ENIGMA 0101

[Kami mengeluarkan semula rencana mengenai Daim dari laman freeMalaysia untuk diimbau kembali siapakan dirinya yang sebenar. Beliau kerap dikatakan tokoh perniagaan sedangkan bakatnya tidak ada sejak dulu lagi. Beliau berjaya secara tiba-tiba kerana mainan politiknya. Bila faktor alam atau krisis ekonomi datang menjelang, semuanya lingkup tidak dapat bertahan.

Seseorang yang betul-betul tokoh berniaga tidak memerlukan politik ataupun bantuan untuk tiba kemercu kejayaan kerana ketokohan dan kecekapan mengurus itulah yang menyebabkan perniagaan dapat bertahan. Hari ini kesemua kroninya sudah dihempap masalah sehingga terpaksa diselamatkan tetapi kita tidak pula mendengar syarikat lain yang tidak berkroni tenggelam. Jelaslah beliau kaki putar alam - sebab itulah tiba-tiba timbul dan tiba-tiba juga tenggelam bila berombak sedikit lautan.

Daim dan Mahathir sebenarnya tidak memulihkan ekonomi. Mereka memulihkan kroni yang diharap akan merangsang ekonomi walaupun sudah kecundang banyak kali. Mereka berdua cuma menganjakkan kesan dengan dana awam dan masa depan rakyat sebagai pertaruhan. Ini akan menjadi satu bom jangka yang bakal memusnahkan ekonomi negara satu ketika nanti kerana hutang berbunga keliling pinggang tetapi sudah tidak berwang.
- Editor]

Penterjemah: Penulis R4MAC

http://www.freemalaysia.com/political/daim_part1.htm

freeMalaysia

Daim Enigma: Tersingkapnya Sesuatu Yang Tersembunyi

Bahagian Pertama

DARI PEGUAM BIASA KE AHLI KORPORAT (1938 - 71)

Semakin kita mengenali Daim, bekas Menteri Kewangan Malaysia dan kini Penasihat Ekonomi kepada PM Malaysia, semakin sukar untuk mencari keistimewaan disebalik lelaki yang kononnya diam ini. Sebaliknya Daimlah yang bertanggung jawab di atas budaya rasuah dan diktator di bawah penguasaan PM. Daim menjadi sebahagian daripada punca kepada kegawatan ekonomi yang melanda negara kini.

Sebahagian daripada kita berpendapat ini adalah satu muslihat berbau hasad dengki untuk mencemar nama baik tokoh/penyelamat ekonomi negara kesayangan Mahathir merangkap sahabat baik beliau. Namun keadaan mungkin berlaku sebaliknya. Mungkinkah sebenarnya kita telah diperdayakan selama dua dekad dengan mempercayai ketokohan Daim - dalam dunia perniagaan sekaligus penyelamat ekonomi negara.

Kenyataannya, kerajaan telah melancarkan propagandanya melalui jentera media yang rata-ratanya `dikuasai' oleh kerajaan . Justeru itu, kita telah gagal untuk mengenali siapakah Daim yang sebenarnya - dari seorang peguam biasa kepada tokoh korporat palsu.

Daripada pemerhatian yang objektif, rekod kejayaan Daim yang amat luar biasa menjadi bukti kukuh keraguan yang tersendiri. Acapkali Daim sendiri menegaskan bahwa beliau kurang kemahiran dan kebolehan. Namun dia bijak mengelabui mata masyarakat tentunya melalui ahli-ahli politik rakus yang beliau tatang sepenuhnya. Tegasnya, beliau telah mengatur dunia korporat sebegitu rupa agar keadaan sentiasa menyebelahinya - semenjak Mahathir menjadi Perdana Menteri pada tahun 1981.

Penyelamat Atau Karun/Pemusnah Malaysia?

Sebelum pembaca menyifatkan tuduhan ini sebagai satu propaganda politik, cubalah renungi dengan teliti susur galur kehidupan Daim, jutawan ulung dan hero Melayu. Media tempatan sering menggelar beliau sebagai "Penyelamat Ekonomi Malaysia". Namun cuba renungi semula!!. Anda mungkin bersetuju dengan kami Daim hanyalah lubuk emas Mahathir, Qarun Malaysia !!!. Malangnya, cara beliau mengaut kekayaan dan meniti tangga korporat telah menjadi model kepada kebanyakan ahli perniagaan Malaysia.

Sejarah hidup tokoh Penyelamat Ekonomi ini perlu diselami untuk memahami beliau. Abdul Daim Zainuddin dilahirkan pada 29 April 1938, anak bungsu daripada 13 orang adik beradik. Dalam buku "Daim: The Man Behind the Enigma" beliau mengakui kepada pengarang Adibah Amin dan Cheong Mei Sui bahawa beliau bukanlah seorang pelajar yang berwawasan. Sebaliknya Daim agak bebas dan lebih cenderung bersukan hingga digelar oleh rakan dan keluarga sebagai `hantu padang'.

Namun begitu ibunya bertegas untuk melentur Daim menjadi manusia yang berjaya bukan hanya sekadar guru sekolah rendah. Ibunya menjual tanah kepunyaan keluarga dan seterusnya membiayai pelajaran undang-undang Daim di kota London. Dengan pelajaran yang ala kadar dan minat yang kurang Daim berjaya juga dipanggil ke English bar.

Pengajian Undang-undang - sekadar cukup makan

"Kita cuma belajar prinsip-prinsip asas" Daim memberitahu Cheong dan Adibah mengenai keputusan peperiksaannya yang haya sekadar lulus. "selebihnya, bakal peguam hanya perlu mengetahui cara-cara menokok tambah (pad)"

Karier Daim sebagai peguam tidak menonjol kerana tempohnya agak singkat. Kepulangannya ke Malaysia pada tahun 1960, beliau telah memulakan tugas di Shearn Delamore, Kuala Lumpur.

Daim telah bertukar ke Johor Bahru, Muar dan Ipoh dikemuncak kariernya telah menjawat jawatan sebagai Penolong Pendakwaraya Umum. Setelah mengumpul pengalaman di jabatan kerajaan pada tahun 1965, Daim kembali ke Kuala Lumpur dan memasuki syarikat peguam ternama Allen & Gledhill dan hanya bertahan selama 3 tahun. Kemudian beliau membuka syarikat guamannya sendiri namun tidak bertahan lama juga.

Selepas 1969 - Daim Mula Menghidu Peluang

Akhirnya pada tahu 1969 selepas Peristiwa 13 Mei , Daim mengenepikan dunia guaman buat
selama-lamanya. Dia menghidu untuk mengaut keuntungan besar daripada golongan bumiputera dengan menggunakan saluran politik. Tambahan pula kerajaan pusat melipatgandakan usaha untuk meningkatkan ekonomi Melayu sejajar dengan hasrat mereka untuk mengukuhkan perpaduan antara kaum dan menghapuskan jurang ekonomi berdasarkan kelompok kaum.

Daim meneruskan usahanya untuk menjadi tokoh perniagaan, pun begitu dalam erti kata yang agak longgar. Walaubagaimanapun, kejayaan sentiasa mengekori beliau. Dia bekerjasama dengan bekas pelanggannnya Low Kiok Boo dan rakan niaga Melayunya, Thamby Chik. Kedua-dua ahli perniagaan dari Melaka ini terlibat secara khusus dalam pembangunan harta tanah.

Daim dan rakan kongsi barunya telah membuka perniagaan garam setelah Low mendapat nasihat daripada seorang pakar feng-shui. Beberapa tahun kemudian dia mengakui bahawa mereka sebenarnya tidak tahu menahu mengenai industri tersebut. Tetapi ini tidak menghalang Daim melibatkan diri dalam perniagaan itu memandangkan ianya cara mudah untuk mendapatkan keuntungan.

Tokoh Korporat Yang Tidak Bijak Mengatur Strategi

Garam bukanlah salah satu barang kawalan seperti gula dan beras. Faktor ini menyebabkan mereka menghadapi saingan yang sengit daripada pengeluar dan pemborong garam yang telah lama bertapak. Pengalaman ini telah mengajar beliau untuk lebih berhati-hati di masa depan. Demi kepentingan perniagaannya, ia telah menumpukan pada usahasama yang mempunyai sedikit atau tiada langsung persaingan atau mendapatkan kawalan monopoli daripada perkhidmatan pengswastaan kerajaan melalui kadernya yang merupakan proxy dan rakan-rakan perniagaan yang rapat dengannya.

Hukum alam telah menjejaskan perniagaan garam Daim yang baru hendak berkembang. Setelah membersihkan 600 ekar hutan bakau di pesisiran Kuala Selangor, Daim dan rakannya mula menimba garam laut. Tidak lama kemudian, pantai barat Semenanjung Malaysia dilanda banjir besar pada tahun 1970. Ini menyebabkan garam yang ditimba kembali semula ke Selat Melaka dan Daim mengalami kerugian yang besar, akui beliau beberapa tahun kemudian.

Daim seterusnya membuka perniagaan pembuatan plastik juga bersama Khoo dan Thamby Chik. Sekali lagi beliau menceburkan diri dalam industri yang sengit tanpa mengetahui selok belok pengeluaran produk dan `know-how'. Selain dari itu, Daim juga terpaksa mengalami kerugian kerosakan jentera akibat mogok yang dilancarkan oleh pekerja yang tidak puas hati. Tidak lama selepas itu, kilang itu terpaksa ditutup dan pinjaman permulaan yang tidak berbayar daripada Bank Bumiputera dengan ugutan untuk mengisytiharkan Daim muflis.

Dunia Perniagaan

Sejarah perniagaan Malaysia menunjukkan pada tahun 1971, Daim mengenepikan prinsip utama perusahaan pembuatan. Walau bagaimanapun kejadian Bright Sparklers Sdn Bhd telah menghantui beliau dua dekad kemudian - kemalangan industri terburuk dalam sejarah Malaysia. Usahasama pembuatan dari segi teknologi, persaingan yang sengit, menuntut ketelitian dan mengambil masa.

Sebagaimana kerjaya undang-undangnya, dia tidak mengembangkan disiplin dan kemahiran teknologi untuk memulakan perniagaan. Ketika inilah Daim mula menunjukan belangnya dan ciri-ciri perniagaannya mula kelihatan : dia menggunakan sepenuh peluang hubungan perniagaan bagi mendapatkan keuntungan untuk diri sendiri dengan menawarkan apa sahaja yang dapat diberi olehnya.

Langkah Daim seterusnya ialah memulakan perniagaan hartanah, satu bidang yang penuh dengan budaya yang menjijikkan, kejayaan bergantung kepada nasib, masa yangs sesuai, dan paling penting ; hubungan politik yang baik . Bagi Daim, beliau tiba pada masa yang sesuai.

Daim Menempa Kejayaan...Dengan Sedikit Bantuan

Dalam tahun 1971, Daim memperbadankan syarikat hartanahnya yang pertama, Syarikat Maluri Sdn Bhd. Pada tahun itu juga kerajaan Malaysia di bawah pimpinan Allayarham Tun Abdul Razak melancarkan Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB). Matlamat program ini yang termaktub adalah untuk menghapuskan kemiskinan dengan tidak mengira bangsa atau kaum. Dan juga penstrukturan sosio-ekonomi negara sehinggalah setiap orang di Malaysia ini dapat bersaing dalam keadaan sama rata dalam apa jua bidang kemasyarakatan dan ekonomi.

Bagi mencapai hasrat murni ini, Tun Razak dan pemimpin seterusnya melancarkan tindakan kearah pencapaian matlamat ini atau lebih dikenali dengan "affirmative action". Matlamat utama dasar ini ialah untuk mengeluarkan golongan miskin terutamanya kaum Melayu dari lembah kemiskinan kepada keadaan yang lebih baik bagi bersaing dengan kaum Cina dan kuasa ekonomi yang didominasikan oleh orang asing ketika itu.

Secara kebetulan, Daim adalah sebahagian kecil daripada bumiputera yang wujud untuk ditingkatkan melalui dasar ini. Adalah dipercayai tanpa bantuan awal daripada kerajaan ketika itu, Daim tidak akan menempa kejayaan yang mendadak dalam sektor hartanah. Malah akan menerima nasib yang serupa seperti percubaan terdahulu dalam perniagaan garam dan pembuatan plastik.

Menjelang awal 1970, Daim mendapat satu pengajaran yang amat berguna iaitu cara yang mudah dan cepat untuk menjadi tokoh peniagaan Malaysia yang ulung dan ini menjadi pegangan hidup beliau : Memahami selok belok dunia perniagaan adalah sukar dan tidak menarik jika dibandingkan kontrak perniagaan yang sudah pasti dalam genggaman melalui jaringan politik. Dengan prinsip ini yang terpahat kemas dalam ingatan beliau, Daim telah melebarkan cengkamannya ke atas ahli-ahli politik Melayu yang sanggup menolong mencapai hasratnya menjadi tokoh peniaga terkemuka tanahair.

Untuk melihat bagaimana Daim melakukannya, ikuti:

Bahagian Kedua - KEJAYAAN PERTAMA DIRASAI (1971-79)

Rencana Asal:

Daim: The Enigma Unmasked Part One

FROM HAPLESS LAWYER TO CORPORATE PLAYER (1938-71)

The closer one gets to Tun Daim Zainuddin, Malaysia's former finance minister and now senior economic adviser to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's 17-year-old regime, the harder it is to find anything admirable in the man. In fact, Daim has been largely responsible for the escalation of corruption and dictatorial rule under Dr. M's reign, as well as for the current economic malaise battering the nation.

To some, this bald assertion might sound like sheer propaganda, a flimsy attempt to sully the reputation of Dr. M's closest adviser and longtime friend. But we ask readers to consider the opposite case; is it possible that for nearly two decades you have been duped into thinking otherwise? Fed repeatedly over the years the propaganda of the Malaysian government and its state-controlled media, you have been unable to see Daim for what he really is - a former hapless lawyer turned pseudo businessman.

From an objective vantage point, Daim's dubious record of "achievements" speaks for itself. Indeed, Daim himself has on occasion more or less confirmed the view that he is as short on talent as he is on stature. But he nonetheless had the prescience to relentlessly milk Malaysia with the help of the powerful political patrons he courted and nurtured. In short, he has made sure that, in his corporate life, the cards he has been dealt over the years have been stacked in his favor - particularly so since Dr. M was elevated to prime minister in 1981.

Savior or Malaysia's Rasputin?

So before dismissing this profile as mere propaganda, consider the facts revealed in this chronological account of Daim's ascent to billionaire and Malay-hero status. Rather than being hailed as the "Savior of Malaysia's Economy," as Malaysia's media have repeatedly praised him, you may agree with freeMalaysia.com's contention: Daim is Dr. M's economic Rasputin and political money man - nothing more, nothing less - whose means to material success unfortunately has become the model for many Malaysian businessmen.

Let's first look at the early days of this economic savior:

Abdul Daim bin Zainuddin, born April 29, 1938, in Alor Setar, was the youngest of 13 children. Even by his own admission - made to authors Cheong Mei Sui and Adibah Amin in "Daim: The Man Behind the Enigma" - he was never an inspired student. Rather, the carefree, and oddly sports-minded Daim was regarded then by friends and family as little more than a hantu padang, or field fiend.

Still, Daim's mother insisted that her shiftless son make something more of himself and not settle for a career as a grade-school teacher. She sold some of the family's land, enough to send Daim to London to read law. And with a minimum of study and scant interest in the subject, Daim nonetheless was called to the English bar.

Scraping by in his law studies

"Just learn the principles," Daim told Cheong and Adibah, describing the minimum study requirements he needed to pass. "For the rest, as future lawyers we must know how to pad." [Emphasis added by freeMalaysia.]

Daim's legal career was as aimless as it was brief. Upon returning to Malaysia in the early 1960s, he chambered and practiced at Shearn Delamore in Kuala Lumpur. With a partnership in the prestigious firm beyond his immediate reach, Daim spent a year with a tiny Kota Bahru law office, which specialized in advising the Islamic fundamentalist Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS. Then, this latter-day champion of the private sector and critic of the civil service returned to Kuala Lumpur to join the safe and secure refuge of the government legal service, where the work demands were light and time off the job plentiful.

In rapid succession, Daim was posted to Johor Bahru, Muar and finally Ipoh, where his civil service career peaked at the level of deputy public prosecutor. By 1965, he already had had enough of government service and returned to Kuala Lumpur to join another established and highly regarded law firm, Allen & Gledhill, where he lasted just three years before leaving to start his own firm in the capital. A year later, he also gave that up.

After 1969, Daim sensed there was money to be made

Finally, in 1969, during the aftermath of Malaysia's worst ever ethnic riots, Daim abandoned his legal career altogether. He sensed that there was big money to be made by savvy bumiputeras with the right political connections, especially as the federal government began to take a more proactive interest in lifting the economic status of Malays as a means of achieving racial harmony and ethnic balance in the economy. So he became a "businessman," but only in the loosest sense of the term.

Success, however, continued to elude Daim. He teamed up with a former legal client, Low Kiok Boo, and Low's Malay business partner, Thamby Chik, for his initial business forays. The two Malacca-based businessmen specialized in property development. But it was into entirely different business ventures that they brought along their new and naive partner, much to Daim's early regret.

Based upon some ambiguous prognostication by a feng shui expert, who advised Low to dabble in water, Daim and his new partners ventured into the table salt business. He admitted years later that they knew nothing about the industry, other than that it looked like easy money. For Daim, easy was the key attraction.

No brilliant corporate strategist

However, salt in Malaysia wasn't a price-controlled commodity, unlike most other dietary staples, such a sugar and rice. This immediately put them at a competitive disadvantage against established salt manufacturing and distribution companies, a lesson he later would put to good use. Indeed, for his own business interests, Daim has shunned the level playing field, focusing instead on ventures with little or no competition or on securing monopolistic control of privatized government services through his cadre of proxy executives and close business associates.

Nature took care of the rest of Daim's ill-stared salt venture. After clearing some 600 acres of mangrove coastline near Kuala Selangor, he and his partners began extracting sea salt. But before long, the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia was inundated by the great flood of 1970. The salt quickly returned from whence it came, the Strait of Malacca, leaving Daim "almost bankrupt," he said years later.

Daim didn't fare much better in his next venture, manufacturing plastics, with Khoo and Thamby Chik. Again, he plunged into a competitive industry without securing the know-how or firm contracts for the plant's output. On top of that, the facility was hit with a strike by disgruntled workers. Before long, it too was shut, with heavy unpaid start-up loans from Bank Bumiputera again threatening Daim with bankruptcy.

Real business is too much like work

Malaysian corporate records indicate that in 1971, Daim largely abandoned the role of principle in manufacturing enterprises, though one - Bright Sparklers Sdn. Bhd. - would come back to haunt him two decades later in the worst industrial catastrophe in Malaysia's history. These manufacturing ventures were technologically too demanding, too competitive and too time consuming.

Much like his legal career, the hantu padang had never developed the discipline and technological expertise to see such start-up ventures through to successful conclusions. It is at this time that a more enduring pattern begins to emerge in Daim's business dealings: exploiting connections and wheedling stakes in others' enterprises in exchange for whatever favors he could bestow.

Next, Daim pushed into property development, largely a mugs game in Malaysia, in which the prerequisites for success primarily required luck, timing and, above all, the right political connections. In his case, the timing was perfect; the rest came later.

Finally, Daim strikes gold in property ... with some help

It was in 1971 that Daim incorporated his first property development company, Syarikat Maluri Sdn. Bhd. That was also the year in which the Malaysian government, under the late Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak, launched the New Economic Policy. The stated aim of the policy was the eradication of poverty, irrespective of race, and the socio-economic restructuring of the country, after which every Malaysian eventually would be able to compete equally in every sphere of society and the economy.

To achieve the restructuring as quickly as possible, Tun Razak and his successors launched what amounted to a massive affirmative action program. Its primary aim was to push the disenfranchised poor, which were mostly Malay, into the upper reaches of Malaysia's then Chinese- and foreign-dominated economy.

Daim, it just so happened, was among the few bumiputeras available for prompt economic promotion. For he was among the few self-declared Malay businessmen of his day. It's reasonable to believe that without this early helping hand from the state, his foray into the property market would have met with as much success as his earlier salt and plastic ventures.

But by the early 1970s, Daim had discovered the critical lesson and the crucial, and until then missing, ingredient for quick success in Malaysian business circles that would serve him well for the rest of his life: Learning the ins and outs of a business is considerably harder and less lucrative that obtaining sure-fire deals through political connections. So with this lesson in mind, his feelers promptly began reaching out for the right Malay political patrons who could help transform him into the biggest of the big-time business bumis.

To see how he did that, read:

Part Two - THE CORPORATE PLAYER TASTES HIS FIRST SUCCESS (1971-79)