My Thought About the Future Foundation Issue

The Ethics Committee of the World Bank already released documents illustrate the following:

1. An attempt was made by the Bank, PW, and SR to follow due process in resolving the conflict of interest at the Bank. Whether they succeeded in that attempt is the crux of the matter and is addressed in the more recent statement by the Bank and PW.

2. That Riza's raise and external assignment to the State Department were the result of deliberations that took place within the World Bank during the Summer of 2005 and that were finalized in September 2005. Neither Anwar Ibrahim personally nor the Foundation for the Future as an organization (which did not even exist at that point) had anything to do with either her raise or external assignment to the State Department.

3. That the Foundation for the Future did nothing inappropriate. The Foundation did not exist in September 2005. It was an idea that existed on paper and could not have been party to any negotiations of any sort. Once the Foundation was a real institution it was in a position to hire staff and to formally assign Riza to the Foundation and dissolve her association with the State Department which was clearly no longer necessary. Anwar Ibrahim's October 2006 letter as Chairman of the Foundation to the Bank reaffirms SR's mandate to work to build and develop the Foundation (which was the focus of her assignment to the State Department as described in a september 2005 letter between the State Dept. and the World Bank). The letter makes no mention of SR's salary other than to refer to the existing arrangement that had already been made with the State Department.

If people took the time to learn the facts instead of being manipulated by innuendo and conspiracy theories then they would see this smear campaign against the Foundation and Anwar Ibrahim is just a political maneuver being staged to marginalize and discredit the only political force in Malaysia that has a chance to change the system.

While the Malaysian Minister is busy trying to dig up a scandal on Anwar Ibrahim where none exists (Anwar does not even receive a salary as Chairman of the Board of the Foundation) the Malaysian government is descending deeper into an abyss of corruption and decadence.

Talk about baiting and switching the Malaysian public.

Foundation For The Future Issue

The Foundation for the Future was first announced in Bahrain in November 2005 by foreign and development ministers of the broader Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States. The Foundation is an independent set-up, involving governments and civil society to support civil society organisations in their efforts to foster democracy and freedom in the broader Middle East and North Africa.

From the onset, the Foundation obtained pledges of US$56 million. Thus far the Foundation only received funds from Turkey, the United Kingdom and Jordan, among others. The US has not disbursed any funds to the Foundation.

I was invited to join the board of the Foundation in mid 2006 together with representatives from Morocco, Kuwait, Iraq, Spain, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Switzerland and Qatar.

The other board members include Kamel Abu Jaber, advisor to the Jordanian Foreign Minister; Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Professor Ibrahim Kallin, advisor to the Foreign Minister of Turkey; and Sandra Day O’ Connor, former US Supreme Court justice.

The first board meeting was convened in Doha, Qatar at the invitation of Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, the Foreign Minister and presently Prime Minister of Qatar on 15 July 2006, and I was unanimously elected as the first honorary chairman. The decision was to set up the headquarters in Beirut.

However, in the Board Meeting on 4 December 2006 in Amman, Jordan, I met the Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah Al-Khatib, who endorsed the setting up of the regional secretariat in Amman due to the delay in the Beirut headquarters as a result of the Israeli attack on Lebanon. The next board meeting will convene in 29-30 May 2007 in Bahrain, Lebanon.

I did not appoint Ms. Shaha Ali Reza to the Foundation. She was first assigned by the World Bank through the US State Department to the Foundation in late 2005 before I became Chairman. The executive committee of the decided in mid 2006 to regularise the appointment so that Shaha advises directly from the World Bank and not the State Department.

The board will issue a full statement after the meeting in Bahrain next week. However, due to the incessant propaganda from the UMNO controlled-media, I have decided to issue this statement. If there is no clarification by the media on the matter, the Foundation will not hesitate to institute legal action against the relevant parties.

Anwar Ibrahim
Foundation for the Future Chairman
May 20th 2007

Malaysia's submarine scandal erupts in france

A potentially explosive scandal in Malaysia over the billion-dollar purchase of French submarines, a deal engineered by then-Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak, has broken out of the domestic arena with the filing of a request to investigate bribery and kickbacks from the deal in a Paris court.

Although the case has been contained for eight years in the cozy confines of Malaysia's courts and parliament, which are dominated by the ruling National Coalition, French lawyers William Bourdon, Renaud Semerdjian and Joseph Breham put an end to that when they filed it with Parisian prosecutors on behalf of the Malaysian human rights organization Suaram, which supports good-government causes.

Judges in the Paris Prosecution Office have been probing a wide range of corruption charges involving similar submarine sales and the possibility of bribery and kickbacks to top officials in France, Pakistan and other countries. The Malaysian piece of the puzzle was added in two filings, on Dec. 4, 2009 and Feb. 23 this year.

For two years, Parisian prosecutors, led by investigating judges Francoise Besset and Jean-Christophe Hullin, have been gingerly investigating allegations involving senior French political figures and the sales of submarines and other weaponry to governments all over the world. French news reports have said the prosecutors have backed away from some of the most serious charges out of concern for the political fallout.

The allegations relate to one of France's biggest defense conglomerates, the state-owned shipbuilder DCN, which merged with the French electronics company Thales in 2005 to become a dominant force in the European defense industry. DCN's subsidiary Armaris is the manufacturer of Scorpene-class diesel submarines sold to India, Pakistan and Malaysia among other countries. All of the contracts, according to the lawyers acting for Suaram, a Malaysian human rights NGO, are said to be suspect.

With Najib having moved on from the defense portfolio he held when the deal was put together in 2002 to become prime minister and head of the country's largest political party, the mess has the potential to become a major liability for the government and the United Malays National Organisation. Given the power of UMNO, it is unlikely the scandal would ever get any airing in a Malaysian court, which is presumably why Suaram reached out to French prosecutors.

"The filings are very recent and have so far prompted a preliminary police inquiry on the financial aspects of the deal," said a Paris-based source familiar with France's defense establishment. "There isn't a formal investigation yet. The investigation will most likely use documents seized at DCN in the course of another investigation, focusing on bribes paid by DCN in Pakistan."

The source said police have confined their inquiry to bribery allegations so far and have not looked into the 2006 murder of a Mongolian woman in Malaysia who was a translator on the deal for Najib and his friend, Abdul Razak Baginda, during a visit to Paris.

There have been numerous deaths involving DCN defense sales in Taiwan and Pakistan. Prosecutors are suspicious that 11 French submarine engineers who were murdered in a 2002 bomb blast in Karachi – first thought to have been the work of Al Qaeda – were actually killed in retaliation for the fact that the French had reneged on millions of dollars in kickbacks to Pakistani military officers.

The Malaysian allegations revolve around the payment of €114 million to a Malaysia-based company called Perimekar, for support services surrounding the sale of the submarines. Perimekar was wholly owned by another company, KS Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd, which in turn was controlled by Najib's best friend, Razak Baginda, whose wife Mazalinda, a lawyer and former magistrate, was the principal shareholder, according to the French lawyers.

"Over the past years, serious cases have been investigated in France by judges involving DCN," lawyer Renaud Semerdjian told Asia Sentinel in a telephone interview. "This is not the first case of this kind that is being investigated. There are others in Pakistan and there are some issues about India. To a certain extent, every time weapons of any kind have been provided, suspicion of violation of the law may be very high."

As defense minister from 2000 to 2008, Najib commissioned a huge military buildup to upgrade Malaysia's armed forces, including two submarines from Armaris and the lease of a third, a retired French Navy Agosta-class boat. There were also Sukhoi supersonic fighter jets from Russia and millions of dollars spent on coastal patrol boats. All have come under suspicion by opposition leaders in Malaysia's parliament but UMNO has stifled any investigation. Asked personally about the cases, Najib has responded angrily and refused to reply.

Despite efforts to bury it, the case achieved considerably notoriety after the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a 28-year-old Mongolian translator and Razak Baginda's jilted lover, who participated in negotiations over the purchase of the submarines. By her own admission in a letter found after her death, she was attempting to blackmail Razak Baginda for US$500,000.

She was shot in October 2006 and her body was blown up with military explosives by two bodyguards attached to Najib's office after Razak Baginda went to Najib's chief of staff, Musa Safri, for help in keeping her away from him. Not long after being acquitted in November 2008 under questionable circumstances of participating in her murder, Razak Baginda left the country for England. The bodyguards were convicted but no motive was ever established for their actions despite a confession by one which was not allowed in court, but which said they would be paid a large sum of money to get rid of her.

The submarine deal was never brought up in court during a months-long murder trial that was marked by prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge working studiously to keep Najib's name out of the proceedings. A private detective hired by Razak Baginda to protect him from the furious Altantuya filed a statutory declaration after the trial indicating that Najib had actually been the victim's lover and had passed her on to Razak Baginda.

The detective, P. Balasubramaniam, said later that he was unceremoniously run out of Kuala Lumpur. He eventually emerged from hiding in India to say he had been offered RM5 million (US$1.57 million) by a businessman close to Najib's wife to shut up and get out of town. He also said he had met Nazim Razak, Najib's younger brother, and was told to recant his testimony.

In the current complaint in Paris, the issue revolves around what, if anything, Razak Baginda's Perimekar company did to deserve €114 million. Zainal Abidin, the deputy defense minister at the time of the sale, told parliament that Perimekar had received the amount – 11 percent of the sale price of the submarines – for "coordination and support services." The Paris filing alleges that there were neither support nor services.

Perimekar was registered in 2001, a few months before the signing of the contracts for the sale, the Paris complaint states. The company, it said flatly, "did not have the financial resources to complete the contract." A review of the accounts in 2001 and 2002, the complaint said, "makes it an obvious fact that this corporation had absolutely no capacity, or legal means or financial ability and/or expertise to support such a contract."

"None of the directors and shareholders of Perimekar have the slightest experience in the construction, maintenance or submarine logistics," the complaint adds. "Under the terms of the contract, €114 million were related to the different stages of construction of the submarines." The apparent consideration, supposedly on the part of Perimekar, "would be per diem and Malaysian crews and accommodation costs during their training. There is therefore no link between billing steps and stages of completion of the consideration."

As Asia Sentinel reported on April 1, services for the subs are being performed by a well-connected firm called Boustead DCNS, a joint venture between BHIC Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of publicly-listed Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd, and DCNS SA, a subsidiary of DCN. Boustead's Heavy Industries Division now includes Perimekar as an "associate of the Group. PSB is involved in the marketing, upgrading, maintenance and related services for the Malaysian maritime defence industry," according to Boustead's annual report.

Originally Boustead told the Malaysian Stock Exchange that the service contract was for RM600 million (US$184.1 million) for six years, or US$30.68 million annually. However, the contract later ballooned to RM270 million per year. Boustead Holdings is partly owned by the government and has close connections with UMNO.

"There are good grounds to believe that [Perimekar] was created with a single objective: arrange payment of the commission and allocate the amount between different beneficiaries including Malaysian public officials and or Malaysian or foreign intermediaries," the complaint states.

Where is our FREEDOM ??

Who controls the media?

Natseven TV belongs to Media Prima, the country’s most powerful media conglomerate that similarly owns 100 percent equity interest in TV3, 8TV and TV9. It also owns 90% of NSTP.

Sitting in Media Prima’s board of directors are, among others, former Utusan editor-in-chief Johan Jaafar, former NST group editor Ahmad A Talib and prominent businessmen some of whom are associated with Umno.

Media Prima’s largest shareholder is Gabungan Kasturi, reportedly owned by Amanah Raya – a trust management company belonging wholly to the Malaysian government holding the shares through the Minister of Finance (Incorporated).

Media Prima’s main minority shareholder is the Employees Provident Fund (EPF’s investment panel is headed by former chief secretary to the government Samsudin Osman).

The role of ntv7 in this scheme of things is that the free-to-air station positions itself as the “Home of Feel Good – Malaysia’s Favourite Chinese and Urban Station”; in other words, it is targeted mainly at a Chinese and urban demographic.

In giving the reasons for his resignation, Wong alleges that Sofwan Mahmood (whom the Media Prima corporate directory lists as ntv7 deputy editor-in-chief, news) “said that it is not advisable to talk about (the Hulu Selangor by-election) as… the show will embarrass Najib’s administration”.

Wong also alleges that his superior Tan Boon Kooi had informed him of the “advice” given by Media Prima group editor (news and current affairs) Manja Ismail that opposition MP Tony Pua should not be invited as guest speaker (Manja was the Berita Harian group editor from April 2006).

From the above, it can be seen that all terrestrial television, although ostensibly private stations, have indirect links to either Umno or the Umno-controlled federal government, and that their key decision-makers are the Media Prima bigwigs who have a career history in corporate entities that are strongly pro-Umno.

Questions for the prime minister

These are our questions for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

1. Wong has made a serious allegation that the complaint against his programme was conveyed by Rosmah. Najib’s high-profile wife holds no public office but is playing a partisan political role surpassing that of any other spouse of previous prime ministers. Najib should clarify whether Rosmah or her staff issued the cease-and-desist order to Media Prima and ntv7.

2. Is Najib aware that the instructions to Wong purportedly came from his PM’s Department? These instructions to Editor’s Time were, in effect, to gloss over or black out coverage of political developments in Hulu Selangor that are unfavourable to the ruling party. If the allegation is false, then Najib quickly should reassure the public that the government is not pulling the strings on what news and views are fit for public consumption.

3. Apart from this specific case of blatant intimidation and attempted censorship of a supposedly private television station, TV1 and TV2 are state-controlled television stations with no autonomy either to exercise free and fair reporting. Can the Prime Minister clarify whether there is a direct chain of command from his office and his officers giving directives to the civil servants heading these national broadcasters?

We note that RTM director-general Ibrahim Yahaya was former Berita Harian editor-in-chief and TV3 broadcasting manager.

Implications of Wong’s resignation

Wong’s resignation should not be treated as another run-of-the-mill case of a middle-management media practitioner coming up against the stone wall of political masters and media owners dictating content.

Instead, his resignation puts the spotlight on how corrupt the stifled system has become. How can a current affairs programme be barred by ntv7 from discussing the Hulu Selangor by-election just because Umno wants to exercise damage control and only permit views that portray the party, its leadership and its governance in a rosy light?

More pertinently, Wong asks “How can we continue to keep silent, to tolerate and allow these (abuses of power) to happen again and again?” Other Malaysians are asking the same questions.

The BN has maintained its stranglehold on power because the mainstream media (MSM) has colluded to keep it in power. From Wong’s superior Tan Boon Kooi to Lee Lam Thye who sits in Media Prima’s board of directors to the handsomely paid hacks in the print media, the professional disinformation industry has aided and abetted in propping up Umno hegemony.

Slanting information and depriving audiences of alternative views while at the same time setting a biased agenda and story angle is tantamount to brainwashing the masses.

Wong is to be applauded for his principled resignation. We are glad that his break with the cartel has allowed the dirty racket that has been operating in the mainstream media for so long now to be revealed.

We must build on this revelation of MSM’s inner workings to ensure that government control over what Malaysians can view and read is truly breached so that the electorate is no longer kept

The Climb

I rush out that morning. I thought i was late for my first Paintball Competition at Cyberjaya. after my gears are packed, i go straight to my car and starts the engine. After a while of driving, i realized that i didn't turn on my radio. No wonder i feel so quite that morning. i turn the radio on and " the climb " by miley cyrus broke the silence. A great song. Inspired me every time i heard it.

As i drive along the highway, i noticed a sticker on the back of a car in front of me.. " it's important when going after a goal, to never lose sight of the integrity " a great phase. The journey towards any result, whether that result is being good at what you do for a living or great in the way you conduct your life is just as important.

The climb offers you far more value and as many rewards as you get to the top of the mountain. y? bcuz the climb to your ideas shapes your character, offers you opportunities to realize your potential and tests u to see how much u wanted to win. its the climb that teaches u and transform u. u get to develop the qualities of greatness, such as courage, compassion, understanding and hard work.

We learn more from the times that tests us than we do from success. So the next time u feel impatient or frustrated or hopeless to the life that u want, remember that where u might just be the best place u could possibly be. Maybe.. the journey is better than the destination.

Stop Sleeping So Much

I know i'm unpopular on this but I owe you the truth that I've discovered through my observations on my friends, families and even my cousins. Most people sleep more than they need to. They fall into into the trap of spending some of their best time in life on a bed. They lose the battle of the " bed " i might say. :) they trade their great time with a snooze button.

the more sleep you take, the more you need. ever realized that as u sleep more, u feel even sleepier? strange isn't it? but its the truth. Yes, i know that sleep is essential to keep us fresh, radiant and healthy. My concern is TOO MUCH sleep. The kind that as Robin Sharma says keep great people ordinary.

There is too many important things to do and too many great places to explore for us to sleep too much. Life is for the living. You and i have been given a gift today. which is to have the opportunity to make a difference and exercise our talents and have phenomenally fun time doing it.And we need to respect that gift. As Benjamin Franklin once said : " There will be plenty of time to sleep when u're dead"