Be Grateful to the Government

Former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin reminded businessmen that they owed their success to all the aid the government has provided them and should be grateful for it, Utusan Malaysia reported today.

The Umno-owned daily quoted Daim as saying they were in no position to be arrogant and tarnish the government’s image, given all the riches they had reaped from the country.

“These successful companies should not smear the country and government because they received a lot of help. Instead, they should repent and be grateful,” Utusan quoted Daim as saying.



Daim was responding to tycoon Tan Sri Francis Yeoh’s (pic) comments that Malaysia should be free from crony capitalism, racism and religious rhetoric if it wished to remain competitive globally.
The managing director of YTL Corporation Bhd had also claimed his company had never practised graft, and that 85% of his firm’s businesses were abroad.

“This practice (of tarnishing the government) should be stopped. It is not right for us to become successful by raking in the country’s riches and end up insulting the government,” Daim was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Malay right-wing group Perkasa today claimed Yeoh was a government crony whose success relied on the special privileges he received.

“If he hates cronyism, Perkasa is urging him to return all the opportunities his firm received through direct negotiations," said its secretary-general, Syed Hassan Syed Ali.

Syed Hassan also reminded the tycoon not to forget how he had come to amass such wealth.

“He is proud his firm is given so many opportunities overseas and says this means there is no cronyism involved.

“But does he think foreign countries would give him a chance if he had no brilliant track record?

“Where did his firm start and where was it first recognised to the point that he is now listed among the richest? Was it not from this country?”

Yeoh, however, has claimed that his statements were twisted by the media. He said he has defended the present administration's efforts to introduce more open competition and encourage greater transparency in business.

He said that he wanted to dispel the “misconception that successful businesses in Malaysia are a result of crony capitalism".

In a Global Malaysia Series talks organised by Pemandu on Tuesday, Yeoh was reported as saying that 85% of YTL’s business were in Britain, Singapore and Australia because these countries did not tolerate corruption, practised meritocracy and stood for the rule of law.

 “For example, in Singapore, we own a third of Singapore’s electricity. There is no subsidy of any kind. There is no cronyism of any type. The good thing about these three territories, I don’t have to kowtow to the prime minister before I do deal(s), I don’t have to see them even, even after I’ve won the deal," he was quoted as saying by a news portal – June 7, 2014.

- The Malaysian Insider -