Wrong Frequencies

The industry's 6% press statement

Just read Don't blame telcos for prepaid tax, PKR tells PM. 
Hehe.
What else can you expect a political party like PKR to do but politicize a strictly business-industry decision? 
We won't take PKR seriously on matters like this, of course, after all this is a party led by a man who would have sub-contracted the running of the Malaysian economy to the IMF if he had succeeded in becoming PM in 1998 which, incidentally, was the same year the Government introduced the so-called prepaid tax.
Anwar Ibrahim might even have a hand in the prepaid tax for all we know! He was Finance Minister then, after all.

Anyway, back to the don't-blame-telcos piece in the Malaysian Insider. The PKR dude has a point, actually. Takkan Najib Razak tak tau, kot? The industry players have held several meetings to discuss passing of the prepaid tax to consumers. They met the relevant ministry's officials who surely would have advised the CEOs of the telcos on their proposed move and informed the relevant Minister. Everyone knows that the telcos have been absorbing the prepaid tax since 1998 and has been wanting to pass it to the consumers but were never able to agree on it until now. Everybody knows, too, that it was not Celcom's idea or Maxis' desire, that it was the guys from DiGi who were the ones pushing very hard ...


Rais Yatim, the "relevant" Minister here, is known as a hands-on, man.. He likes to put his fingers and hands in places he shouldn't. He is so hands-on that when Bernama hosted the media buka puasa with the PM during Ramadan, the chairman of the national news agency did not get to deliver his address because Rais Yatim felt he and not the chairman should be the one addressing the journalists in the presence of the PM and his wife.


So I don't believe Rais Yatim did not know about the telcos' decision to pass down the taxes to the people who should be paying them in the first place - the consumers. He said the government had no say in the telcos' decision. Yes, it is a collective decision by the industry but since when has the ministry not have a say? The telcos are regularly told to "donate" money for and send "participants" to Rais Yatim's events ... They are the ones who usually don't have a say. 


Assuming Rais Yatim knew of the 6 per cent decision, why then didn't he brief the Cabinet and keep the PM in the loop? 
He not on the same frequency with PM and his colleagues?


And if he did not know of what the telcos were plannng to do, well .... I've always said that the ministry is too big, too complicated for Rais Yatim.


Either way, Big Dog thinks Rais failed big time .... The PKR people may disagree.

Bakke, Beware of Rats and Fishy stuff!

From ECM-Libra to E&O. The E & O deal has conjured images and senses of living things other than human.

First, Big Dog smells a rat.

Now blogger A Voice, a currency trader who was doing quite well when Nor Mohamed Yakcop was losing billions of ringgit buying and selling sterling, smells something fishy after reading this article on the deal in a Singapore newspaper.

There is no such thing as a deal involving the Who's Who in the Malaysian corporate rogue gallery, of course, but when The Accountant (which was what Big Dog did in his previous life) and the Currency Trader's nostrils start flaring, something must be rotten in Corporate Malaysia.

Big Dog, A Voice and I were among thousands at Sime Darby's Hari Raya Open Day in Bukit Kiara yesterday, a stone's throw away from a similar reception that was being thrown by Zarinah Anwar's Securities Commisison. We exchanged Aidil Fitri greetings with Sime Darby boss Bakke, who have been subjected to his share of bloggers' barbs and blows before this, with the intention of telling him what we thought about the whole thing.

But there wasn't enough time, so A Voice conveys the message in his latest posting, "Beware Bakke, there are no such things as permanent friends and permanent enemies". 

Securities Comedy

WANTED : A  man of action. 

Locality : Putrajaya. 

Scope of work : We require some furious action to stop the sick satire taking place at the Securities Commission . 

Read the Star yesterday : SC to look at all E&O share transactions in relation to Sime offer.

In a comedic twist, the SC might  have to interview Azizan Abd Rahman, the E&O chairman. Comedic because Azizan's wife is the chairman of SC.

Azizan has come out in the papers to say that the Sime deal was never discussed at E&O board. Nobody doubts it but ...  

Let's put it this way, Azizan was appointed independent non executive chairman of E&O since 2003. Eight years have passed and he still is an INDEPENDENT. 

"Boards cannot disregard the risks that independence may be undermined by long tenure". - Zarinah Anwar said in SC to Strengthen Corporate Governence Sat, 20 March, 2010, theedgemalysia.com.

Now I am going to go to the Sime Darby's Hari Raya Open House in Bukit Kiara and have a good laugh!

All rogues lead to SC

Solitude Commission. The Securities Commission is tongue-tied, and nobody's blaming them. Corporate player Azizan Abd Rahman's purchase of nearly half a million Eastern & Oriental Bhd shares this year (before Sime Darby made a RM2.30 payout to buy 30 per cent of the company, only from the major shareholders of the company) has got people riled up big time. Read here.

Azizan is the chairman of E & O. He was not party to the sale but considering that other E & O board members who were party to the sale had also bought E & O shares from the open market, one is left wondering: Did the Board members know of the coming "windfall"?

Surprisingly, Azizan also emerged as a substantial shareholder of Kencana Petroleum Bhd in July, just days after an offcer was made to take over the company at RM3 a share! Wonder how shareholders of Ramunia Bhd felt upon finding out that their chairman was a substantial shareholder of a rival oil and gas firm? 

Azizan is the husband of the SC chairman, Zarinah Anwar.