Doubts over DAP’s economic adviser

New Straits Times

In February, 35-year-old self-made Internet millionaire Tony Pua made news when he sold his Singapore Stock Exchange listed company for a full-time career in opposition politics.

Pua is a well-known name in the e-commerce industry, where his string of credentials include his being the youngest founder-CEO to have listed a company in Singapore.

But a 2005 Ernst and Young audit report recently revealed that the company, Cyber Village Sdn Bhd, may be running into difficulties, and Pua's reputation as a corporate whizz kid, which resulted in the DAP appointing him economic adviser to secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, has been called into question.

The report revealed that since 2001, the company's share price had plummeted from above S$0.25 (RM0.57) to a few cents in 2005, two years before his appointment at the DAP.

"As at the financial year ended Dec 31, 2005, the company's current liabilities exceeded its current assets by S$260,077, and for that year the group incurred a loss of S$2,187,404. These factors indicate the existence of an uncertainty which may cast doubt as to whether the company and the group are able to continue as going concerns," the report said.

Cyber Village's position has caused one blogger to wonder if Pua is qualified to offer his counsel on the country's economy.

"If he can't even stick it out with his company till it generates reasonable profits for some years, why is he dishing out advice on the government's economic policies?" the blogger wrote in an entry on Thursday.

When asked about this, Pua said every business had its ups and downs.

"I never claimed I sold it big when investors bought over Cyber Village Sdn Bhd, but the investors did it after doing their homework." he said.

"Therefore, it is unfair to question my abilities as economic adviser based on a snapshot of my economic track record," he said.

Pua said he accepted the Ernst and Young report.