Tong Kooi Ong trying to make a deal with Umno

By MT Webmaster Last updated Feb 23, 2016

If Kadir Jasin is Dr Mahathir’s best political strategist then Najib can relax and his boffin boys can go take a holiday because the Prime Minister should not fear any threat of being toppled. One man, Raja Petra Kamarudin, can take on ten Kadir Jasins any time with one hand tied behind my back.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Tong Kooi Ong’s The Malaysian Insider has been spearheading the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) attacks on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak together with its affiliate, Sarawak Report. For more than a year the ANC and The Malaysian Insider have been hitting away hammer and tongs at the Prime Minister. However, every time they think they might have made a dent in his armour, Najib comes back with a counter-attack and totally demolishes his adversaries.

Of course, we are talking about sore losers here. Whenever they hit Najib they call it ‘looking for the truth’, ‘seeking justice’, ‘act of democracy’ and ‘freedom of speech’. But when the Prime Minister hits back they call it ‘abuse of power’, ‘stifling free speech’, ‘act of dictatorship’ and ‘violation of the Federal Constitution’.

In short, it is okay for them to whack but not okay if anyone whacks them back. That is what civil liberties means to these people.

Anyway, for some months now Tong has skipped the country because he is worried that he may be arrested for publishing fake and/or doctored documents related to 1MDB. In fact, he has publicly and openly confessed to publishing those documents although he denies he had doctored them. His Malaysian passport has been impounded but that does not stop him from travelling all over the world because he has a couple of other passports.

But now Tong wants to come home. Tong is the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UPP Holdings Limited and is heading six other companies such as The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd, The Edge Publishing Pte Ltd, Sunrise Berhad, Taiga Building Products Ltd, and 3Cnergy Limited. He is also affiliated to CIMB Group Holdings Berhad, Berjaya Media Berhad, UEM Sunrise Berhad and Simon Fraser University.

Tong’s total salaries, bonuses and compensation — at least that which has been declared — comes to more than RM3 million a year. This, of course, does not include his various perks, which if added to the RM3 million comes to an estimated total of RM10 million a year. So he needs to come home to be able to run his businesses and he does not even dare go to Singapore in case they arrest him there and return him to Malaysia.

This was what The Malaysian Insider reported one year ago on 4 February 2015:

The billionaire owner of The Edge Media Group, Datuk Tong Kooi Ong, was accused of economic sabotage due to his news outlets’ critical reportage on 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad asserted today.

The former prime minister’s assertion came after The Edge yesterday claimed to have “exposed” a “pro-Jho Low blogger” as the source of the attacks against Tong.

“This is all because he was criticising 1MDB, so he is accused of betting against the ringgit. If he had not criticised 1MDB, even if the currency falls, he (Tong) won’t matter, but just don’t criticise 1MDB,” Dr Mahathir was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insider, another Tong media unit, today.

“Investigate first whether it is true or not. Because The Edge has criticised 1MDB a lot. This is what he (Tong) is now facing, accusations that he is betting against the ringgit.”

That was what The Malaysian Insider reported a year ago. Less than a month ago Malaysiakini reported Kadir Jasin’s comments as below. Kadir, as we all know, is the ‘Information Chief’ for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the ANC.

“I was told that he (the propaganda chief) has now joined hands with a ‘mercenary’ writer who has fled abroad for the attempt to buy or control independent news portals such as Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and Free Malaysia Today,” Kadir Jasin said.

Yes, that was what Kadir Jasin said. I know who he means when he says ‘the person who helms Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s media and propaganda campaign’ plus who he means when he says ‘a mercenary writer who has fled abroad’. But why does Kadir Jasin not dare name names (like I do) if he feels he knows what he is talking about?

Kadir Jasin is telling everyone who cares to listen that Umno has offered to buy The Malaysian Insider for RM20 million and that they also want to buy Malaysiakini and Free Malaysia Today as well.

Actually that is a whole load of nonsense. It is Tong who has offered to give The Malaysian Insider to Umno free-of-charge as part of a deal that would involve him being allowed to return to Malaysia and he would not get arrested and charged plus his passport would be returned to him.

Why would Umno want to pay RM20 million to buy The Malaysian Insider? No doubt, according to The Malaysian Insider, it has a readership of more than one million. But then these are one million Pakatuns and DAP diehards. And these are the same readers who go to Malaysiakini and Free Malaysia Today.

Once Umno takes over The Malaysian Insider, whether for a price of RM20 million or free-of-charge, all these one million readers would run away. Within a month those one million readers would drop to less than half-a-million. And even then it would not be half-a-million from the old one million but a whole new lot of half-a-million readers.

So what would Umno be buying in the end? What is the RM20 million paying for? It would certainly not be paying for the one million The Malaysian Insider readers who would disappear before you can count to ten.

So Kadir Jasin does not know what the hell he is talking about. And even if Tong gives The Malaysian Insider to Umno free-of-charge you mean to say that it is not going to cost them a lot of money every month just to pay the operating cost that will come to millions a year?

In Thailand they call this giving someone a white elephant. And if you do not understand what this means then go look it up. Basically, when you give someone a white elephant it is so that you can bankrupt that person who will need to feed the elephant but it is of no use to you.

At the end of the day this will be just like what happened to MCA when they took over The Star. The Star used to be called Suara Tunku Abdul Rahman. MCA thought that once it takes over The Star it would become Suara MCA. In the end it became Suara DAP.

The thing is The Star used to be anti-government. So that was why it had a high readership. However, once The Star starts showing pro-government tendencies the readership will disappear. Hence, to retain its high readership, The Star needs to continue being anti-government.

So can you see the irony here? The Star is owned by MCA but it needs to be pro-DAP to be able to retain its readership. So MCA ends up paying for a newspaper that its enemy, DAP, is using. And we thought the Chinese are supposed to be very shrewd businessmen. Apparently they are not that smart after all. No wonder MCA is going to disappear totally come the next general election.

And this is what is going to happen with The Malaysian Insider if Umno accepts Tong’s offer to take over that portal free-of-charge. The Malaysian Insider will need to continue whacking Najib, Umno, Barisan Nasional and the government (just like The Star is doing) to be able to retain its one million readership.

And, just like MCA, Umno is going to demonstrate its stupidity by paying millions for a news organisation that is whacking the government. And is this going to be Umno’s winning strategy for the next general election? If so then Umno needs to get hammered and Najib deserves to get kicked out!

Let me put it this way. A Christian priest is awed by the number of Muslims who go to the mosque — with the people overflowing onto the streets and the traffic jam five miles long. So the priest decides to buy that mosque to turn it into a church, hoping that he can now ‘own’ that crowd.

After he buys the mosque and turns it into a church the priest is puzzled as to why he lost his entire congregation and not a single Muslim comes to the church on Sunday like they used to on Friday when it was a mosque.

Yes, this is how it is going to be when you take over portals such as The Malaysian Insider that are infested with Pakatuns and DAP diehards. It would be like taking over a mosque to turn it into a church while hoping that the thousands of Muslims would still come to hear your sermon on Sunday.

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Kadir: Najib’s camp seeks to buy, control news portals

(Malaysiakini, 22 January 2016) – Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin has claimed there is an attempt by Putrajaya to purchase or control news portals.

The former New Straits Times group editor in chief said he was informed by the owner of a news portal that the move is being initiated by the person who helms Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s media and propaganda campaign.

Kadir, however, did not mention names.

“I was told that he (the propaganda chief) has now joined hands with a ‘mercenary’ writer who has fled abroad for the attempt to buy or control independent news portals such as Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and Free Malaysia Today.

“The news portal owner told me the attempt is part of the initiative by Najib’s camp to win the hearts and minds of the people,” he said in a blog posting today.

Kadir also noted how Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi praised and expressed gratitude to Umno cybertroopers during the party annual assembly last November.

Now, the veteran editor claimed Umno wants the reach to extend beyond the party and Malay electorate.

“Talk among media practitioners is that one news portal owned by a Chinese tycoon has kowtowed to Ahmad Zahid while the owner of another turned down a lucrative financial aid offer,” he alleged.

Kadir said the new initiative was a result of the mainstream media as well as Umno and BN websites losing its audience.

He noted that the circulation of the Umno-owned broadsheet Utusan Malaysia has been on a steep decline.

Kadir claimed that he knew the person behind the propaganda campaign more than a decade ago and often had lunch with him.

“Back then, I respected him as a successful and well-mannered young Malay professional.

“Now, he is said to be close to Najib and has become so powerful that mainstream media editors are forced to kneel before him,” he said.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK