Timely Reminder For The Record...

Catalogue of corruption

I’d love to be able to compute what BN blundering and plundering has cost Malaysia as a nation and each Malaysian personally, but thanks to media suppression, partisan regulation and legislated secrecy, nobody really knows.

Some idea of the staggering amount can be gleaned from an excellent article that one of my contacts sent me from MalaysiaToday.

Written by ‘ez42get’, it reminds me that in the March 15, 2004 issue of Time Asia magazine, Daniel Lan, the Southeast Asian economist with Morgan Stanley in Singapore, was quoted as estimating that Malaysia "may have lost US$100 billion (RM320 billion) since the early 1980s to corruption".

The article also contains a long, long catalogue of crimes and incompetency, although these are just "the tip of the iceberg" according to its author. They include:

The Bank Bumiputra scandals of the early 1980s (Cost, RM3.2 billion)

Maminco’s 1980s attempt to corner the global tin market (RM1.6 billion)

Bank Negara losses on foreign exchange futures in the 1990s (RM30 billion)

Perwaja Steel losses (RM2.56 billion)

Bank Islam scandal (RM700 million)

Wang Ehsan from Terengganu oil royalty (RM7.4 billion)

Shoring-up of Valuecap Sdn Bhd with public funds (RM10 billion)

Commissions to Perimeker Sdn Bhd and IMT Defence Sdn Bhd on fighter and submarine deals (RM910 million)

Non-itemised IT equipment purchased for schools (RM2.21 billion)

Soft loan to PKFZ (RM4.63 billion)

Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex for cancelled crooked bridge to Singapore (RM1.3 billion)

Compensation to Gerbang Perdana for cancellation of crooked bridge contract (RM300 million)

Two bailouts of Malaysian Airlines System (RM7.9 billion)

Bailout of Putra LRT system (RM4.5 billion)

Bailout of STAR-LRT system (RM3.256 billion)

Bailout of Kajian Makanan dan Gunaan Orang Islam (RM8.3 billion)

Compensation paid to 20 highway companies, as announced in 2006 (RM38.5 billion)

I make that about RM126 billion so far, or, according to my possibly somewhat suspect arithmetic, around $4,680 for every man, woman and child in Malaysia. But we’ve barely even started yet.

Read the complete article by Dean Johns here..