helicopter accident happened in Nibong Tebal on 30 March 2006. The newspapers reported how Dato' Patrick Lim was so sad about the loss of his friend, Mr Joseph Chan Sum Foo, the general manager of Abad Naluri Sdn Bhd, killed when the rotor blade struck him unexpectedly. Dato' Patrick is executive chairman of Equine Capital Berhad, and known to the cogniscenti as Patrick Badawi, and the Chinese face to his son's Scomi Berhad, one of whose subsidiaries has got the double tracking contract for Malaysian Railways. This company has no experience in rail way construction, but does it matter in Malaysia? Scomi came into the news a few years ago when the United States objected to Scomi making tubes for a Pakistani nuclear scientist for ultimate resale to Muslim countries of the Middle East as a component of nuclear weapons. here Front page photographs of Dato' Patrick crying over his friend's body near the helicopter are staged, but that is normal when they believe they are some body or want others to believe they are.

That is how Tan Sri Vincent Tan (remember him?) and others like him got into the press and into the public's mind. Today, no newspaper in Malaysia would carry reports that he shed tears in public as Dato' Patrick Lim did. Tan Sri Vincent and Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing sued me for not believing their spin meisters. I am prepared to believe them now they are business men of repute, as they demanded I should then, but are they now who they were then? Under the next prime minister, Dato' Patrick would be ignored. But the bankruptcy petitions against me would succed in the end. There is now an attempt to make me one. All because a business man and his lawyer are angry and upset they could not shut me up. They can make me a bankrupt, which they probably will in due course, but they will remain flawed forever.

Few in Malaysia would miss a chance to be in the good books of the politically powerful. Especially if it means they could be wealthy in the bargain. But they will almost lose their magic when a new prime minister takes over. It does not matter to them that others who followed this route in the past are forgotten now. They do not realise, or their spin meisters forget to tell them, they should complete their legal actions when their patron is prime minister. If I were to say today that Tan Sri Vincent is powerful under Pak Lah, I would be laughed at. And rightly so. The legal action Tan Sri Vincent brought against me still awaits a hearing in the Federal Court 12 years later, contrary to what he and his lawyer said then. But the case is stuck in the Federal Court , certainly longer than it has taken to issue the writ by stealth to the Court of Appeal decision. Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing did not proceed with his action in Miri in Sarawak after the initial steps, perverting justice in the process, and putting me to unnecessary and great expense. He is now in Kuching, ill and cannot move about though he makes his appearance daily at his new business venture. He is forgotten in Malaysia, his Ekran Bhd, which once was traded at more than 100 ringgit, is now a penny stock, as Tan Sri Vincent's Berjaya stock, which followed Ekran's route, is. It would be a foolhardy investor who bought either share on the stock market as investment.

Business men who succeed with political connections ignore their short live span to bring themselves down by taking to court those who do not believe that they are all powerful. Today, both Tan Sri Vincent and his lawyer try to bankrupt me, usually by getting other lawyers and even journalists to take bankruptcy petitions against me, to find a scapegoat for what their, or their spin meisters', actions brought brought upon themselves. I keep mentioning these two, although I have written likewise about others. But it stung these two to take legal action to shut me up. As it stings business men and companies who have flourished under Pak Lah.

So what is not said publicly about the helicopter mishap is more relevant for it shows the pattern. It is owned by Dato' Syed Azman bin Syed Ibrahim, who was given APs to import motor vehicles although he owns no motor showrooms. Since he is well-connected, this is obviously no hindrance. His house has a helipad, which no nouveau riche business man in Malaysia believe they could do without. There is one on the Promet building in Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur. The man who owned Promet then had another on his mansion. A business man is not considered successful then and now if he did not have a helipad. Today this business man does not own Promet and is out of the public eye. There are helipads in Malaysia built by former crony business men who bit the dust when their political patrols retired. It was no different when others were prime ministers of Malaysia or under the chief ministers of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia.

About ten years ago, Syed Azman's helicopter carried a Malaysian business man, Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad, which crashed in the Pahang jungles, killing him instantly. The then deputy prime minister, Dato' Anwar Ibrahim, should have been on that flight 20 years ago, but he arrived late and missed it. Dato' Syed Azman then bought another. He has now lost two helicopters – a small price for the riches he has accumulated as a result. This is not unusual. When Tun Mahathir was prime minister, one Chinese business man took his then VIP guests on a boat ride. He made his staff follow the boat in another so that its passengers would be comfortable in the seas. He would not do that today for he gets nothing in return. In fact, this business man is forgotten today, as he was not in those days.

When Pak Lah's son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, went to Tasek Bera in Pahang last year, as UMNO Youth's deputy head, he travelled in the helicoptor destroyed yesterday. But he is not the only bigwig, even if self-proclaimed. that has comandeered this helicopter. So did a minister in Pak Lah's cabinet, wearing a disguise, to meet his girl friend last year in a small coastal town. He was surprised when the pilot recognised him. Many cabinet ministers and their deputy ministers have used this helicopter, and thank their lucky stars they did not encounter any mishap. I have travelled, as a reporter, with cabinet ministers 20 years ago in private helicopters and aeroplanes lent so that its owners get business or contracts. There was a time when business men who did not consider themselves successful or close to the levers of power unless they owned a helicopter or an aeroplane. Many of them, no more close to power, wish they had not done so.

It raises questions today how this helicopter is pressganged to ferry VIPs, self proclaimed or otherwise. They do not pay for travelling in it of course. Neither does the National Front, its component parties or indeed the government. The owners write off the cost in return for APs and government contracts. This would not have been known had there not been an accident in Nibong Tebal. It does not mean that other tycoons did not benefit in other fields. But their secrets are safe so long as they are not in the public eye.

This is not all. A car given to a charity organisation but registered in the name of a cabinet minister for legal reasons was not transferred to the charity but kept the proceeds after he sold it illegally. The charity could do nothing as it was headed by a prime minister's child. Its officials however told anyone who would listen what happened to the car. One minister cost the country billions of ringgit. Nothing happened to him but is promoted to the cabinet, proving the Peter Principle that one rises to one's level of incompetence. Almost any minister in the government has cankers though not as large and become millionaires in a short space of time. They often were not when they entered this charmed circle. I have visited many of them, as a reporter, before and after: the houses then befitted their circumstance, while reflecting in the present circumstances the illegal wealth obtained in office.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com