Sunday, September 24, 2006

NST UNSPUN!

Where's the spin?

I had expected Brendan Pereira to spin it and use one of his favourite openings "The Prime Minister was an angry man yesterday" for Pak Lah's response to Lee Kuan Yew over the latter's disparaging remarks about Malaysian Chinese being marginalised and compliant.

But the former Singapore Straits Times journalist decided to go back to straight reporting in this case and "soften" Abdullah's demeanour in the face of LKY.

So you get straight reporting on that issue from the NST today, which read just like the ones published in Bernama, Utusan, and The Star.

Well, Brendan will have another chance to make a soup of LKY in his column tomorrow!

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:29 pm

    Actually the PM own mild response surprise me. Could it be the PM secretly respect LKY and agree with him? After all he cancelled the bridge project went he first got into office.

    The thing is could the PM own mild response cost him politically? I was under the impression he was in 'Malay ultra drumbeat' operating mode for now to gain political milleage.

    Hmm. It could be he just forgot to 'pump out the volume'. This guy really is a nice person inside, to bad his leadership skill sucks...

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  2. Anonymous4:52 pm

    Rocky, You don't think BP will take LKY to task in his column, do you? I hope you're wrong. Imperative, for his own cred's sake, to rip LKY's arguments to bits and pieces. If he doesn't lift his pen to defend his Malaysian Chinese and Malays, he'll be confirming the general suspicion about his connections with Singapore. btw, why is Kali the Editorial Adviser writing about the weather instead of helping Abdullah defends his Admin against Singapore's insults and assaults?! Did someone cry Pengkhianat?!

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  3. Anonymous5:14 pm

    Bru,

    Kali, Brendan and their ISD colleagues may be paid by NST. But they get better bonuses from LKY's government. Their loyalty in this case is with LKY not Pak Lah.
    It took our "I haven't lost control PM" one week to meekly respond to the Singapore dictator.
    No wonder he gave up on the Bridge Project.

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  4. Anonymous8:53 am

    Brendan Pereira wrote nothing on LKY-Singapore. NST remains no comment about LKY-Singapore. Berita Harian in its leader reguested (not even demand) LKY just to apologise. ONLY Utusan Malaysia understands our sentiments. Read Utusan Malaysia today (25/9/06).

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  5. Anonymous11:17 am

    The Star front page picture today is of a Muslim family breaking fast. Thank you The Star. Actually The MCA-owned Star is becoming more Malaysian by the day.
    It's not a hot stuff, but very readable. That's because the paper is edited by people who understand Malaysia. They have no hidden agenda.
    On the other hand, the PM-owned NST is becoming less and less Malaysian. Ramadan pictures are worth for page 6 and 7 only.
    It pretends to be hot but fails. This is because it is edited by Singapore-trained journalists. In Singapore, the media is a monopoly and nobody criticizes the PAP and LKY.
    To be exact, Brendan Pereira spent time as a PAP's tool to destroy the Singapore opposition parties.
    That is why NST and BH are today very muted in their criticism of Singapore.
    Even the Malay editors and reporters of the group had sold out to Singapore.
    NSTP and Media Prima do not belong to Umno. They belong to Umno President and PM. That why Umno is helpless and PM is free to put his friends in those companies.

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  6. Anonymous12:25 pm

    Rockybru

    The PM said he would ask LKY for an explanation. As a voter who voted for his government, I do not expect him to gently “ask for explanation”. I expect him to launch a dignified offensive.

    Thinking people whether Chinese or Malays should not allow power-paranoid people like LKY to use racial statements to confuse and divide us.

    Likewise, UMNO should not allow power-hungry people like KJ to tempt & trap them. People outside UMNO should also not conveniently fall into the trap.

    This racial thing always puzzles me. Maybe, my upbringing gives me a strong foundation in good race relations. Firstly, my parents surveyed the schools outside the new village to see if they had a good racial mix. Then, they put us there to be educated. Today, my siblings who are married follow in the same footsteps. They put their kids in schools which give them exposure to other races.

    As a family, we speak Chinese, English and Malay effortlessly. We speak this integrated language anywhere, be it the restaurant or the shopping mall. So much so people ask us openly “Are you Chinese or Malay?” Does it matter anymore if we are Chinese or Malay? No, race does not matter anymore to us.

    People who fight for the truth, justice and human rights should unite in the name of humanity. Race does not matter anymore.

    People with power and wealth exist in all races. So are people who are impoverished, underprivileged, neglected and marginalized.

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  7. Anonymous12:53 pm

    Just read Pereira's column today about LKY - do you guys get the feeling that it was veiled attacked on TDM? Basically what he thinks the old folks should do, like keep quiet, sit him and watch Astro.

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  8. Anonymous1:48 pm

    Guys, try to catch a reall good piece from The Nation on the Thaksin fallout - reproduced in Malaysia-today.net.

    It talks about this guy Surin also known as K.K. Lau, a Thai Malaysian who played a big role in the Temasak's purchse of Shin Corp. Very fascinating.

    But more fascinating is that the Bali yachting vacation that Kalimulah wrote about two weeks ago - well, he was the guest of none other than this Surin guy. And the other guest is said to be the top editor of the business paper known for its 22-points attack on Tun Mahathir. Scadalous!

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  9. Anonymous2:09 pm

    I read his column today "illusion of power blinded Thaksin" do you guys get the feeling that it was veiled attacked on TDM too? I think his task in NST is indeed to attack TDM!

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  10. Anonymous5:49 pm

    of course, it was a veiled reference to tdm. you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.

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  11. Rocky!

    Some should seriously look into this info by SAnonymous" and try to put the pieces together. I wrote about Overseas Chinese Club (OCC) and this is part of it, please dig more and don't let this kind of info lies buried in your countless posting! Kali, and a dubious Surin, a.k.a K.K Lau involved in Temasik acquisition of Shin Corp! Rocky dont just received and unload try to skim through juicy info and highlight!
    ----------------------------------


    Anonymous said...
    Guys, try to catch a reall good piece from The Nation on the Thaksin fallout - reproduced in Malaysia-today.net.

    It talks about this guy Surin also known as K.K. Lau, a Thai Malaysian who played a big role in the Temasak's purchse of Shin Corp. Very fascinating.

    But more fascinating is that the Bali yachting vacation that Kalimulah wrote about two weeks ago - well, he was the guest of none other than this Surin guy. And the other guest is said to be the top editor of the business paper known for its 22-points attack on Tun Mahathir. Scadalous!

    1:48 PM

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  12. Rocky!

    Taken from Malaysia-Today! Yes! Once upon a time Kali was involved with a company that has a lot of stake in a Casino in Cambodia! The Umno-led government has better check on his involvement with this very dubious character with connection with PAP, Temasik and Shin Corp acauisiton! But then I doubt this country (Malaysia) ability to investigate such sophisticated as Kalimulah Masheerul a/l Hassan! Why?! Because Malays entrusted to look after the country are indeed morons! If he did sail with this Surin then Kali is definitely a dubious character to be checked and investigated!
    ----------------------------------

    Guys, try to catch a reall good piece from The Nation on the Thaksin fallout - reproduced in Malaysia-today.net.

    It talks about this guy Surin also known as K.K. Lau, a Thai Malaysian who played a big role in the Temasak's purchse of Shin Corp. Very fascinating.

    But more fascinating is that the Bali yachting vacation that Kalimulah wrote about two weeks ago - well, he was the guest of none other than this Surin guy. And the other guest is said to be the top editor of the business paper known for its 22-points attack on Tun Mahathir. Scadalous!

    1:48 PM



    ----------------------------------

    Monday, September 25, 2006
    The power and politics behind Kularb Kaew

    The Nation

    The first week under the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM) allowed for little public deliberation on the fate of the Shin-Temasek deal that set Thailand's crisis in motion.

    Through the newly appointed National Counter Corruption Commission or some other body, however, authorities are certain soon to revisit that deal. Probes must continue into such aspects of the transaction as to whether the Singaporean People's Action Party (PAP) regime's investment company, Temasek Holdings, used nominees in purchasing Shin Corp. But they must not crowd out scrutiny of the underlying regional political dimensions of the transaction, which will remain relevant long after the CDRM relinquishes power and the Shin-Temasek scandal passes.

    Perhaps the most significant unrecognised feature of the deal's politics involves the same Kularb Kaew at the centre of the probe into possible use of nominees. In essence, it is the mugging of the Thai political order by Southeast Asian money politics whose scale and stakes make the provincial chao phor and buffet cabinets of the country's pre-1997 politics look quaint.

    The clue to understanding it lies in the business activities of the Thai-Malaysian tycoon Surin Upatkoon, aka Lau Khin Koon. Initial focus must fall on one of Surin/Lau's assets: the Malaysian firm MPHB, or Multi-Purpose Holdings Berhad. MPHB operates in financial services, stock-brokering, and gaming. It is no ordinary business concern. Its ownership and activities have long been political matters. MPHB originated in the mid-1970s, when thousands of relatively poor Malaysian Chinese investors pooled resources into a company large enough to take advantage of Malaysia's boom. MPHB's success lifted its chief executive Tan Koon Swan into the presidency of the Malaysian Chinese Association, a core member of the country's long-governing National Front coalition.

    In 1985, a scandal involving another Tan firm forced him out of both politics and MPHB. Tan's fall made MPHB defenceless prey for members of Kuala Lumpur's voracious political-business-financial class. Going into receivership, it ended up controlled by interests linked to then-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

    Anwar's 1998 ouster put MPHB into play again. It fell into the hands of parties close to then-finance minister Daim Zainuddin, a KL wheeler-dealer who took a leading role in former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's transformation of the Malaysian economy. Embedded in the lucrative cronyism that attended that transformation, Daim remains a major player in regional money politics.

    In 2002, as The Nation reported last March, reports of a connection to Daim accompanied Surin/Lau's assumption of control over MPHB, replacing the parties earlier installed. While both Surin/Lau and Daim deny this connection, knowledgeable observers in Kuala Lumpur give the reports credence. They do not believe that Surin/Lau could take over MPHB's profitable four-digit lottery business without political support. (These same observers also claim that, in justifying his right to operate four-digit gaming, the Thai Surin/Lau stresses his Malaysian identity.) They argue that heavy-weight political backing came from Daim, regardless of whether he extended any financial backing to Surin/Lau. To apprecaite the Shin-Temesek scandal requires investigation of Surin/Lau's connection to Daim. It may explain Singapore's reliance on Surin/Lau to secure Thai participation in the deal. It would also clarify the scandal's ominous regional political dimension.

    Surin/Lau told the Thai media that he invested in Kularb Kaew after being approached - seemingly out of the blue - by the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, which Temasek retained as adviser for the Shin purchase. It is worth recalling the role of the Malaysian Ong brothers in putting the Shin-Tesmasek deal together. Richard Ong serves as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, and Charles Ong is head of overseas investment strategy at Temasek and right-hand man to its executive director and CEO Ho Ching. Goldman could not approach Surin/Lau without authorisation from Temasek. But what might account for Temasek's interest in this mysterious figure? Surely his Thai passport was not enough. The following scenario offers a rough answer to this question.

    When Thai investors in Kularb Kaew hesitated, Temasek was stuck. It needed a credible investor with Thai nationality to replace them. The uproar over its Shin purchase might make Temasek despair of finding such an investor among prominent Bangkok businessmen. How grand, then, to enlist a successful and wealthy Kuala Lumpur businessman with Thai citizenship. And how fortunate - if this is what happened - the Singaporeans must have felt when they contacted Surin/Lau and received assurances of his reliability from a man they trusted: Daim Zainuddin.

    The strong relationship between Singapore's PAP regime and Daim is unmistakable in the way it is reflected in the writings of that regime's founding strongman, Harry Lee Kuan Yew, father of the current PAP Secretary-General and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and father-in-law of Temasek boss and the prime minister's wife, Ho Ching. The second volume of his memoirs, "From Third World to First", abounds with praise for Daim. It describes him as a man "who honoured his commitments", in clear contrast to Lee's view of other Malaysian politicians.

    The Singapore establishment's esteem for Daim dates at least to 1990, when negotiations over Malaysian Railway land in Singapore brought the elder Lee and Daim together. Daim struck Lee as a man of talent, seriousness, and good faith. The resulting trust led to Daim and Temasek working together on a number of ventures. Temasek took a large stake in Daim's Alliance Bank in Malaysia, where Daim and the Singaporean colossus also have partnerships in financial services. They are jointly involved in a pair of banks in Indonesia and perhaps in ventures outside the region.

    To outline the developments suggested here is to allege nothing illegal. It is to offer a narrative about money and power, not about the law. In this narrative, the question of whether Surin Upatkoon/Lau Khin Koon paid for his share in Kularb Kaew with his own money, with Temasek's, or with someone else's becomes a subsidiary question.

    Money and politics rarely come together in transparent fashion. It is always in the interest of transparency's enemies to decry as conspiracy-theorising any attempts to get to the bottom of events. The Shin-Temasek deal appears to involve a group of serious pros in the regional money-and-power game: Daim Zainuddin, Singapore Inc's dominant Lee family and Thaksin and Pojaman Shinawatra.

    Southeast Asia has fallen increasingly into the grip of such money-and-power pros, operating from within the region and showing little regard for national boundaries, national politics or even national welfare. Their games hurt ordinary Southeast Asians. These games will continue long after the CDRM returns authority to an elected government. And a failure to understand them means abdicating responsibility for weakening the grip of those who play them.

    posted

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  13. Anonymous8:39 am

    (Sorry Rocky, I know entertainment is not really your genre, but just had to post this somewhere)

    ONE IN A MILLION - MARGINALISATION

    It’s a shame.

    That 11 talented Malay singers (including the likes of Dayang Nurfaizah and Farah from Malaysian Idol) were wiped out by an under-age, average sounding (albeit technically sound) Chinese school girl from Seremban in the ‘One in a Million’ contest in KL held on 23 September.

    I’m not being racist here, but I have to conclude and absolutely refute Lee Kuan Yew’s statement that the Chinese in Malaysia are marginalised.

    Last night was a clear testament to that.

    Chinese in Malaysia are systematically marginalised, my foot.

    Here are the facts: The Chinese control our economy (duh!); they have more private colleges catering to the Chinese; all the places in ‘most wanted’ courses in IPTAs are filled by Chinese (under the great meritocracy system); most (if not all) Chinese companies and shops blatantly state their preference for Chinese workers; and now many new Chinese owned restaurants in major shopping complexes (i.e. One Utama and The Curve) now state ‘non-halal’ at their entrance – if that is not marginalising, I don’t know what is. Even non-Malay festive celebrations (i.e. Christmas and CNY) are celebrated with greater fan fare than Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Hari Raya Korban.

    Save for some poorly executed, heavily politicised Government policies, sure seems like the Malays are being systematically marginalised here. Malays should stop being apologetic about stuff that helps out the Malays, like the NEP. If the Government doesn’t help them, they sure won’t help themselves.

    Speak up lah Malays. Apa nak malu. See what happened when Suki was announced winner? The Malays (in the audience and watching at home) semua terduduk tersentak. (Here, I could literally feel my heart break a little). It was too late to do anything dah. Even though Faizal gave a performance (of which you could see he had put incredible work and effort on his part) that put him in a league of his own – he, we, had lost, again.

    Looking as to how Suki beat the competition flat via completely un-restrained support from her family, friends and the rest of the Chinese audience, they have proven time and time again, Malays simply can’t get ourselves to rally together.

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  14. Anonymous5:46 am

    Anonymous said...

    Looking as to how Suki beat the competition flat via completely un-restrained support from her family, friends and the rest of the Chinese audience, they have proven time and time again, Malays simply can’t get ourselves to rally together.
    -----------------------------

    Righto, Anon,

    You forgot abt last season's Malaysian Idol results.

    Nita lost to that guy (a chinese) what-ever-his name is.

    And Vince Chong was the winner of the Academy Fantasia 1st season.

    Whereas I believe whatever-his-name is got the solid support of the Chinese communtiy, AF winner Vince had the support of the Malays(who form the majority of the AF viewers).

    What does that show?

    Chinese will ONLY support their kind.

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