[Rencana ini agak lama sedikit, ia muncul kira-kira dua minggu selepas IPO time dotCom. Tetapi ia disiarkan di sini kerana tempoh anjakan NPL penyelamatan LRT baru tamat semalam. (pada 30/4/2001).

Penswastaan sebenarnya hanya indah khabar dari rupa kerana ia diberi bukan atas dasar kepakaran tetapi lebih kepada mengisi karung kroni yang masih tidak mengenal erti kenyang itu. Bumiputera hanyalah satu hiasan kata untuk membalun harta seikut suka kerana nasib kaum Bumiputera masih ditakuk lama.

Hari ini hampir semua projek penswastaan tersebut telah membebankan negara dan cuba diselamatkan dengan pelbagai cara. Time dotCom melalui tawaran terbuka saham IPO, MAS melalui tawaran tertutup kerana terbuka murah menggila, dan LRT melalui bon pula. Ketiga-tiga syarikat yang diselamatkan itu berhutang berbilion belaka - maknanya mereka tidak menemui untung walaupun perniagaan mereka dikatakan terjamin oleh wawasan diktator Malaysia juga. Yang peliknya mereka tidak dihukum apa-apa kerana mengerjakan sesuatu yang begitu cerah masa depannya dulu menjadi kabur dan kelabu.

Pada hari ini, 1/5/2001, tempoh untuk ditanda tangani satu perjanjian untuk bank menyerahkan aset LRT kepada kerajaan sudahpun berakhir tetapi tiada berita tersiar di tanah-air. Kelembapan ekonomi Amerika menyebabkan pasaran saham kini turut bermuram durja sehingga kerajaan dan bank sudah tidak tahu mahu berbuat apa lagi kerana isu bon akan menggemparkan lagi senario politik dan ekonomi negara. MTUC akan melancarkan piket beberapa hari lagi (Mei 12) dan penglibatan KWSP dalam syarikat kroni turut menjadi agenda protes mereka. Terpaksalah sang kroni mengikat perut yang lapar itu sementara waktu - tetapi jika rakyat terus bangkit dan bersuara kita pasti mereka akan mati kelaparan juga akhirnya. Semuanya terletak di tangan kita - maka itu jangan kita persiakan lagi - jika tidak mereka akan datang untuk menjajah dan mencuri lebih banyak lagi. - Editor]

B is for Bumiputera - and Bailout

By Lynette Ong

A decade and a half ago, Malaysia embarked on its grand privatization plan to stimulate entrepreneurship, reduce government involvement and improve economic efficiency. Left unsaid was Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's vision to create a Bumiputera business community. Bumiputera literally means 'sons of the soil' -- ethnic Malays, as opposed to the Chinese or Indian minorities. The roots of his vision go back to the New Economic Policy, or NEP, of the '80s, and precursor schemes that sought to transform Malaysia into an internationally competitive entrepreneurial society.

After 15 years, the privatization effort appears to be faltering on just that point -- skewing what would normally be free market outcomes to Bumiputera ends.

To secure the interests of the Bumiputeras, the privatization master plan required privatized projects to have at least 30% Malay involvement. If the critics are right, the skewing problem was further compounded by the awarding of contracts without competitive bidding -- and selling underpriced state assets to politically well-connected business people.

Many of the more inefficiently run government-linked industrial enterprises were badly hurt in the regional crisis and ended up running to the government to bail them out.

Putra and Star, the two light rail transport operators in Kuala Lumpur, are among those who sought help. Putra got into trouble when it defaulted on its two billion Malaysian ringgit ($540 million) loan in 1999. Bank Negara, the central bank, has been asking the creditors, among them Commerce International Merchant Bankers and RHB Bank, to defer labeling the loan as 'non-performing'. This bit of virtual reality prevents banks' bad loans from ballooning.

In the name of reorganizing the capital's transportation system, the government has stepped in to raise RM 6 billion ($1.6 billion), making for Malaysia's biggest-ever rescue via bond issue. The truth is, Putra belongs to Renong Bhd -- formerly the investment arm of the ruling UMNO party -- and now a heavily indebted conglomerate with interests ranging from infrastructure, oil and gas, to banking and property.

While opposition party DAP leader Lim Kit Siang has called the Renong bailout a "misappropriation of public funds", it's clear the government will take a lot more heat before letting this plodding Bumiputera giant fall over.

Another bailout helped Renong offshoot TimedotCom get around its messy IPO. With its IPO price of RM 3.3 valued at the height of the tech boom, the company saw its share price plunged nearly 30% on its market debut two weeks ago. TimedotCom is the smallest among the five cellular network operators in the country, with about 400,000 subscribers linked to a small network. Despite its sorry debut, Time raised the capital it needed, thanks to the deal's underwriters -- among them, the civil servant's pension fund (KWAP) which coughed up nearly RM 1 billion ($270 million) to take a whopping 10.8% share; the Employment Provident Fund, the country's largest pension fund, also took a 3.2% share.

The Malaysian Airline System (MAS), the ailing national carrier, is another troubled transport company that has been recently re-nationalized. Tajudin Ramli, a protege of Daim Zainuddin, Malaysia's Finance Minister, acquired a 32% stake in MAS from Bank Negara without an open bidding process in 1994. But that unencumbered start didn't help him keep the company afloat. After four straight years of losses, MAS has accumulated debt of almost RM 10 billion ($2.7 billion). The government has been widely criticized for its purchase of MAS shares at RM 8 per share from Tajudin -- and not because it underpaid him. Tajudin got more than twice the market price of RM 3.6 when the deal was sealed, and twice the value of the carrier's net tangible assets.

The troubles at MAS have further slowed KL's ambitions of turning itself into a regional aviation hub, already hurting from the decisions by British Airways, Lufthansa and other carriers to cut back on the number of flights to the city's multi-billion-dollar new airport.

What's more, it appears that more bailouts are in the pipeline. Other heavily indebted private transport companies include the national railway operator KTM Bhd, bus operator Park May Bhd and Kuala Lumpur's monorail operator. Oh yes, KTM and Park May are also thorns in Renong's crown.