MALAYSIAN MAVERICK chedet.co.cc December 24, 2009 By Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
1. Barry Wain was formerly with the Asian Wall Street Journal and Asia Week.
2. Presently he is with the Singapore think tank, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
3. He knows that if he writes anything against Singapore leaders he would be dragged to the courts, sued and forced to pay huge indemnity. His colleagues have all been found guilty of defamation when they wrote something that was not approved by Singapore leaders. There has never been a libel suit by Singaporean leaders which has been thrown out by the courts. It is safe for journalists to impute all kinds of misbehaviour by Malaysian leaders. There have been many cases where the courts have found in favour of the journalists.
4. In Barry Wain's book I was accused of losing Government money over the purchase of tin being sold by speculators. When the time came for them to deliver the tin, they could not deliver as they had no physical tin. But the London Metal Exchange ruled that the speculators need not honour the contract to sell to us.
5. We lost money but not in billions of Ringgit as alleged.
6. Bank Negara traded foreign currencies.I don't know how much but we lost money. Government stopped the trading by Bank Negara. Again the amount is not as imputed by Barry Wain.
7. The third case is with regards to the losses by Bank Bumiputra in Hong Kong.
8. Altogether I don't think the amount lost added up to RM10 billion even. If we had lost 100 billion Ringgit the Government would be in deep trouble. But although we did have poor growth during certain years, the Government had never failed to meet all financial commitments including the servicing of loans. In fact we had enough money to prepay loans. The projects of course cost a lot of money. But the projects can be seen by the people. Penang Bridge, Twin Towers, KL Tower, KL International Airport, North Port and West Port in Klang, commuter train, LRT and monorail, numerous expressways all over the country, electrification and double tracking, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Langkawi development, Proton, Modenas, Silterra chip manufacturing plant, cement plants etc. etc. However, I don't think Barry Wain was referring to these projects when he said I burnt RM100million of Government money.
9. The five years of Tun Abdullah's regime saw unprecedented profits by Petronas due to the high price of oil. In my 22 years Petronas paid to the Government 126 billion Ringgit. Petronas paid to the Government of Tun Abdullah a total of 270 billion Ringgit in five years.
10. How was this huge sum spent? There are only empty corridors everywhere.
11. The public has a right to know how 270 billion Ringgit in five years have been spent. What projects have been financed by it. Why do we have to borrow money from China to build the second Penang Bridge?
12. I know every effort was made to find whether I had misused Government money. Failing to find anything the Abdullah Government set up a Royal Commission and accused me of being influenced by others in the choice of judges.
13. I have a right to clear my name. Tun Abdullah also has a right to clear his name.
14. The Government should cooperate and open all its books. There should be no cover-up. The Government is committed to transparency. It should demonstrate that it keeps its promises.
237 Comments By wajaperak on January 7, 2010 9:27 PM Semoga di izinkan Tun..Terima kasih.. [["Belief without substance is fine as long as no one gets hurt]]
What substance? [[The world where people are willing to kill for a belief system which no one can verify is troublesome]] What values are people willing to agree in verification? In Microsoft application you can have validation and validation rules.In open system there is diferrent methodology in veryfing and cross match programs and application..So..Apple system?Microsoft?Java?Open Sys or combination of all the OS?? [[The fact is and I am not questioning anyones beliefs here. Values and beliefs differ and are not set systems. They more often then not work out from location, time and circumstance]]
Of course they do.Einstein have proven this in time warp.Time like other,though and essence is contemporary in their relevance. [[Relevance is another issue. Your understanding of science in this regard is too simplistic]]
In Islamic teaching..It is paramount to make all thing as simple as it can be..:) [[I believe the holy book are more metaphorical and literal, but then again that is my opinion]] No..It can be both and complement each other.Scientist have tried very hard to make teleportation possible.It is possible.It was mention in Al Quran about..one of the servant who managed to moved Barsheba castle in Yemen to Palestine in a blink of eyes.. The one who acquired knowledge from the Kitab.. [[ Im not sure what you are disagreeing with here, documents, proof vs. myth, there can be no right answer. Your faith allows you to belief without question , in Dam and Angels and what not. My logic defies me from believing in something that doesn’t make historical sense ( Adam) and for something Mystic ( Angels)]]
Where's your logic in determining where the soul is..? Just where is the soul situated?? [[The Quran as you said is documentation of what was informed. Then what makes the Quamran scroll any less believable. You are quoting Surah and verses. I have no doubt they say what you say they say, but I am saying they are only true because the muslims believe in it. For those that don’t share the same faith it isn’t true. So who is right and who si wrong. That cant be answered. As far as you are concerned you are, the other will be in same position]]
Al Quran documented the formation of fetus in embryo..how they evolves many thousand years before scientist proof it as to be so..There is many other's..Oh..how much we missed Prof Ahmad Deedat..:( [[ ("With all due respect to Tun, I hardly think he a living example of anything other then chaos. Then again that’s my point of view. He is a legend ill give you that. For the wrong reason, mostly. Although he has alos done a lot of good, he always choose between the two evils. A devils advocate always playing with fire. After he left we can see the effect of his misconducts.") ]] Aha..obviously you did not knows Tun..In Islam there is a verses stating.. Surah Al Haj.56...It is not the eye's that blind..verily it is the eyes in the chest ( heart ). There is common adage in many human society agreeing about the Third Eyes.. If the Third eyes are blind..There will be lost cause in salvaging any hope in damnation.. [[ ("Well this is a view point, I personally belief anyone that can instigate a single ill feeling towards another is an instigator. Our dear tun, blatantly instigates and incites trouble….]]
You have forgotten the role of Agent Provocateur.. And I don't think you understand about Provocateur Impression.. [[The hudud is preventative, well in your eyes. To me the Hudud represent oppression where people are made to act a certain way because of fear. You are threatened to do and act . What it does is limit and hold people from being them selves.") ]]
Your believe in this is just like people drinks sake.First the person drink sake..The second drinks took the first one and the rest tooks over you.. [[ ("I cant bring myself to believe Allah would decree we hurt any of his children in his name. This I believe to be a metaphor. But I guess too many people take it literally. I find it hard to believe in a God that hurts his own beings for acting any way.") ]]
If you talked about flagellate I agrees with you..But Islam is more like a strong steel fort.Human are needed to be proctected again themselves.. SR..This will be going forever..I say we stick to more specific issues like the validity of assesment..An establishment in determining the belief is the religion itself..It's starts with learning Al Quran..maybe you cares to point out your disagreement? Terima kasih Tun.. By SR on January 7, 2010 2:54 PM ( Wajaperak)... This I have to disagree.Life is all about belief.And values determined those belief.In Science we have common value of determining the acidicity or the alkaline of any liquid by using the pH..Everybody agrees to this..it becomes standardize world wide. ("Belief without substance is fine as long as no one gets hurt. The world where people are willing to kill for a belief system which no one can verify is troublesome. The fact is and I am not questioning anyones beliefs here. Values and beliefs differ and are not set systems. They more often then not work out from location, time and circumstance. Relevance is another issue. Your understanding of science in this regard is too simplistic ") Unfortunately's you can never say about the religion which people wants to believe diferrently..That's is the crux of matter.. Again..Unfortunately..Muslim have no says in their choice..They must have total believe in Islam..There is no half measures..You are totaly muslim or you are 'munafik' = hypocrites.For the true believer there is a level degree of faith.There is a mukmin, a muslim,a fasiq and so on..