Deepak says he paid Najib's family for land deal

Nigel Aw 4:38PM Nov 28, 2012

EXCLUSIVE Businessperson Deepak Jaikishan claimed that he paid the family of Najib Abdul Razak an undisclosed sum for the premier's intervention to allow him to come in as a party in a Defence Ministry project deal.

According to Deepak, he stitched a deal with a Selangor Umno leader's company where he would participate as a third party in the proposed project.

This began, Deepak explained, with a privatisation agreement in 2005 where the company was tasked to work on a Defence Ministry project in Putrajaya.

In exchange for the estimated RM100 million project, which the company was to build at its own cost, the company would be paid RM20 million by the government and would acquire 223.3 acres of government land in Klang.

However, Deepak said the politician did not have the credit-worthiness at that time to secure a land bond of RM72.5 million necessary for the project and had therefore approached him for help.

The deal, he added, would require him to secure the RM72.5 million land bond and top it up with RM23 million in cash payments to the company.

In return, Deepak said the politician's company was to give him ownership of the said property, which is a piece of prime land adjacent to the now booming Setia Alam township.

The names of the politician and the company involved have been withheld pending their reply to Malaysiakini's request for comments.

"She couldn't get the government to agree that the land bond be issued to a third party because under privatisation, the company that gets the privatisation (project), the land must remain under their name.

"So, I organised a meeting for her to meet (Najib), at that time our defence minister, to allow this land be transferred to a third party company," he said.

Deepak said the transfer was made possible after he "contributed heavily" to Najib's family.

Below is the excerpt of Malaysiakini’s interview with Deepak:

Malaysiakini: You mentioned earlier that there were bribes involved in this project?

Deepak: Okay, I think as far as the dealings with the politician were concerned, it was a business deal. But yes, as I mentioned - I wouldn't use that word that you used just now - but we had to contribute heavily to ensure that we get the approval from the defence minister at that time.

Contribute to whom?

A close family of his (Najib) lah. I will elaborate at later sessions.

Why the deal?

We couldn't procure the land to be given to a third party otherwise.

It happened around 2007?

Correct.

Can you disclose how much?

Not (at) this session.

Was a substantial amount of money involved?

Yes.

How big is the amount?

Maybe we go to the next question.

For clarity, this "contribution" is with regard to the meeting that you mentioned just now, set up between the politician and the then defence minister?

Correct.

The contribution is in terms of money and not material?

Financial.

Najib expressed 'no opposition'

Deepak noted that "a third-party scenario should not happen in normal circumstances", but was only made possible with Najib's help.

He claimed that he possessed the minutes of the meeting in which Najib expressed "no opposition" in approving the third-party land transfer.

The revelation comes following a land dispute in which Deepak's company had not received the promised land from the politician, despite, he said, having kept up his end of the bargain.

"He (Najib) is well aware (of this dispute) but I don't see any action coming out. I don't see him carrying the responsibility of solving this matter," he said.

Deepak has filed a legal suit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court and a police report on the matter was lodged in July.
The carpet trader told Malaysiakini yesterday that he regretted helping a female friend in the case involving private eye P Balasubramaniam.

---

This interview was jointly conducted by Fathi Aris Omar, Wong Teck Chi and Nigel Aw.

PAC told to probe AES, speed camera complaints

Kow Gah Chie 9:00AM Nov 28, 2012

A PAS parliamentarian has submitted the complaints it has compiled to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in relation to the controversial use of the Automated Enforcement System (AES) and speed cameras.

Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar urged the PAC to probe the contract as well as the contractors for the AES, and the procurement of the speed cameras, which are managed by the traffic police.

"I’m handing over this (matter) to PAC chairperson Azmi Khalid (right in photo) to investigate and take the necessary action, in the public interest," he told  reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

Mahfuz, who chairs his party’s Anti-postal Summons Campaign (Kase) had recently alleged that the Home Ministry had paid 10 times more than the market rate in purchasing the speed cameras.

Azmi, who was at the press conference, declined to comment beyond saying he would raise the issue at the PAC’s next meeting on Dec 5.

The memorandum of complaint urged the PAC to examine how both the AES contractors secured their rights to manage the cameras, and to ensure that there was no abuse of power in the awarding of the contract.

PAC was further urged to look into the procurement process and price of the speed cameras, as well as the suppliers.

Mahfuz added that he would make an appointment to see the auditor-general in a week, to submit a copy of the memorandum.

MCA and its hair salon cause celebre

Abdar Rahman Koya 10:24AM Nov 28, 2012

COMMENT While it has remained mum on many issues affecting non-Muslim civil rights and concerns over their religious freedom, Chinese-only party MCA now appears to suggest that nothing is more close to the hearts of non-Muslims than unisex hair salons.

Since last week, the BN component party has turned into a factory, dishing out statements condemning a Kota Baru Municipal Council (MPKB) ruling prohibiting unisex services in hair salons that came into force in 1991.

The rule was introduced amid complaints from members of the public that hair salons in the state, too, were being abused to solicit for sexual services, as was the case in the other states where many a raid by enforcement agencies revealed illegal brothels masquerading as unisex hair and beauty salons.

A report that a hairdresser was slapped with a fine by the MPKB recently for flouting the rule has given the Chinese party a cause celebre, at a time political pundits warn that the party could well forget about coming out of its political hibernation in the coming general election following its disastrous performance in 2008.

Yet again yesterday, party leaders took turns churning out their respective statements of 'outrage', to the extent that a person foreign to Malaysian politics reading them will be forgiven for thinking that unisex salons are a hallowed issue to Malaysian non-Muslims and considered something sacred.

Lowest form of wit in journalism

Within the last 24 hours, several MCA personalities have passionately argued in defence of the plight of the 'oppressed' hairdressers, issuing statements containing clichéd puns, arguably the lowest form of wit in journalism.

Wong Chun Wai, the party's master propagandist, was in the usual anti-PAS element when he tried to hint that women in many respected professions are exposed to vice.

"Will we see PAS banning women doctors from treating male patients?" asked the group chief editor of MCA-owned English-language daily Star.

The task given to MCA organising secretary, meanwhile, is to target DAP over its political alliance with PAS.

Tee even suggested that DAP Socialist Youth chief Anthony Loke Siew Fook (right) "must carry some responsibility" for the hair salons rule, and went a step further by linking this to the hudud enactment of Kelantan.

"Immediately after the issue of the ban on hair salons, Loke should have spoken up against this regulation which have caused dissatisfaction among the people of Kelantan and creating difficulties for them," declared Tee.

Not to be outdone, MCA Youth secretary-general Chai Kim Sen chipped in, describing the MPKB rule as one that threatened "freedoms and livelihoods of non-Muslims".

Take on two weekend rallies?

The party, whose current president Dr Chua Soi Lek was caught on camera having sex with his girlfriend in 2008, also expressed dismay that MPKB has a rule disallowing cubicles in hair salons, a normal rule enforced by many other municipal councils nationwide on other businesses, including reflexology centres.

"From the regulations above, it is very obvious that the Kelantan state government encroaches into the freedoms and livelihoods of non-Muslims as their business operations have been greatly hindered," Chai said.

Meantime, the party has yet to give its take on two major demonstrations over the weekend: the protest in Petaling Jaya organised by the United Chinese Schools Committees Association (Dong Zong) against the National Education Blueprint 2013-2025, and the anti-Lynas walk that ended at Dataran Merdeka.

One cannot help noticing that the bulk of the participants in those two gatherings were Chinese, although they were joined in solidarity by other races.

The question whether MCA thinks the right to live without radioactive poison is secondary to the right to get unisex services is now answered by the party's outpouring of grief over the MPKB rule.

On hindsight, if this rule had been enforced by, say, the City of London or Singapore on the basis of public decency, it would not have evoked such false liberalism from some.

This, of course, again highlights the limits and shortcomings faced by an Islamic party in ruling within modern multiracial settings, even if it means well.

Mothers moot daycare centres for Parliament

Kow Gah Chie 9:44AM Nov 28, 2012

There was a "googoo gaagaa" moment in Parliament yesterday. No, that was not a description of the usual childish behaviour in the House, but that of a four-month-old baby who followed her mother to work.

Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching said she brought her daughter Jinger Gan to Parliament to prove a point - that both the public and private sector have neglected working mothers by not providing daycare centres.

Teo said that she was inspired to do so after learning of Italian member of the European Parliament Licia Ronzulli, who brought her 44-day-old daughter to work two years ago.

Ronzulli made the symbolic move to highlight women's right in reconciling work with family life.

In the case of Malaysia, Teo said that government agencies and the private sector have provided 71 and 20 crèches respectively - far below what is needed by Malaysia's female labour force.

"Even Parliament, the symbol of democracy and rights in our country, does not provide such facilities," she lamented at a press conference at the Parliament lobby, with her baby in arm.

Women participation lacking

"It is therefore not surprising that many women leave their jobs in the midway through their career because Malaysia's workplaces are still not mother-friendly," she added.

Teo said women participation in Malaysia's labour force, which stood at 47.9 percent in 2011, is relatively low when compared regionally.

She said that Thailand, Singapore and Brunei's figures were 71 percent, 63 percent and 60 percent respectively.

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, who accompanied Teo at the press conference, suggested that Parliament should lead the way and establish a daycare centre.

She said that such a facility would help MPs, senators, Parliament's staff and media personnel.

It’s the system that turns good leaders bad - Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz

Malaysians think that by changing the present set of bad people with good ones everything will be all right, but nothing is farther from the truth.

People do not want to believe that if you have an intrinsically bad system, you are good at the beginning, but you are eventually going to degenerate.

But people don’t want to accept this.

Let’s assume Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is a good person (he probably is) but the system which sustains him is bad. It will eventually cause him to turn bad.

So it isn’t enough to transform society by changing the people leading it, but the system that structures our society must be changed too.

That is our (Pakatan Rakyat’s ) agenda now. Not just changing of guards, but changing the system that structures our society.

Just as a free market requires a libertarian system or liberal democracy, so do good people at the top who can stay good but only if we have a good system of government.

The leader who respects the opinions of the people he leads stays a good leader but only if the system sustains him so.

But Najib can’t stay a good leader because Umno structures the world around us in a bad way.

Najib’s New Economic Model (NEM) in reality is just an extension of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s way of renouncing the NEP and choosing to jump-start Malay economics by picking and choosing winners.

He, at that point, chose mostly devils he knew and enriched them.

Najib is now continuing to do the same by his market-driven affirmative action that forms his NEM.

Dangerous thinking

Author Fredrik Hayek makes an interesting point in his book, “The Road to Serfdom”. He explains why the worst get to the top.

If we interpret his observation against modern terms, it is that people are willing to suspend reality in exchange for a sanitised world.

Hayek opines that it is dangerous to think that “good men can overcome a bad system”. It is simply wrong thinking.

Malaysia unfortunately appears to be in that situation.

We adjust ourselves and accommodate totalitarian tendencies believing that such a system or political arrangement is not at fault.

We think that by changing the present set of bad people with good and decent people, everything is all right.
But nothing is farther from the truth.

The agenda the opposition seeks is not only changing the bad people on top, but reforming the structure of this country.

If we don’t put the correct structure in place, even when good men lead, they will soon be overwhelmed by the system.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but has since joined DAP. He is a FMT columnist.

Hadi: Hair salon rule not meant for non-Muslims

5:46PM Nov 27, 2012

The Islamic morality by-laws implemented by the Kota Baru Municipal Council are not meant to be expanded and implemented on non-Muslims, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said today.

This is clear in the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment (II) 1993, which is not applicable to non-Muslims, Hadi said in a statement.

The party, he added, views seriously the concerns voiced by the non-Muslims.

"At the same time, Kelantan has to enforce its responsibilities after getting the mandate given by the people to ensure that the good behaviour of Muslims is safeguarded," the PAS president said.

"Hence, PAS believes that the purpose of this by-law is towards that objective."

Hadi, who is also Marang MP, was referring to the uproar over the action taken by the Kota Baru municipality against a hair salon this month after its female hairdresser was seen cutting a male customer's hair.

The row led to MCA central committee member Loh Seng Kok calling on the DAP to quit the Pakatan coalition as it had no strength to fend off repeated provocations and oppression from PAS that impeded the dignity of the Chinese and non-Muslim voters.

Today, the PAS organ Harakahdaily quoted Kelantan Information, Development Information, Science and Technology Committee chairperson Mohd Fadzil Hassan as saying the Kelantan government would hold a discussion on the controversial ruling with non-Muslim community representatives and business operators.

Finding a solution

Hadi said the PAS central committee, too, was willing to consider proposals made by non-Muslims to find the best way to resolve the hair salon row, based on their right to practise their religion.

"Certainly, discussions and negotiations are the best way to resolve a problem. We welcome the openness adopted by the PAS-led Kelantan government in this (to hold the discussion)," he said.

"PAS is always committed to resolving issues faced through proper discussion," Hadi added.

Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia also quoted PAS Supporters Congress president Hu Pang Chaw as saying that Kelantan should cease enforcing rulings that affect non-Muslims in the state pending further study.

This, Hu said, would ensure fairness to non-Muslims rights, which Hadi had also stressed during the party's muktamar earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Kelantan Menteri Besar and PAS spiritual adviser Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat was quoted by The Star Online as saying that it is possible to exclude non-Muslim hairstylists in Kota Baru from attending to customers of the opposite sex.

“It is possible because they (those who object) are non-Muslims. Islam allows them to practice their culture, for as long as it is not in violation of the (Islamic) religion. First and foremost... we must uphold Syariah-based laws, Insyallah (God-willing),” Nik Aziz was quoted as saying, without making an official stand on the issue.

Nik Aziz said he had brought Kelantan dewan ulama chief Mohamad Daud for a discussion with five national PAS Supporters Congress members led by adviser its, Jeff Lee Weng Chun, who met him at his JKR 10 official residence, and promised that he will bring it up at the exco meeting for a decision to be confirmed. 

Carpet dealer says Wanita Umno leader cheated him in land deal

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — Controversial businessman Deepak Jaikishan has dropped a bombshell on the eve of the annual Umno general assembly alleging that a senior Wanita Umno politician had cheated him out of millions in a land deal.

Deepak, who deals in carpets, said he had agreed to buy three parcels of land in 2007 for RM13 million with a RM72 million bank guarantee for a land bond from the Wanita Umno leader, who was awarded a RM100 million privatisation deal for the development of the defence research centre called Pusat Pengajian Pertahanan Nasional (PUSPAHANAS).

But she had sold one parcel for RM2 million in cash and a RM16 million overdraft facility in a “joint-venture” with another company specialising in plasticware, prompting the carpet dealer to put a caveat on the land in Bukit Raja and lodge a police report last July.

“This is my land... I want to develop it,” Deepak told The Malaysian Insider, hours after he spoke to several other news portals about the matter.

The Malaysian Insider contacted the Wanita Umno leader but she did not respond to the calls.

The 40-year-old businessman (picture) said he has written to government leaders and officials about the matter but has yet to receive a response. The police have also been dragging their feet, he added.

“We want her to sign over the power of attorney for the land... but she hasn’t,” Deepak said.

In his police report dated July 9, 2012 at the Pudu police station, Deepak said the Wanita Umno leader and her company had committed a criminal breach of trust by not handing over the land titles to him and also selling his land to another party.

He said his company Astacanggih Sdn Bhd had signed a deal on May 16, 2007 to buy the three parcels of land measuring 89.281 acres, 88.629 acres and 45.420 acres from Awan Megah (M) Sdn Bhd, which was given the privatisation deal on June 8, 2005.

But Deepak said he never got the land or the title deeds, and had filed a lawsuit in December 2011 against the Wanita Umno leader, Awan Megah, the Selangor Land and Mines Office and the Ministry of Defence to get what was due to him.

He also found out last July that Awan Megah has signed a “joint-venture agreement” with Guppyunip Sdn Bhd on July 9, 2010 to develop one of the parcels he had bought.

“I am unsure if she has sold the same piece of land to others too,” he said, adding he hoped the police would get to the bottom of the case.