1MDB’s land sale gets attacked but Tun M giving away gambling licences is overlooked

(Malaysian Digest) – The Opposition has been having a field day alleging that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is selling the country’s assets to China-owned companies, making a big fuss about the 1MDB’s Bandar Malaysia land being sold below market price to a Malaysia-China consortium company.

However, they have conveniently forgotten to mention that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad carried out similar transactions during his last days in power.

Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin had highlighted the double standards applied by the Opposition in a recent article posted on malaysia-today.net.

He pointed out that at least the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) rationalisation process is being carried out in the open unlike Tun M’s actions during his last days as prime minister when he sold off gambling concessions at dirt-cheap prices to the Chairman of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, another well-known crony of Tun M.

“In September 2003, just one month before Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad retired as Prime Minister, the government secretly awarded the sole sports-betting license to a company owned by Chinese tycoon Vincent Tan.

“The price was a steal at just RM25 million when it was valued at RM760 million. At about the same time, Vincent Tan’s Bukit Tinggi resort was also awarded 420 slot machine licenses worth hundreds of millions of Ringgit,” he revealed.

Raja Petra pointed out that the gambling industry during that time was valued in the billions of ringgit and after Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became the prime minister, the gambling license to Vincent Tan was suspended until Najib took over as the prime minister.

Raja Petra said, as a signal to Najib, Mahathir had issued a public statement to the media.

“If I were the government, I’d approved it,” Tun M stated, meaning he asked Najib to re-approve Berjaya Corporation’s gambling license.

“Nevertheless, Najib suspended the sports betting license and forbid its operation..until now Najib refuses to approve the license,” he said, thereby strengthening Tun M’s resolve to remove him from the seat of power.

The blogger then highlighted how Vincent Tan divested himself of the gambling franchise at a handsome profit at the expense of the government.

“In that same month, Vincent Tan sold 70% of his gambling license in Ascot Sports to Berjaya, his own public listed company, for just RM525 million — which is considered grossly undervalued considering the estimated legal and illegal gambling industry in Malaysia is RM25 billion a year. And he sold it at RM525 million for 70% when he only paid RM25 million for 100%.

“They allege that 1MDB obtained its assets cheap from the government and sold it for a huge profit. Well, Vincent Tan also paid only RM25 million for something worth RM760 million and which would be worth billions had Abdullah and then Najib not jammed the licence.

“And he sells it with RM525 million for 70 percent of his share while he only pay RM25 million for the license for 100 percent of his share,” he concluded.