Editor: ‘Toxic 1MDB’ the reason for Tabung Haji hysteria
Pilgrims fund could have made lots of money by building luxury apartments, says NST’s Jalil
(Free Malaysia Today) – Near-hysteria about 1Malaysia Development Bhd and its current near-pariah status was blamed today for Tabung Haji’s aborted land deal in the Tun Razak Exchange financial district and a possibly lucrative investment.
Abdul Jalil Hamid, group managing editor of the New Straits Times, said the leaked news about the deal, coinciding with last week’s by-election in Permatang Pauh, had caused Malays to melatah without getting the full picture.
He said the deal had been first proposed in 2013 on an arm’s-length basis and cleared by the Tabung Haji board and investment panel.
But the revelation that it had to do with 1MDB, and the perception that Tabung Haji was paying an inflated price for 1.5 acres, had created a near-hysterical situation, Jalil said in his weekly column in the Umno-controlled newspaper, which is part of the Media Prima group.
Jalil criticised former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for calling the deal a bailout and pointed out that Tabung Haji had seen an investment opportunity for developing a luxury residential tower block on the “prime property” of 1.5 acres, with potential for making lots of money in the future.
Dr Mahathir’s criticism had linked the purchase to 1MDB’s much-reported RM42mil in debts and other disclosures of dubious investments, use of offshore tax havens, difficulties in repaying loans, as well as links to flamboyant businessman Jho Low and his connections to Najib’s family and their reported high-living.
Jalil implied that it was 1MDB’s current near-pariah status in political and government circles that had created the outcry, at the prospect of the savings of millions of less-well-off Malay Muslim depositors being used.
“Even some senior Umno ministers have suddenly become so concerned about 1MDB, saying it has turned into a ‘toxic’ situation that all other government-linked companies, including TH, have to stay away from,” Jalil wrote.
“One minister even dared reporters to write about his frustration in the government’s handling of the 1MDB issue.”
