With Equinimity seizure invalid, what now, Tun M?

That's the only possible reaction from pentaksub and PH's cybertrooper.

Yesterday, Singapore's Straits Times here reported that US and Indonesian police seizure of the superyatch Equinimity is illegal.

Taking an extract from Malaysia Today here:

Indonesia Court Rules Yacht Seizure In 1MDB Case Invalid...."Indonesian court on Tuesday (April 17) ruled that the seizure of a luxury yacht linked to a US investigation into scandal-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was invalid and without legal basis....citing an on-going investigation, said Mr Low never worked for 1MDB and he did not make any business decision for the company(1MDB)

Allow some bragging rights for this blog. We wrote in early March: Equinimity seizure is still far from anything significant.

Was Equinimity the 1MDB bomb Tun Dr Mahathir wanted to explode for this general election?

Continually failed

A lawyer, who had dealing with US lawyers, told us few months ago that the legal community in the US felt DOJ's action on the 1MDB "linked" forfeiture case was rather unusual.

The timing of the seizure of the superyatch fit the suspicion that DOJ collaborated to assist Mahathir's politics. Its an open secret that WSJ is DOJ's unofficial media partner.

After bombing out issue after issue, Mahathir's old 1MDB warriors that include Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli, Dato Abdul Kadir Jasin, Dato Khairuddin Abu Hassan, Matthias Chang, Hanif Khatri, Sarawak Report, Wall Street Journal, etc. are noticeably silent.

Other than this latest development, there have been others developments. Dato Ezam Md Noor embarassingly bombed out in court with his US$3.657 billion legal stunt.

 Tony Pua failed to reinstate his lawsuit against Najib and was ordered to pay cost for RM5,000.

Tan Seng Giaw clarified his position on the PAC enquiry on 1MDB:

Left to AP Queen to carryon?

Only the cybertroopers are recycling the same rebutted and answered propaganda. AP Queen, Tan Sri Rafidah tried to take a crack by diving deep into Phuket and claimed to have found what police failed.

She bimbo-ed on her MINDEF allegation:

Her latest attempt to take issue with the RM2.6 billion bombed out with many errors.

In his rebuttal to Rafidah, Dato Eric See highlighted our own misunderstanding of the US$60 million (or was it RM60 million?) allegedly used by Najib from the Saudi donation.

1. We refer to Rafidah Aziz's latest allegation today on the RM2.6 billion issue - however we notice glaring and very fundamental mistakes in her statement.

2. Rafidah is correct to point out that it was actually RM2.077 billion (US$681mil) that was transferred into the PM's account then between March 22, 2013, and April 4, 2013 based on exchange rates of USD1 to RM3.05 then - not the often cited RM2.6 billion as that was based on the exchange rates in July 2015 when the issue was reported in the media.

3. Rafidah is also correct to point out that US$620mil was then transferred out of the PM's account and returned in August 2013 - which was reported in the foreign press and confirmed by our Attorney-General.

4. However, where Rafidah had made a gross mistake was to assume that the Ringgit's exchange rate had remained unchanged from March 2013 to August 2013. Rafidah had made an entirely fake accusation that US$61mil had been retained in the PM's account and hence subject to income tax.

5. In August 2013, the Ringgit's exchange rate was RM3.30 to the USD. This meant that the US$620mil returned was worth approximately RM2.046 billion. https://tinyurl.com/y849kxus

6. Therefore an estimated RM2.077 billion was transferred in and RM2.046 billion was then returned. Less bank and FOREX fees this means that the majority - if not all amounts have been returned.

7. Rafidah is thus very wrong to assume that US$61 million (or RM236.65mil as she had alleged) - which would only be true if exchange rates had remained static from March 2013 to August 2013 instead of depreciating 10% then.

8. We thank Rafidah for pointing out the fact that the colloquial RM2.6 billion was returned which is a breakaway from the oppositions normal propaganda of alleging that money was deposited into the PM's account but do does not mention that the money was entirely returned too.

9. However, we are surprised that Rafidah being an experienced former minister can put her name under such a cybertrooper level accusation again and make such a fundamental error.

10.We also urge Rafidah to question Tan Sri Muhyiddin about a leaked audio recording of him speaking at a 9 Sept 2015 Supreme Council meeting shortly after he was replaced as the Deputy Prime Minister. https://youtu.be/ZxM-Vri8acM - a video that Muhyiddin had kept completely silent about for more than 2 1/2 years.

11. Please ask Tan Sri Muhyiddin what did he mean when he had said that he was aware of a internal conspiracy to topple PM Najib at that time and why he had said he had no problems about the special UMNO president fund that Muhyiddin was a long-standing UMNO practise "dari dulu lagi".

I am sure that Tan Sri Muhyiddin will confirm to Rafidah what she already knows - that it was always the practise that the UMNO president holds the funds on behalf of the party.

12. As for the question if donations are taxable, Rafidah should also know that the head of LHDN had confirmed that political donations are not taxable.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/02/16/political-donations-not-subjected-to-tax-says-irb-chief/

The Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications (BNSC) Team.

14th April 2018

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https://www.facebook.com/EricSeeTo/posts/1939676546044728 

Sumber 1: video Tun Muhyiddin mengaku dana khas presiden UMNO dikendali oleh presiden dari dulu lagi: https://youtu.be/ZxM-Vri8acM  

Sumber 2: Ketua LHDN menjelaskan bahawa derma politik dikecualikan cukai.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/02/16/political-donations-not-subjected-to-tax-says-irb-chief/ 

Sumber 3; Kadar FOREX Ringgit pada Aug 2013: https://tinyurl.com/y849kxus

Adding to the trust fund issue, Anina Saadudin raised the use of Tun Dr Mahathir personal account as trustee for the transaction involving 70% of Realmild.shares.

She made Kadir Jasin shut silent with her open FB posting on the issue. Read February 21st Malay Mail Online here.

Having bombed out again and again, Rafidah is incapable of giving a dent on Najib in relation to 1MDB and should resign as Chairperson of Air Asia X Berhad.

Let it be publicly known that it was Najib who suggested to Air Asia to take her in as Chairperson. 

Since she resigned from Supermax's CEO for apologising to Najib, then she must show consistency to resign too, Rocky Bru here and The Unspinners here urged.

1MDB controversy simplified

There have been too many slanderous speculation and accusation made on 1MDB since Mahathir claimed the whole liability side of RM42 billion went "lesap".

The following twitter conversation gives a simple explanation of what happen on the 1MDB:

Conversation seen on Twitter

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Eh tadi i promised to give you guys the reasons why my friend is gonna pangkah bn kan.. jap eh i will try to remember all the shit he told me.

He said the problem with Mahathir model is this: You inevitably become a slave to your proxies, crony businessmen who'll want more overpriced projects... so economic policy is determined by them.

Of cos if you take directly like Najib via 1MDB, you expose yourself but it gives him a freer, independent hand in policy... you’re not indebted to cronies.

But this is UMNO we’re talking about. So I’m quite sure many projects are still awarded to cronies. That’s just how UMNO (and Malay politics) work. But not as bad as before for sure. Or you’ll be hearing a lot more complaints about cronyism and bailouts from Pakatan.

But this is UMNO we’re talking about. So I’m quite sure many projects are still awarded to cronies. That’s just how UMNO (and Malay politics) work. But not as bad as before for sure. Or you’ll be hearing a lot more complaints about cronyism and bailouts from Pakatan.

The key difference between Mahathir cronyism and Najib cronyism is... Mahathir not only wasted public funds BUT ALSO menyusahkan rakyat on top of that. Mahathir cronyism created a predatory class of businessmen who prey on average citizens.

Take Mahathir’s tolls — we are the ones who directly have to pay for that.
His LRT, monorail — we suffer the inconvenience of small, poorly connected trains. Proton — we’ve to pay much higher prices for foreign cars and cars in general.

Giving the satellite tv monopoly to Astro— we suffer for the lack of competition... expensive and shitty content. Cronyism is inevitable in Malaysia but at least don’t let your cronies suck us dry thru the agreements you’ve signed. That’s intolerable.

Even 1MDB, right... huge scandal yes... but total govt loss is just the RM1 million seed money. It’s not like 1MDB is making us fork out money daily thru tolls.

Short version: 1MDB was once known as TIA, Terengganu Investment Authority... then the federal govt pumped in RM1 million seed money and turned it into 1MDB. Then 1MDB went on a borrowing spree... sampai RM42 b in debt.

Short version: 1MDB was once known as TIA, Terengganu Investment Authority... then the federal govt pumped in RM1 million seed money and turned it into 1MDB. Then 1MDB went on a borrowing spree... sampai RM42 b in debt.

Some govt guarantees are in still in place, but looks like 1MDB is able to pay off its debts by sellling & monetising its assets.
So net loss to govt = RM1 mil till today.

Remember that 42 billion debt everyone keeps talking about? That’s not accurate. Right now, thanks to debt payments and currency movements (ringgit getting stronger), it has been reduced to rm30+ billion.

They borrowed money to buy assets. Then they intended to monetise those assets, which they’re doing now. Assets like the TRX land and Bandar Malaysia thing. The GDV (gross development value) of those prime KL developments are in the tens of billions. So profit is possible.

They haven’t sold or monetised all their assets yet, but are in the process of doing it. Reason being:
1) you can’t liquidate assets immediately
2) More importantly, their debt is long-term, as in bonds. The principal (original amount borrowed) doesn’t need to be paid immediately

They’re due in many years and decades. So can’t say yet if 1MDB made profit or loss. But if everything goes well, should be profit lah. They have prime KL land.

On the macro level, everything is fine. Of course, on the micro level, you have things like 2.6 billion.

But objectively, the macro picture is more important in terms of debt and viability.

Centralisation of power and money. If money is raised by cronies, then they control the govt, not policy makers. That’s why Najib has survived longer than Pak Lah. Pak Lah couldn’t raise funds because Mahathir’s cronies said no. The division chiefs rebelled.

That’s the great irony. Without 1MDB, Najib would not have survived past GE13.

Next is GST and high cost of living. According to him, rising cost of living is partly perception

It's not fair to blame GST solely for price increases. Yes, there was a small spike in prices after GST was implemented 3 years ago. But all that has already be priced into the markets. It would be absurd to blame say, the SST, for high prices years after it was implemented.

It's not fair to blame GST solely for price increases. Yes, there was a small spike in prices after GST was implemented 3 years ago. But all that has already be priced into the markets. It would be absurd to blame say, the SST, for high prices years after it was implemented.

Also, Malaysia exempts and zero rates a shit ton of goods from GST... including chicken, fish, beef, most vegetables, fresh fruits, etc. That’s why the World Bank and IMF bitches about that now and then.

They believe we should remove those exemptions. They do have a point, but if we do that, habis lah. Riots in the streets.

Also, it depends on what goods you’re talking about... many have risen for different reasons separate from GST.

Let’s take fish for example... that’s due to overfishing to meet the demands of China’s growing middle-class... which is getting more affluent by the day.

Oh yes, another reason why harga barang naik.. shortage of foreign manpower. Why.. cos govt pandered to Pakatan scaremongering tactics.

After pakatan made a HUGE deal about the 1.5 mil Bangladeshi thing, govt clamped down on foreign workers and made it harder to hire foreigners

That means lower production in farms etc which causes lower supply. And of course when there’s lower supply, harga will naik lah.

As you know, I’m very pro-immigration. Because Malaysia is an aging nation, we need more foreign workers to compensate.

Btw, the govt has also reduced personal income tax. If I’m not mistaken, if you earn up to 5k per month, you’re not taxed at all. Which is a huge deal. And back in 2016, govt has also increased the tax rates for the two highest income brackets from 25% to 26% and 25% to 28%.

The thing about accusations that we will be conquered by China and all that... it's bullshit.

We have significant policy space precisely because we’re of value to BOTH China and the US.

When there’s a sane US president again (not Trump), we can easily pivot back to him.

Also, Najib wanted to reform the system to be more needs-based and not race-based, through NEM. That’s good good news for the non Malays. But Mahathir and Perkasa fought like hell against that.

Yes, Malays need help. And yes, because they are discriminated against in the private sector. But Mahathir is the last person who will give you those reforms.

It’s mind boggling that the non Malays are even thinking of voting for Mahathir when he was the one who hammered in the idea of ketuanan melayu. Now he said he never believed in it. This man will say anything to stay in power.

The non Malays are thinking that a change of govt will give them equality but equality will never happen unless Malays and Chinese reach economic equality and we have to work towards that. The eternal question is can we transcend race? I think not.

My friend is an urban liberal chinese who claimed his parents brought him up to be anti-mahathir and his racism. And now he is supremely heart broken that his parents are voting for him.

https://twitter.com/yvyvivy/status/985317105577803776?s=21

Or if you have the time, listen to the videos below:

Wonder, what now will Tun M do?

He has been making endless lies, U turn and ignored critical questions of his stands and past. When will he stop from continuing to commit sin in his very late age?

He tried to get sympathy by claiming he will be assasinated. Maybe he could redo the crying act he once did.

It worked before to get him an additional year to clear his track.