How to become very rich in Malaysia- The Star

Connections and the ability to flip assets can get you going places

If you have ever wondered how to get rich in Malaysia – fabulously rich and very quickly at that – here’s a model that you might want to look at very closely. Not easy to do but if you do have a couple of projects in the bag, it will set you up for several lifetimes.

First you need connections – strong ones, the higher the better and if it goes right up to the top all the better. You need this because you need to convince the powers that be that your projects are good.But you might ask if your projects are so good, why do you need connections? Why don’t you just go out and execute? Good questions, those. Here’s the answer - you need the state to give you something to do the deal that will help the nation.

Still can’t figure it out? See, it’s like this. You want to help the country, right? The country needs say a port. But you can’t build a port just like that. You need land to build a port. You tell the state or federal government you need land – cheap land, preferably free to build the port.
Or to take another example, you want to help the country by building a power plant. But look, you need land too and not only that you need the power to be sold. So you want an agreement – an iron-clad one to sell the power to Tenaga Nasional and to pass through all costs.

You see, that’s your reward as an entrepreneur – you get someone else to build the power plant, they guarantee the performance of the plant and someone else guarantees to buy your power and pay for all your costs. Nice deal? You bet. Billionaires have been made that way.
Or you may want to start an air hub. If you are persuasive enough, you can even convince the government to compulsorily acquire the land and sell it to you cheap. Once you have cheap land, lucrative contracts and concession agreements, the sky’s the limit.

Let’s take it a step further. If you want to realise the value of all of these things that you have and still keep control of them, it’s nice to have a listed company into which you can inject them. Inject one asset for shares and you gain control of the company.And then inject others over the years for cash, taking the money out of the company. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?Do it right and get a flow of assets to inject in (you can do anything with discounted cash flow valuations – just change the discount rate, and presto, the value changes!), and you get a tidy flow of profits and cash into your personal accounts over the years. I mean a really tidy flow.
Just how much can you make this way, you ask? Why don’t you take a guess first? Did you say RM500mil? Guess again. RM1bil? How about five times that and you may be getting into the right order of magnitude.

One Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary actually made some RM4.5bil that way - actually more because he still controls the listed company. (MMC’s latest RM1.7bil deal irks investors7) We are not saying he is the only one, which makes your chances of joining the ranks better – if you are connected to high places that is.But then again, if things change – and that’s still a big ‘if’ – you might not find it so easy anymore.

P. Gunasegaram is managing editor of The Star. He thinks it is high time we changed the way we did business

High Time for Samy to leave...

After the disastrous General Election results in March, reform in the leadership of Barisan National component parties seems to be moving in the right direction with the changing of old guards taken place.Slowly but surely most of the leaders have to give way due to unpopular support from the grassroot members.UMNO President Abdullah Badawi have to step down to pave the way for his Deputy Najib to take over by March next year.

MCA, the second largest component party of the ruling front have just elected Ong Tee Kiat and Chua Soi lek as their new President and Deputy President respectively in the just concluded MCA election last weekend.This is possible as both Ong Ka Ting and Chan Kong Choy refuse to defend their present post.Another component party,Gerakan also see Koh Tsu Khoon returned unopposed as their new President after their veteren leader Lim Keng Yaik retired.

Among the old guards of Dr M era who are still around are MIC president Samy Vellu and UMNO Wanita Chief Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz.Interestingly Datuk Shahrizat, have qualified to contest for the Wanita President post after gaining enough nominations to challenge the incumbent Rafidah even though she have announce her intention not to contest for the President post.

However only MIC President, Samy Vellu have stubbornly refuse to step down even though he was humiliated after losing his Sg Siput Parliament seat.He had yet to see the reality of Malaysian politics.Now he is still keen to fight for his political survival as reported by Athi Veeranggan from Malaysiankini...part of the report are as follows...

Politics is the art of the possible and impossible possibilities becoming impossibilities and vice-versa. MIC president S Samy Vellu stands out among those who have mastered the art.Just two years ago, he backed G Palanivel to challenge and successfully oust incumbent S Subramaniam for the deputy president's post.Prior to that, Subramaniam had been stripped of his government post by the party supremo when he was dropped as MIC candidate for the Segamat parliamentary seat in the 2004 general election

Now, Samy Vellu is said to be planning a reconciliation with his old nemesis Subramaniam to oust Palanivel, with whom the MIC leader no longer sees eye-to-eye.Palanivel was widely regarded as Samy Vellu's successor as party president.Insiders stressed however, that Samy Vellu only wanted Palanivel as an interim deputy to eventually make way for another stalwart, S Sothinathan.The Samy Vellu-Palanivel partnership can be described as rocky at best, and things boiled over just before the March general election, in which many MIC leaders, including the party president and Palanivel, were booted out by voters across the country.Just before MIC's humiliating performance on March 8, Palanivel is believed to have told Barisan Nasional chairman and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that "he was ready to take over MIC" from beleaguered Samy Vellu, who had lost his commanding influence among Malaysian Indians.

IF OBAMA HAD BEEN A MALAYSIAN

*From a Disappointed Member (Malaysiakini) Nov 14, 2008 4:20pm

It is nice to know that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi thinks anyone can become PM in Malaysia. He must think we are stupid and blind to the realities of being ethnic minorities in Malaysia.If Barack Obama was unfortunate enough to have been born in Malaysia, he couldn't even become the general manager of PKNS, never mind, president of the US, the most powerful country in the world.If he became a born-again Christian in his teenage years, keeping in view his father was African Muslim, Jakim would have hauled him off to a religious rehabilitation detention centre in Malaysia, and his kids would have been taken away from him.Michelle Obama would then have been advised by our racist religious authorities to divorce him.

Just for not being Malay, Umno would have overlooked his obvious talents and intelligence, and they would have denied him permanent residence or a citizenship and he can forget about any potential scholarships, job promotions or a place in a public university.Like Vijay Singh, world champion golfer, he would have been forced to emigrate to live elsewhere.If Barack Obama had advocated equal opportunity and equal rights in Malaysia, he would have been demonised by* Utusan Malaysia* as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam and taken into custody under the ISA just like what happened to Teresa Kok, and he would have had Molotov cocktails chucked into his parent's house, and had curly daggers waved at him.

If he had advocated rule of law like Zaid Ibrahim, they would called him a traitor to the Malay race.If he advocated democracy like Anwar Ibrahim, then Umno, the world champions of fitnah would have fixed him for sodomy.If like the jailed Hindraf 5 leaders, Barack Obama tells us to 'hope for change' and have the 'audacity of hope' then it would have been ISA and water cannons for him and his supporters.For practicing freedom of religion and conscience, and following the religion of his choice, he would have been charged with apostasy, and don't forget, some of our Malaysian politicians have advocated death for apostasy, just to prove their religious standing in the eyes of theirethnic voters.

Abdullah Badawi's statement that anyone can be PM in Malaysia is a sick joke and a clear attempt to mislead the public, and to assuage the collective privileged guilt of Umno's wealthy and corrupt warlords who head a party dedicated to race supremacy, religious and racialapartheid, and the worst type of racial and religious politics.

I am so glad Barack Obama will be the next president of the US. It goes to show that ordinary voters in the most powerful country in the world are prepared to reject the evils of racism, and embrace solidarity with their fellow voters in the context of equal rights and equal citizenship.They have shown long-suffering ordinary Malaysians what real muhibbah looks like instead of the dagger-waving displays (Umno AGM), Umno Youth beating up women delegates at peace conferences (Apcet II, KL), and nameless criminals chucking Molotov cocktails into women MPs' houses - that is, what I would term the Biro Tata Negara brand of nation-building by Umno.

I doubt if Barack Obama can have any impact on Malaysia's racist politics but it is good to know that people in America can still make a common stand with their fellow voters across racial lines for the common good.I challenge Umno to invite Barack Obama to Malaysia to show him the political and judicial wonders of our Malaysian system.I challenge Umno's gutless politicians to tell Barack Obama, president-elect of the United States of America what opportunities he would have had if he were born in Malaysia

Anwar faces long trek

KUALA LUMPUR - AFTER a botched bid to oust the government in September, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will likely have to bide his time until elections in 2012-13 before making another bid for power.

From watershed elections in March to his triumphant return to parliament after a decade's absence, Anwar dominated the headlines. Even his arrest and trial on fresh sodomy charges failed to thwart his campaign to topple the government by his self-imposed deadline of Sept 16.
Victory seemed within his grasp when the government apparently felt compelled to ship 40 MPs to Taiwan on a 'study trip' in mid-September to prevent them from defecting to Anwar's camp and thus giving him a majority in parliament.

The deadline passed. Financial turmoil swept the globe, and with an economic slowdown looming, voters in this Asian country of 27 million people suddenly had more immediate worries than Malaysia's chronic political intrigue.
Now the 61-year-old Anwar, whose People's Justice Party holds its annual convention this weekend, has to explain why he is not addressing the meeting as the new prime minister of Malaysia.

'His (Anwar's) strategy of haste that he adopted after March 8 (elections) stopped working after Abdullah was forced to retire,' said Ooi Kee Beng, an analyst at Singapore's Institute of South-east Asian Studies.
'Now, he has to do it the patient way.' Lacklustre Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi essentially derailed Anwar's express train to power by deciding to hand power to his more assured deputy, Najib Razak, earlier than planned.

Affirmative selectionMr Abdullah's National Front coalition, which has ruled uninterrupted for 51 years, stopped being transfixed by Anwar and started making policies to deal with an economy that is expected to grow by only 1.5 per cent next year from 5.4 per cent this year.
Mr Najib, 55, will take office in March when he becomes president of the United Malays National Organisation, the dominant party in the 13-party National Front.
Mr Najib, who is deputy premier and finance minister, has taken the fight to Anwar by linking him to unpopular measures proposed by the International Monetary Fund when Anwar was finance minister during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, while projecting an aura of economic competence himself.

He has announced some measures to offset lower economic growth, but hasn't raided the treasury to do so, putting US$2 billion (S$3.02 billion) saved from petrol subsidies into pump-priming measures.
Mr Najib even stole some of Anwar's thunder by relaxing a requirement that ethnic Malays have to own 30 per cent of companies - one of the affirmative action programmes that aim to uplift Malays who constitute 60 per cent of the population.
Anwar's opposition coalition had campaigned for abolition of those programmes in the March elections.

Inflation is falling rapidly from a peak of 8.5 per cent in mid-year and the central bank on Monday unexpectedly cut interest rates for the first time in five years.
'There's a widespread acceptance that Anwar will no longer take over the country,' said an investment analyst at a foreign bank in Singapore. 'Being PM is out of the question right now.' 'Najib is reinforcing his power base. He's the new face of Malaysia,' he said.
Snap elections?The opposition and some pro-government newspapers have started to push the idea of snap elections soon after Mr Najib takes power in March, saying he would need to win a popular mandate.

But Umno's coalition allies are still in disarray after the electoral debacle eight months ago.
'The risk (for snap polls) is very great. It will be suicidal because of the hangover from the March political tsunami,' said political author Yahaya Ismail.
Other analysts said Mr Najib would likely wait for mandatory re-drawing of electoral boundaries in 2012 before calling for polls. The government's current five-year mandate ends in 2013.
One glimmer of hope for Anwar could be polls in the timber- and petroleum-rich state of Sarawak on Borneo island. Sarawak has been a Barisan stronghold since it joined Malaysia in 1963 and may hold state elections as early as next year.

Provided Anwar can fend off what he says are politically motivated sodomy charges that are a reprise of the court action that got him jailed in the 1990s, and can keep his fractious three-party coalition together, victory in Sarawak could be another lever to apply pressure to government legislators.

Key to that will be how well the opposition runs the five states it controls. There has already been a backlash in the pro-government media over issues ranging from race relations to dual language street signs.
'The next electoral showdown is the Sarawak election, so it is a given goal for (the opposition coalition) to make an impression there,' analyst Ooi Kee Beng said. 'It will try to open the floodgates so that the 'March 8 tsunami' will flow into east Malaysia as well. -- REUTERS

Bolehwood Drama

The last few weeks have been an interesting period for Malaysian as we witness a number of dramatic political events taking place in our Bolehland. It started with the sodomy charges lodged by Dato Seri Anwar former aide En Saiful against him. Anwar fight back by acussing our DPM Najib to have a hand on the issue and even claimed that En Saiful was planted by Umno to discredit him.

Later yesterday Razak Baginda private investigator Mr P Balasubramaniam make a shocking statutory declaration linking Najib to the Altantuya murder case. The declaration was reveal in a packed press conference held by Party Keadilan De Facto leader Dato Seri Anwar which was also attended by Bala lawyer and few PKR leaders. Later in the Parliament, Najib deny the allegation and said the truth will prevail.

However in less than 24 hours, Mr P Balasubramaniam made a dramatic turnabout and retracted the first Statutory Declaration with an amended new Declaration with Najib name ommitted. It surely generate more anxiety and intensity to the already volatile political situation in the country.

The local share markets, Bursa Saham reacted negatively by tumbling almost 30 points at lunch break.It is a political showdown between the incumbent DPM and the former DPM of Malaysia and interestingly our PM position is not shaken with this latest event.

It was reported in Malaysiakini that Anwar will have another press conference later today and Malaysian are sure to expect another drama unfolding...

BN: No action against SAPP for now - Malaysiakini

Barisan Nasional supreme council today resolved not to take action against Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) until it gets an "official statement" from the party for its planned of no confidence vote against the prime minister.

BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor said this today on behalf of all 13 component party members, minus Sapp which was not invited to the emergency meeting.After the two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre, Tengku Adnan read out the BN supreme council's decision to the media."All the BN component parties condemn Yong Teck Lee's (Sapp president) statement. His statement is unprincipled, unethical and is against BN's beliefs and spirit of unity."All the component parties also want Sapp supreme council to confirm or reject Yong's statement yesterday," said Tengku Adnan

Action would only be decided against Sapp after it's "official statement" pertaining Yong's statement, said the BN secretary-general.Another decision reached at the meeting was for parliamentarians from all BN component parties to attend all parliamentary sessions."They must also follow BN's instructions and reject any no-confidence motions against the prime minister. All the component parties here also voiced their support Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as the prime minister of Malaysia," said Tengku Adnan.

When asked why Sapp was not invited to today's meeting, he said: "We did not invite them because we were going to discuss about them".He said that BN component parties have been warned before not to air their grievances through the media but to bring it up at its supreme council meetings.Representatives of all component parties were present at the meeting.

However, one notable absentee was Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who could not return on time from his overseas trip.Also absent was PPP president M Kayveas and Upko chief Bernard Dompok, also believed to be overseas. However their representatives were at the meeting.

The mainstream media is slowly and surely getting less and less readership due to the preference of the Rakyat for a more balance and fast news which they can easily access from the alternative news online portal like Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today.Unlike Malaysia Today which is a free website, Malaysiakini need to be subscribe for a nominal fee.The former is manage by the controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin who was earlier charged under the Sedition Act, while the latter by Steven Gan.Both have quite a substantial viewership which could easily outperform the mainstream media like The Star and NST.

Sensing the change in the trend of readership and with the control of 5 states by the Pakatan Rakyat government, The Star was quick to change their pro government reporting to a more balanced news coverage and are able to maintain their readership which easily outbeat NST. However Utusan Malaysia still keep to their old style of coverage and was subsequently blacklisted from the Pakatan Rakyat coalition for their bias reporting.

During the recent 12th General Election, Malaysiakini idea of giving free viewership for 2 weeks was a good strategic move.The website was rewarded with very heavy traffic viewership which could only be access by HTML mode.The latest election news update was fantastic fast and accurate.While RTM and TV3 were slowly flowing out their election results on Sabah,Sarawak and none on the states won by the Opposition,the alternative news were already announcing the forming of the new government by the Opposition in the 5 states. The mainstream media need to take corrective action to change or they will slowly dissappear from the viewer screen.