While the Malays fight one another, guess who are the top ten tycoons in Malaysia?
Anyway, the thing I want to talk about today is, Malays love fighting one another. And while Malays fight one another, guess who are the top ten tycoons in Malaysia? Oh, and I eventually left the Dewan Perniagaan Melayu and said, “Pergi mampuslah Melayu!”
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I used to be very active in the Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I was not only in the Jawatankuasa Terengganu but in the Jawatankuasa Pusat as well.
During the 1985 recession, we set up the Tabung Pemulihan Usahawan (TPU) and about RM560 million was used to bail out struggling Malay businesses. Today, that is worth about RM1.5 billion.
Some of you may remember that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also gave RM3 billion to the Chinese cooperatives (because they threatened to abandon MCA and support DAP if they did not get the RM3 billion). But we got only RM560 million…sigh.
Anyway, we managed to bail out many Malay businesses with that RM560 million. (Just for the record, I did not take one penny of the TPU money, it was all given out to those in trouble).
We also organised many dialogue sessions, seminars, symposiums, and even the Congress Ekonomi Bumiputera at PWTC to discuss how to end the New Economic Policy (NEP), and what needs to be done after it has ended (in 1990).
I was a real nuisance to the government that the Ministry of Finance blacklisted me in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From that day on, I no longer got any business from the government.
The government even cancelled the licence for my travel and tour company in Bangsar. I lost a lot of money and eventually had to wind up the business. (The excuse they used was my wife was Chinese and the licence was for 100% Bumiputera companies).
In Terengganu, Umno Youth ousted me from the Malay Chamber Committee on the titah of the Menteri Besar, Wan Mokhtar Wan Ahmad.
The older generation Terengganu folks from the 1980s probably remember the fight we had during the Terengganu Malay Chamber committee meeting when I punched one Umno Youth chap.
I chased the three Umno Youth chaps on the street, and it was quite funny seeing three Umno Youth samseng running away from me. It was reported in Utusan Malaysia the next day. But honestly, it was quite an unfair fight. There were only three of them against me alone. They should have brought two or three more Umno Youth samseng to make it a fairer fight.
Anyway, the thing I want to talk about today is, Malays love fighting one another. And while Malays fight one another, guess who are the top ten tycoons in Malaysia? Oh, and I eventually left the Dewan Perniagaan Melayu and said, “Pergi mampuslah Melayu!”
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Forbes top 10 richest in Malaysia
1) Robert Kuok (US$11 bil)
2) Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan (US$10.1 bil)
3) Tan Sri Koon Poh Keong & siblings (US$6.2 bil)
4) Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow (US$5.7 bil)
5) T. Ananda Krishnan (US$5 bil)
6) Datuk Lee Yeow Chor & Lee Yeow Seng (US$4.8 bil)
7) Tan Sri Chen Lip Keong (US$2.7 bil)
8) Tan Yu Yeh & Tan Yu Wei (US$2.4 bil)
9) Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay (US$2.35 bil)
10) Tan Sri Lau Cho Kun (US$2 bil)
