Dear Jane

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jan 13, 2014

Anyway, as usual, I am digressing. What I just wanted to tell you is that the coffee shop talk about me owning a BMW 7 series is correct. But it was not Dr Mahathir who bought me that car because at that time I did not even know him yet as he was not yet the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” As Queen Gertrude said. I did not insult RPK, nor any of the uncorrupted Malay rakyat.

I did not imply that RPK had succumbed to corruption merely because he had a car; a BMW 7 series. I am fully aware that many non-corrupt Malays have cars, although they may have trouble maintaining those cars, once GST etc begin to bite.

I was referring, more specifically to the gossip which has been on the lips of coffee shop patrons in K.L. Namely, that RPK had accepted a sum of about RM 5 million from Mahathir, a former prime minister. One who is known to do whatever he wants with the rakyat’s money.

Mahathir is known to use the stick (ISA) and the carrot (large amounts of cash). The stick is often applied to family members, as well as the target of his anger. — Jane Har

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Dear Jane — yes I have always wanted to write a ‘Dear Jane’ column — I am glad you came back to continue our debate. I am glad because, as the Malays would say, you give me modal to write something or else I would only be writing about politics, religion, philosophy, and so on, which is not quite the cup of tea of most Malaysians who are of a lower intellectual level.

Looking at your Facebook links and ‘friends’, I can see that you consider yourself (or at least try to portray yourself) as someone of a higher intellect. I mean with the Lynas link and ‘friends’ who — well, let’s not talk about your friends because their ‘lifestyle’ is really not the focus of this debate — you are certainly the save the whale type of person (or attempt to present yourself as one).

What is puzzling, though, is that you do not have a proper profile or photograph on your Facebook page and your ‘latest’ posting is on 28th September 2013 and the one before that was on 31st May 2012.

Hence are you really a serious Facebook user or you are just one of those DAP Red Bean Army cyber-troopers who create many Facebook accounts so that they can troll the Internet to whack any and all Bloggers who are perceived as anti-Pakatan Rakyat?

Now, with regards to the BMW 7 series that you said I own, I admit you have caught me there and I would be foolish to attempt to deny this. So I had better just come clean and admit to that ‘crime’.

I confess I did own a BMW 7 series back in 1979. That was two years before Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad became the Prime Minister of Malaysia and three years before Anwar Ibrahim joined Umno. I was then, as you would probably be aware, a PAS supporter. In fact, in 1982, the same year that Anwar joined Umno, I went to Mekah to do the first of my ten pilgrimages together with some PAS leaders, photographs which are already available on the Internet so there is no way I can deny this.

Unfortunately, though, I was not able to keep that BMW 7 series for long. You see, not long after that I secured the Mercedes Benz dealership for the state of Terengganu and the Germans were most displeased that I was driving a BMW when I am a Mercedes Benz dealer. Hence I was forced to exchange it for a Mercedes 380 SE, the second of its kind in Terengganu.

Actually, I was supposed to own the first Mercedes 380 SE in the state but my Chinese friend — a contractor, developer and hardware dealer — wanted to own the first one so I ‘gave way’ and allowed him to buy that first one while I settled for the second Mercedes 380 SE in the state.

(I suppose it is always important to be the first and not the second — hence probably the reason why Anwar tried to oust Dr Mahathir and become number one.)

So your coffee shop gossip about me owning a BMW 7 series is a bit outdated — well, a lot outdated actually, 35 years or so outdated to be exact.

I trust that settles the matter of my BMW 7 series.

Oh, and by the way, I paid RM85,000 for that BMW 7 series. And I paid for that car in cash. No hire purchase financing.

Actually, the story of that BMW 7 series is quite hilarious and is a story I have never told before. Now that we are talking about that car I am suddenly reminded of what happened 35 years ago when I bought that car — when I was only 29 years old.

There was no BMW dealer in Terengganu (or a Mercedes Benz dealer for that matter, which was how I managed to get the dealership) so I had to drive down to Kuantan in my Mercedes 200 — which I paid RM47,000 for (see how cheap cars were in those days?) — to talk to the Chinese BMW dealer there.

Of course, he did not have stock (a BMW 7 series is too expensive to keep in stock and very few people in the East Coast buy this model) so he had to order it. So I paid the dealer RM40,000 and told him that I would pay the balance of RM45,000 when I take delivery of that car.

I was introduced to this Chinese BMW dealer by the Hong Leong Yamaha manager in Kuantan so the BMW dealer called up this manager, Wee, and asked him whether it was safe to order the car.

As I said, I had paid only RM40,000 for the car and still owed the dealer RM45,000. So he was worried that if he ordered the car and I did not pay him the balance then he would be stuck with the car.

The BMW dealer told Wee that no one buys a BMW 7 series for cash, not even the Chinese loggers and saw-millers in Pahang, and he was worried that this Melayu did not really have the money to pay for the balance of the car.

I assume he thought that if even the cash-rich loggers and saw-millers did not buy a BMW 7 series for cash how could this Melayu do so?

Wee (who told me this story later), laughed and told the BMW dealer not to worry. He is one of our top dealers, Wee told him. He sells more Yamaha motorcycles than any other dealer in Malaysia save one dealer in Ipoh, Fortune Motors. And Hong Leong allows him financing of RM2 million because his sales is so high he cannot get by with just RM500,000 like the other dealers, Wee informed him.

Actually, I was the number two dealer for many years and for three years running I won a Rolex watch as my prize, which I gave away to my friends because I had more Rolex watches than I had wrists (and you can only wear one Rolex watch at one time anyway). So I told Hong Leong to stop giving me Rolex watches and they gave me overseas holidays instead, of course, all fully paid.

Eventually I got tired of going to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan every year so I gave away these tickets to my friends as well. I preferred going to Germany to visit the Mercedes Benz factory in Stuttgart, all expenses paid as well, of course.

Sad to say, I eventually had to sell off my interest in the Mercedes Benz dealership because the Terengganu state government refused to deal with our company as long as I am still involved in the business.

You see, the state was going to order more than RM1 million worth of cars from us (including one for the Sultan) but as long as I was still involved in the company they would not give us the business. Instead they would order these cars from the Chinese Mercedes Benz dealer in Kelantan.

RM1 million may not sound much but that would be equivalent to RM5 million or so today. So it was a lot of money 20 years ago.

I was having so much fun with that business but to save the company I had to sell off my shares to my partner and accept the fact that I had to move on and as long as I am an opposition supporter it would be very difficult to do business.

In fact, I faced so many problems with the state and with Umno Terengganu that in 1994 I sold off everything and left Terengganu to move to Subang USJ9. Until today I am still registered as a voter in Subang USJ9.

As for the RM5 million that Dr Mahathir paid me I suspect, if he did pay that money, he must have handed it to a certain Chinese Datuk. I will certainly call this Datuk as soon as possible and ask him about the money and if it is true that Dr Mahathir gave him that money to hand to me then I shall demand that he hand it over to me.

I thank you for that information and if I manage to get that money I really do not mind giving you a commission for helping me to get that RM5 million. Maybe you can send me your bank account details once I get that money and I will transfer your commission direct to your account.

Oh, and do not listen too much to coffee shop talk. A lot of nonsense is talked about in coffee shops. If we believe everything we hear in coffee shops then we might start believing all this talk about Lim Kit Siang’s mistress and Lim Guan Eng’s mistress and so on (the names who I am not going to mention but who I am sure you have also heard in these coffee shops you go to gossip).

Hah! Gossip! Yes, that is the name of my kopitiam in Manchester, Gossip. Do come there for makan if you ever happen to be in town. My three sons run it and the food is pretty good. My sons do all the cooking.

But I warn you, though, my kopitiam is not quite fine dining like all those other Malaysian Chinese restaurants in the UK. It is merely, well, a coffee shop called Gossip. But for Malays like me that is the best we can afford considering we do not really have much money. Nevertheless, it is an honest living rather than being involved in the illegal VCDs, ah long, massages parlour, gambling, and so on, businesses.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK