Posted on

1MDB’s Japan move raises more eyebrows

Jonathan Rogers, IFR Chief Analyst
IFR 1995 3 August to 9 August 2013
IFR Asia

MALAYSIA’S 1MDB CERTAINLY knows how to pull off a surprise. The strategic development company has no shortage of critics, from Asia’s DCM bankers who have so far missed out on a share of its no-doubt lucrative debt market mandates, to ordinary Malaysians who bought into the opposition’s argument prior to May’s general election that 1MDB lacks transparency.

Previous surprises for the DCM community came in the form of two gargantuan private placements of US dollar bonds totalling US$4.75bn, a combined size that could normally only be achieved through the depth of liquidity available in the offshore public markets.

The size and the private placement approach raised eyebrows, but the fact that all of the business went to Goldman Sachs simply added to the bitterness quotient. Ignoring the fact that few international investment banks can deliver private placements in that size and – I believe it’s fair to say – no Malaysian investment bank can, it just didn’t seem fair play. Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue the US house is rumoured to have walked away with thanks to winning the business.
Continue reading “1MDB’s Japan move raises more eyebrows”

Posted on

Umno/BN journalism reached new “heights” when lies become truths and fiction transmuted into fact

Malaysian journalism in Umno/BN country has reached new international “heights” where lies become truths and fiction transmuted into fact.

The Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia gave an illustration of this “transformation” of Malaysian journalism yesterday when its official commentary “Bisik-Bisik” by Awang Selamat, which is the pseudonym of the Umno-Utusan propaganda/psy war command centre, launched another attack on the DAP for its response to the Registrar of Societies asking for reasons for the RoS’ decision to direct the holding of DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) re-elections.

Awang Selamat commented:”Awang teringat desakan orang politik termasuk bekas orang DAP sendiri yang mahukan DAP mengadakan semula pemilihan CEC ekoran dakwaam berlaku penyelewengan dan manipulasi undi membabitkan 547 perwakilan.”

The lie of 547 phantom delegates at the Penang DAP Congress in Penang last December, with the even more ludicrous allegation that all the 547 ‘phantom’ DAP delegates came from Penang, is one of the despicable falsehoods concocted and conjured up by the Umno/BN psy-war journalists when there is no shred of evidence whatsoever, but which Umno/BN propagandists hope can be accepted as fact by gullible Malaysians by implementing the Goebble doctrine that if a lie is repeated a thousand times, it could become a fact.
Continue reading “Umno/BN journalism reached new “heights” when lies become truths and fiction transmuted into fact”