Musa Aman’s golden handshake and Vincent Tan’s compensation

“UMNO champions interests of Sabah people,” says Musa Aman, the Sabah Chief Minister. “Come clean on Sabah casino plans,” says opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Yes, please tell us more. Let Malaysians know that the licence will be given to Musa Aman as a ‘golden handshake’ to induce him to retire and that his partner in this venture is Vincent Tan, to compensate him for not getting his football betting licence after he had handed over a lot of money in ‘commission payment’.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Musa: UMNO champions interests of Sabah people

(Bernama) – Umno, one of the pillars of the state Barisan Nasional (BN), has championed the interests of the people of Sabah, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

Unfazed by the move of a group of former leaders and loyal supporters of the defunct United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) to revive Usno, called “Usno 2006”, Musa, who is also state Umno liaison chairman, said the group was entitled to do what it wanted.

Usno was disbanded by its founder, the late Tun Datu Mustapha Datu Harun, just after the 1990 general election, to make way for Umno’s entry into Sabah.

“We in Sabah have Umno to serve the interests of the people…it’s up to them (to pursue the revival of Usno),” he told reporters after chairing the State Integrity Management Committee meeting at Wisma Innoprise, here, today.

Musa was asked to comment on the statement by former Usno vice-president and co-founder of Sabah Umno Datuk Karim Ghani yesterday that based on a statewide survey, the majority of former Usno leaders felt being marginalised and sidelined, and wanted Usno to be revived to carry on its political struggle.

Karim was tasked by the group, led by pro-tem president of Usno 2006 Datuk Perais Sharif Baba, to gather feedback from its former members and the public on what had been achieved in Sabah over the last 20 years since Umno set foot in the state.

Perais had said that the group had appealed to Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to reverse the decision to reject their application to revive Usno, called “Usno 2006”. The appeal was submitted to the Registrar Of Societies (under the Home Ministry) on April 23 this year.

Perais hoped the ministry would consider their appeal this time around in line with the principles of democracy and the 1Malaysia concept.

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Come clean on Sabah casino plans, Anwar demands

(The Malaysian Insider) – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim demanded today that the Najib Administration come clean on the proposed casino in Sabah which is part of the government’s Economic Transformation Plan (ETP).

During the ETP open day yesterday, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) revealed that the government was considering building a 500-acre “eco-nature” resort in Sabah, as part of a concerted effort to push Malaysia onto the integrated resort (IR) bandwagon.

Sources informed The Malaysian Insider that the option to build a casino is on the table for the Karambunai IR — alongside a mangrove centre, water theme park and waterfront properties — to ensure a higher return on investment (ROI).

“We want the Najib Administration to come out clean and explain whether they have given any approval or are contemplating building a casino in Sabah. Even though there has been no official admission from the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, the facts allude to the strong case where a casino will be built, under the guise of ensuring a higher ROI. All points lead to the fact that a casino will be established. Can our honourable Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak confirm or deny this?” Anwar (picture) told The Malaysian Insider.

The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) defacto leader told The Malaysian Insider today that the proposal to build a casino showed how the present government administration is intent on “popularising gambling” in the country, barely months after the huge outcry over Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s abortive attempt to introduce football betting.

“Do not hide behind a cloak, and hoodwink people with supposed plans for reform. You have to be transparent. Every citizen in this country has a right to know which direction the government is taking the country towards. By the looks of what is happening now, the Najib Administration is looking to popularise gambling. It has only barely two months since the sports betting licence issue died down, and now the government wants to build a casino? How will it benefit taxpayers?” said Anwar.

Tan’s attempt to legalise sports betting was spun by the Najib Administration as the best way to increase government revenue while reining in illegal bookmaking activities, estimated to be worth up to RM20 billion a year.

However, a concerted anti-gambling campaign run mainly by PR stirred up moral sentiment against any widening of legalised gambling and torpedoed any chances the gaming tycoon had of renewing his licence.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak finally capitulated to popular public opinion when he announced on June 25 that the government would not issue a football betting licence, weeks after Tan said Ascot had received approval for an old licence.

Today Anwar gave his word that PR would begin a similar assault on the proposed Sabah casino should the government decided to go ahead with the proposal.

“We will mount a massive campaign to prove that the current leadership of the government administration cannot be trusted. They had promised not to issue sports betting licences, only to want to now build a casino? If this is true, Najib has reneged on his promise,” added Anwar.

Anwar claimed that in pushing for the proposal to build a casino in Sabah, Najib had failed to address the underlying issues which have halted the country’s economic growth for decades.

“The real issues that need to be addressed are the actual losses due to corruption…The answer to the country’ economic transformation plan is not a casino, its by dealing with the millions in losses due to corruption and cronyism by the ruling coalition. Fix this problem first, I do not see any concerted effort to bring about a corruption-free environment, of where there is equal, healthy competition,” Anwar told The Malaysian Insider.

Although the presentation panels during the ETP open day for the development of the resort made no mention of any casino, they repeatedly referenced Singapore’s highly successful Marina Bay Sands as well as Resort World Manila in the Philippines and Vietnam’s Ho Tram Strip — all of which are casino-anchored IRs.

One illustration, entitled “Case for Change”, argued that Malaysia lagged behind regional competitors in tapping into the strong demand for IRs from countries like China, Indonesia and Thailand, and pointed out that Singapore had already seen a 21 per cent increase in tourist arrivals since opening Marina Bay Sands and Resort World Singapore.

The Malaysian Insider also understands that if a casino is built as part of the Karambunai IR, international players such as The Sands might be roped in to run it rather than local operator Genting.

Other PR lawmakers have rapped the Najib administration for the casino plans, saying that such a move would be a death knell for the ruling coalition.

“At this point, it would be suicidal for the government to even think about any plans for building a casino anywhere in the country, not just Sabah. I don’t think that they are that stupid. But if they do it, then that’s the end for them,” said PAS MP Dr Hatta Ramli.

The Kuala Krai MP told The Malaysian Insider that he did not believe that the Najib administration would go through with the plan, saying that such a move was “not tenable for BN at the moment.”

PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar alleged that the move by BN showed that the federal government “did not care” about the repercussions of supporting a gambling culture in Malaysia.

“In general when the sports betting issue was brought up many people opposed it, it was a problem then…now that that is no longer an issue, the government wants to do this?

“I am not against the idea of an integrated resort, but if you look at the context of building a casino, who benefits? At the end of the day its about gambling, nothing else. Perhaps the government is benefiting through this, maybe some GLCs will get a slice of the profits,” said Mahfuz.

Mahfuz said that Malaysia needed to create its own “niche” to bring about economic growth, claiming that practicing economic patterns of countries like Vietnam and Singapore would not put Malaysia on the world map.

“We have to create our own niche…if we depend on gambling to make a name for our country, how different are we from countries like Vietnam, Singapore or even Las Vegas?” The Pokok Sena MP told The Malaysian Insider.