Anwar Ibrahim |
- Swiss Public Prosecutor Asked to Charge UBS Over Laundering of Borneo Logging Corruption Proceeds
- Najib Terdesak Tambah ‘Bom’ RM1.5juta
- I Will Be A Proud Prime Minister Because I Am A Tool Of The Masses
- Funds Boost For BN MPs an Act of Desperation
- Najib Responsible For False Allegation Against Anwar of Transfer of Monies
- IPO FGVH Menyebabkan Pendapatan FELDA Jatuh 64% Dan Peneroka Kehilangan RM100 juta Bantuan Kebajikan
- Velvet Gloves Over Iron Fists:‘The Dictator’s Learning Curve’
- Who’s Not Serious: Anifah or Scorpenes? Time for A-G to Advise Govt On Action to Take
| Swiss Public Prosecutor Asked to Charge UBS Over Laundering of Borneo Logging Corruption Proceeds Posted: 12 Jun 2012 12:52 PM PDT BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL, SWITZERLAND Bruno Manser Fund files complaint under criminal law against UBS over laundering of Malaysian timber corruption proceeds – Swiss banking giant accused of assisting Musa Aman, Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sabah, with money-laundering (ZURICH/SWITZERLAND) Swiss bank UBS is likely to face criminal proceedings over its business ties with a Malaysian top politician following the filing of a complaint under criminal law by the Bruno Manser Fund, a rainforest advocacy group from Switzerland. The Bruno Manser Fund announced today that it has filed a complaint against UBS with Zurich's Public Prosecutor over the bank’s ties with Musa Aman, a Malaysian politician who controls logging in Sabah, a Malaysian state in North Borneo. The complaint has been filed on behalf of the Bruno Manser Fund by professor Monika Roth, a lawyer and well-known Swiss compliance expert. The Bruno Manser Fund accuses UBS of having breached its due diligence duties as defined by the Swiss Criminal Code and calls on Swiss authorities to take criminal action against UBS and those responsible for the bank's relationship with Musa Aman. The Malaysian politician has been Chief Minister of Sabah since 2003 and is the brother of Malaysia’s Foreign Minister, Anifah Aman. He is being accused of having laundered over USD 90 million of corruption proceeds through a number of bank accounts with UBS in Hong Kong and Zurich. In April 2012, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice confirmed that Switzerland has given legal assistance to Hong Kong authorities over Musa’s ties with UBS. Numerous documents handed in as evidence to the Zurich Public Prosecutor’s Office prove that Michael Chia, a close associate of the Sabah Chief Minister, organized large cash payments from timber companies with logging interests in Sabah to UBS bank accounts in Hong Kong. From the same accounts, payments have been made to Musa Aman’s sons in Australia and to Mohd Daud Tampokong, a senior forestry official from Sabah. The complaint alleges that Malaysian lawyer Richard Christopher Barnes, to whose accounts millions of US dollars were transferred, acted as a “shaker and mover” for the Sabah Chief Minister. By way of an example, on 21 August 2006, one of Barnes’ accounts with UBS in Hong Kong was credited with USD 4.6 million paid only days earlier by Sabah timber tycoons into another UBS account controlled by Michael Chia. “UBS plays a key role in everything, given that many of the relevant transactions in this case passed through this bank, and its employee, Dennis Chua, a former client advisor with HSBC in Hong Kong, was actively involved”, the complaint states. “It is, however, evident that other financial institutions in Asia and possibly in Switzerland were involved in this mesh and indeed still are.” The complaint also gives the account numbers of Musa Aman’s personal bank accounts with UBS in Hong Kong and in Zurich. “How UBS ought to handle banking relationships with politically exposed persons (PEPs) is stated in the law and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority’s (FINMA) regulations. These rules were blatantly disregarded in that no suitable measures were taken for enforcing them. That makes UBS liable in accordance with the provisions of Art.102 para 2 and Art.305bis of the Swiss Criminal Code.” The Bruno Manser Fund is asking the Zurich Public Prosecutor to take action in Switzerland under Swiss law against UBS and against UBS employees who have disregarded their due diligence duties in the Musa Aman case. “Moreover, the question is to be asked whether the whole mesh of corruption is to be regarded as a criminal organisation, which would then be linked to the further question of whether the behaviour of UBS were not to be qualified as support for that organisation.” Corruption is one of the main drivers of deforestation in Sabah and Sarawak, the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Borneo’s rainforests are one of the world’s biodiversity centres and home to endangered species such as the orang utan, the clouded leopard and the proboscis monkey. In 2007, the Malaysian government committed to protect its rainforests by signing the “Heart of Borneo” declaration but it has failed to take action against logging-related corruption by the Sabah and Sarawak state governments under their highly corrupt Chief Ministers, Musa Aman and Taib Mahmud. |
| Najib Terdesak Tambah ‘Bom’ RM1.5juta Posted: 12 Jun 2012 03:09 AM PDT Dakwaan bahawa BN akan menggunakan ‘taktik bom’ menabur wang kepada rakyat agar mengundi parti itu mungkin benar apabila semalam perdana menteri meluluskan pemberian RM1.5 juta kepada setiap parlimen BN. Difahamkan dalam pertemuan pre-coucil dengan ahli-ahli parlimen BN semalam, Datuk Seri Najib Razak juga membenarkan mereka membelanjakan RM1,000 hingga RM5,000 secara tunai kepada pengundi. Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ketika mengulas perkara itu berkata, tindakan tersebut menunjukkan sikap terdesak dan cemas BN. “Menampakkan sikap yang agak terdesak yang membenarkan ahli parlimen boleh belanja wang tunai RM1,000 hingga RM5,000 kepada pengundi. “Ini mengikut kefahaman saya dalam peraturan kewangan, sangat tidak wajar,” katanya pada sidang media Pakatan Rakyat hari ini. Turut serta pada sidang media itu Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang dan Penasihat DAP Lim Kit Siang. Difahamkan juga, sejumlah RM300,000 awal akan diberikan kepada setiap parlimen BN pada Khamis ini. “Dia (Najib) beritahu minta disegerakan dan tumpu kepada pemuda dan wanita, kalau perlu RM1,000 bagi RM5,000 bagi, kerajaan akan pertahankan tindakan itu. “Langkah paling baik adalah bantahan rakyat dan pilihan raya,” katanya. Sebelum ini, bekas menteri kabinet yang isytihar keluar Umno, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir mendedahkan, BN sedang menggunakan ‘taktik bom’ iaitu menabur wang untuk membeli undi di kampung-kampung. |
| I Will Be A Proud Prime Minister Because I Am A Tool Of The Masses Posted: 12 Jun 2012 02:06 AM PDT
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| Funds Boost For BN MPs an Act of Desperation Posted: 12 Jun 2012 02:02 AM PDT Barisan Nasional's (BN) latest allocation of over RM200 million for its MPs to plough into their constituencies despite Datuk Seri Najib Razak's pledges to rein in the deficit betrays the prime minister's desperation ahead of federal polls, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. With Putrajaya admitting it is unlikely to meet GDP growth projections this year, leading to a larger budget deficit, the opposition leader took aim at the Najib administration, saying the move to hand each BN federal lawmaker RM1.5 million was "not proper." "The PM also said they can spend in cash, giving up to RM5,000 to their constituents. This is not proper," the PKR de facto leader told a press conference. "They are not concerned about financial regulations, they don't care about finances," Anwar (picture) said of the move, which comes on the back of Najib revealing a repeat of Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) cash handouts to low-income families, which cost RM2.6 billion, was on the cards. The Malaysian Insider reported earlier today that the BN MPs were handed the allocation at yesterday's BN pre-council meeting for the current parliamentary sitting as the Najib administration looks ahead to polls after September's budget announcement. Although Najib was earlier speculated to dissolve Parliament this month for a July election, he announced that he would be tabling next year's budget on September 28 and that there was a possibility of another handout to low-income families under BR1M. The RM500 paid out to nearly five million families at a cost of RM2.6 billion earlier this year saw his approval ratings shoot up to 69 per cent, largely due to a surge among poorer households. But the aftermath of violence that erupted between police and demonstrators at the April 28 Bersih rally for free and fair elections saw the BN chief's popularity slide to 65 per cent last month. The Umno president said late last month the government will ensure that Malaysia's debt will not exceed the statutory ceiling under the Loan (Local) Act and Government Funding Act due to its prudent management of the nation's finances. Najib, who is also finance minister, said his administration has also taken steps to rein in the fiscal deficit, which dropped to 4.8 per cent last year from a 22-year high of over seven per cent in 2009. But Malaysia's slowing economy, which recorded a third consecutive quarterly dip in growth to 4.7 per cent in the first three months of the year, off-track from earlier projections of up to six per cent growth for the year, has raised doubts over Putrajaya's ability to keep spending in check. Analysts have warned Malaysia to brace for a significant slowdown here due to rising linkages with top trade partners including China, the world's second-largest market, which economists say is headed for a sixth consecutive quarterly drop in growth with worse to come. A Greek exit from the euro zone, which is a growing threat, would cause a second recession in as little as four years in Malaysia as the knock-on damage to Europe poses a threat to the global economy, Bloomberg reported analysts and economists as saying recently |
| Najib Responsible For False Allegation Against Anwar of Transfer of Monies Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:54 AM PDT I refer to the report today in the New Straits Times daily alleging that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had instructed a bank CEO to transfer millions to certain accounts. The report is false, irresponsible and politically motivated. The news report itself states that investigators found no evidence to support the allegations or bring the case to court, and the investigations were wrapped up as long ago as the year 2000. This proves that this allegation against Anwar was wild and baseless. Despite this, the newspaper today published the front page report under the headline ” Anwar gave order “. This is character assasination and gutter journalism of the lowest and most disgraceful kind. It is disturbing that the Prime Minister and his ruling UMNO party have increasingly resorted to false and malicious personal attacks against key opposition leaders. The NST, Utusan Malaysia and some other newspapers that regularly publish false reports against the opposition are owned by Najib’s UMNO party. It is impossible for these dailies to carry on publishing these irresponsible and vicious attacks without Najib’s knowledge and approval. It is a measure of the Prime minister’s current political desperation that he is resorting to these low tactics. We call upon Prime Minister Najib to immediately abandon the politics of lies and slander, and instead engage the opposition in constructive and rational dialogue. N SURENDRAN |
| IPO FGVH Menyebabkan Pendapatan FELDA Jatuh 64% Dan Peneroka Kehilangan RM100 juta Bantuan Kebajikan Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:53 AM PDT KEADILAN meneruskan analisis kami tentang kesan sosial dan kewangan peneroka akibat IPO (Initial public offering/penyenaraian) FGVH. Analisis kami menunujukkan sebelum adanya FGVH, tiap-tiap tahun FELDA membelanjakan antara RM400 hingga RM500 juta setahun untuk kebajikan masyarakat peneroka. Perbelanjaan ini yang termasuk dana bagi infrastruktur jalan, masjid, padang bola, perumahan, pendidikan, insentif Hari Raya dan insurans. Pada tahun 2011, FELDA telah membelanjakan RM424 juta untuk peneroka. Walau bagaimanapun, bagi tahun 2012 FELDA bercadang untuk memotong belajawan untuk peneroka ke RM326 juta. Pengurangan belajawan ini amat besar, hampir RM100 juta potongan. Butir-butir potongan adalah seperti berikut: • Pembangunan Infrastruktur dikurangkan sebanyak 57%. Semua butir-butir diatas adalah daripada Bajet rasmi FELDA 2012. Pada permulaannya kami telah mendedahkan durian runtuh yang terlalu kecil kepada peneroka, selepas itu pendedahan mengenai peruntukan saham yang memihak kepada bumiputera kaya, kini peneroka sekali lagi ditindas dengan potongan kebajikan RM100 juta. WONG CHEN, PENGERUSI BIRO PELABURAN & PERDAGANGAN
IPO of FGVH causes FELDA earnings to crash 64% and settlers lose RM100 million in welfare support Keadilan continues with our analysis of the FGVH listing and its social and financial impact on settlers. FELDA on a yearly basis spends between RM400 to RM500 million on the welfare of the settlers. The expenditure includes funds for infrastructure such as roads, mosques, housing, education, Hari Raya incentives and insurance. In 2011, FELDA spent RM424 million on settlers. However for 2012 FELDA intends to spend only RM326 million on settlers, a massive reduction of close to RM100 million. Details of the reductions are as follows: The reason for this massive reduction is clear; after the FGVH lisitng, FELDA's earnings have crashed. By leasing the 350,000 ha of land to FGVH, FELDA switched role, from a rich plantation operator to a mere landlord. The results are devastating to FELDA. In 2011, FELDA earned RM2.5 billion but for 2012, it only expects to earn RM900 million. In other words, the IPO of FGVH has caused FELDA earnings to crash by 64%. All the above details are from the FELDA official Budget for 2012. First we had the small unfair windfall, then the unfair allocation of shares to favour rich bumiputera, now settlers are again unfairly treated by a RM100 million reduction in welfare support. WONG CHEN, CHAIRMAN, INVESTMENT & TRADE BUREAU |
| Velvet Gloves Over Iron Fists:‘The Dictator’s Learning Curve’ Posted: 11 Jun 2012 11:32 PM PDT From The New York Times "Here we go," Tony Soprano said in the first episode of "The Sopranos" when Dr. Melfi, his psychiatrist, reached for her prescription pad. "Here comes the Prozac." Tony was having panic attacks. It wasn't easy being a crime boss anymore. The old order was falling away. The Feds had new methods, like the RICO statute. His family gave him agita. His attacks made him feel, he said, like he had "ginger ale in my skull." It's hard not to think about Tony's woes while reading William J. Dobson's intelligent and absorbing "Dictator's Learning Curve." It's a book that intricately explores the headache-making complexities of being an authoritarian tough guy in 2012. These despots may well be on anti-depressants too. Old-school oppressors like Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and Idi Amin had it easy. There was no YouTube, no Facebook, no Twitter. "Today, the world's dictators can surrender any hope of keeping their worst deeds secret," Mr. Dobson observes. "If you order a violent crackdown — even on a Himalayan mountain pass — you now know it will likely be captured on an iPhone and broadcast around the world." The neo-authoritarians, from Vladimir Putin in Russia to Hugo Chávez in Venezuela to China's more faceless technocrats, are still brutal, but they have learned to adapt. These types of leaders, the author says, "are far more sophisticated, savvy and nimble than they once were." Mass arrests and firing squads? For most of these men these are clumsy and a bit passé. Tax collectors and health inspectors are now more likely to shut down dissident groups. Today's dictators confound their critics by peppering their speeches, the author says, "with references to liberty, justice and the rule of law." Fair and balanced is how they wish to appear, contrary to realities. A new kind of iron fist has arrived, tucked behind an acid-whitened smile. Mr. Dobson is the politics and foreign affairs editor of Slate; before that he was an editor for Foreign Affairs. He crisscrossed the globe multiple times while reporting this prickly book, traveling some 93,000 miles, he estimates. He's interviewed more than 200 people, and his closely observed accounts of dictators' increasingly sly methods to control their populations are haunting and dispiriting. Chief among these methods is simple confusion. Citizens rarely know, any longer, where the lines are drawn. One Venezuelan tells the author, "Fear does not leave fingerprints." Mr. Dobson's book is more than a catalog of shifting monocratic nightmares, however. He's just as interested — more interested in fact — in how democracy's advocates are mixing up their tactics in response. Some of these new methods were on display during the Arab Spring, when despots fell in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Others are still gestating. His explanation of how citizens are using fresh, bespoke tools against modern dictators is almost absurdly inspiring. Mr. Dobson delivers portraits of some of the world's leading intellectual, tactical and financial advocates of grass-roots democracy. These scruffy luminaries include Gene Sharp, the American intellectual whose 93-page guide to toppling autocrats, "From Dictatorship to Democracy," is available for download in more than two dozen languages. But Mr. Dobson is most galvanizing at ground level, when he's talking to activists and explaining their stratagems. He points out that more people are willing to attend opposition events, for example, if they are held at night and in the dark, "safe from the prying eyes of the regime." He discusses the importance of attracting sympathetic members of the police and military long before things get rough. There's even more value, perhaps, in recruiting these people's children. He quotes a strategist who says, "Generals don't like to attack crowds with their children in the front ranks." He is excellent on the uses democracy movements can make of humor. When Mr. Putin cracked down on a television station that broadcast "South Park," activists carried signs that read: "Putin Killed Kenny." These people "were protecting free speech," Mr. Dobson writes, "but they wouldn't say it that way. They would say they were protecting Kenny and Cartman." One Venezuelan opposition member vividly underscores many of this book's lessons when he says, "If you're going to fight Mike Tyson, you're not going to box against him, because, even though he is crazy, he's going to kill you. But if you can challenge him to a game of chess, you might have a chance." "The Dictator's Learning Curve" is agile and light on its feet, but among its salient points is that pro-democracy movements need to be more than that. Happy thoughts and hippie clothes are not enough. "Revolutions, if they are to be successful," Mr. Dobson writes, "require planning, preparation, and an intelligent grasp of how to anticipate and outwit a repressive regime that thinks of little beyond preserving its own power." Events may move suddenly, Mr. Dobson writes, "but there is usually a movement or organization that put months or years of dangerous (often tedious) work into making that day possible." One pro-democracy leader puts all this more baldly: "Spontaneity will only get you killed." Mr. Dobson's book, with luck, will find its way into the hands of people who aspire to be free. They'll find optimism here, but hard realities as well. The author cites statistics that suggest political freedom, and the number of democracies in the world, declined from 2005 to 2010. Modern authoritarians have learned elastic new ways to prosper. "Lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end," Tony said in that same first episode of "The Sopranos." He added, "The best is over." Mr. Dobson's book proposes that many dictators today may be feeling a similar sort of blues. In order to get out of the way, some of them may only require, from their own people, the right sort of push. |
| Who’s Not Serious: Anifah or Scorpenes? Time for A-G to Advise Govt On Action to Take Posted: 11 Jun 2012 11:16 PM PDT Foreign Minister Dato Seri Anifah Aman is walking on thin ice when he says the Scorpene probe is “not a serious matter that we need to follow”. Firstly, he should tell us how much he knows about the probe and how he has come to know those details given the fact that Malaysia is not currently participating in the probe in France. It is refreshing to hear that the Minister seems to know the issues in the probe. But his remarks don’t add up. On the one hand he says its not a serious matter that we need to follow. On the other hand, he says Malaysia will “make the necessary preparations to face the trial when they are needed” With respect, the Minister must make up his mind. If Malaysia will participate, why are we not there to assist to begin with? Perhaps the Minister should, and I call upon him to brief Parliament in detail over what the probe has revealed to date and to what extent evidence has been obtained and whether it reflects any wrongdoing on part of our officials in the said transaction. Tell the rakyat WHY The Minister must tell us why it is he thinks this is not a serious matter. It is a matter of public concern. He must give us reasons in full. The Minister is also quoted as saying “so far we have not received any information from the French Embassy. But if necessary, we are ready to defend ourselves”. This defies logic. There is a probe which is on going which involves the nation. Surely we cannot just sit back and wait for the French Embassy to brief us? A-G must intervene The Attorney General should, as first legal officer, intervene. He should and must advise the Minister that the proper approach to take especially in a case like this where the country’s reputation is at stake, is to take from the very outset, stock of the situation. We should and must participate and have our own representatives defending us and regularly updating us as to the findings of the inquiry. We should be on top of things. Anything short of this would appear to be an obviously negligent handling of the matter for which the government must in the end be fully prepared to account for. Gobind Singh Deo is the DAP MP for Puchong |
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