The Billions That Benefited A Few
1 July 2009 | 96 viewsThe repeal of the 30% Bumiputera quota requirement for listed companies and companies seeking listing is a very very good step forward.
Now all you need to do is offer 12.5% of your shares to Bumi investors via public ballot at the IPO stage, and that’s it. You don’t even need to ensure the portion is fully taken up.
Correspondingly, listed companies will not have to worry about maintaining the 12.5% Bumi shareholding post-IPO.
All of this is cool.
I take my hat off to Najib.
BUT, there’s always a but, the near-total failure in meeting the objectives of the 30% Bumi quota ruling of the past is quite eye-opening:
Najib pointed out that even the allotment of shares by the FIC to bumiputras in the past did not work as most of them would “straight away sell-down an enormous amount”.
“We have done our research. Very little shares are still left. The old model is not sustainable. Of the RM54bil in shares allocated, only RM2bil worth of shares are left in the hands of bumiputras. That’s a D-minus performance. [The Star]
RM54 billion worth of shares were given away, largely to well-connected Bumis, who then undoubtedly sold it for a profit, leaving only RM2 billion.
And that RM54 billion is probably based on IPO prices. So imagine the total value of the shares that were sold at various prices over the past, what, several decades.
Billion upon billions of “free money” for a relatively small group of Bumis who got obscenely rich for nothing much more than having the right skin colour and knowing or being related to the right people.
Incredible.
MORE incredible is this lame ass excuse given by former Mamak Bendahara Nor Mat Yakcop for what happened:
“Not to belabour a point but the banks – making loans to bumiputra investors to buy shares and then wanting a quick payback period – was one of the reasons for this,” he said … [The Star]
So it’s the fault of the banks, for wanting their money back quickly, eh?
Yes, banks are greedy, but the last time I checked, the longer you owed them money, the more money they made from you. It is in the interest, pun intended, of the banks for you not to settle the loan quickly.
Moreover, you cannot fault the banks for making margin calls when the stockmarket heads south.
Nowhere does Nor Mat Yakcop mention the greed of the elite Bumi class, the UMNOputras. I bet these people did not feel even a twinge of sympathy for the lower class Melayus, when they got news of their FIC share allocations.
I know. I’ve been in the presence of some of these people when they excitedly talked about what they were going to do with the money once they sold off the shares.
So think about it again — billions upon billions that benefited a few.
YOU KNOW what should have been done?
That 30% should have been allocated to PNB, which would have benefited millions of “normal” Malays who were and are Amanah Saham investors.
That would have really been in the spirit of the NEP.
9 Responses to “The Billions That Benefited A Few”
1 juslo 1 July 2009 @ 12:38 pm
someone should translate this into/ u should write this in BM, so that the ordinary Bumi folks can see/ try to understand why the non-Bumis n the ‘liberal Malays’ have been asking for the abolition of the NEP…
it’s just shocking how there could be so many SHAMELESS hypocrites in this country… acting like a ‘defender’ of the race n calling for ‘eradication of poverty’ on 1 hand, then turn around to ‘makan padi’… how do these ‘millionaires’ sleep at night??
i hope they all end up in HELL.
2 rocky 1 July 2009 @ 2:26 pm
Bro I totally agree. the connected ones are the greedy ones and they have made their money, some the very next day. Remember one son in law of a minister, got so many shares. so normal malays,if lucky get 1 lot lo.
what we want is get rid of corruption and have open tenders. but they would not do that cos that will hurt them in making money.
3 cockroach 1 July 2009 @ 6:24 pm
i do not believe the bumiputra mass benefit much from amanah saham as most of them do not have the resources to subscribe to the maximum allowed unlike the elites.
and i do suspect there are many who surrogates for the elites!
again the elites benefit!
perhaps you may try to obtain some statistics to prove the validity of my comments.
the effective filtration process in this country always leave trickles to the intended groups!
the filtration processes has been perfected since the inception of DEB!
4 ycg 2 July 2009 @ 9:33 am
maybe should show this news to Hadi.
5 Saint 2 July 2009 @ 1:28 pm
Same kind of spending mentality that got the US economy into deep deep sh!t!
6 nstman 2 July 2009 @ 4:25 pm
the NEP benefited a lot of Umno cronies who became filthy rich. A lot of middle-class Malays have not benefited but instead have been made the butt of jokes by other races.
7 moo_t 2 July 2009 @ 4:38 pm
Allocated to PNB?
Lol.
8 chez1978 5 July 2009 @ 3:47 am
A lot of us cuss and curse the NEP, but it insulated us against the extremities of islamisation and created a sizeable malay middle class in record time. In less than a generation, we have put wealth into the community, even if it is only a select few of them.
What is more important is that everyone now sees the wastage in such compromise and a more equitable approach is sought. Contrary to what the skeptics think (and there ARE billions here and there being pocketed by dubious characters, be it Malays, Chinese or Indians or any other ethnic denominations), our country will grow out of this, provided we don’t stop fighting and working to improve the system.
9 Anwar Ibrahim 7 July 2009 @ 11:17 am
Gee, I wonder how much from that RM54 billion I have swindled when I was in Umno… hhmmm.. have to check with my accountant.
hahahaha… hahahahah… hahahah… AKU KAYA!
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