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HR Worldview
Jan 29, 2002

The Malaysians are Coming?

by Harun Rashid

Malaysia is sending a red-ribboned retinue to New York to beg or borrow fresh funds in a bodies-for-booty barter. As bona fides the Malaysians offer living if luke-warm tribute. To pry open the New York coffers she offers her citizens, each a native Muslim, certified to be incarcerated for a long stretch without trial, and whose names are certain to be found among the opponent PAS party.

The arrests are offered as evidence that Malaysia, in the true dictatorial tradition, has political stability. How many are enough? If not fifty, how about 200? The supply is limitless. Malaysia has terrorists everywhere; they are especially thick among the intelligent, educated and courageous.

An international financial/consulting/brokerage firm, famous for flexing a finger for a fee, is sponsoring the soiree, engaged to lend a lid of respectability to the event. In addition to the regular emolument for routine professional introduction services, and in addition to printing and mailing the invitation list, they are expected to say a word or two about the prospects for getting the principal returned. If the sponsors do not say anything about the creditworthiness of Malaysian bonds, they have already said enough.

If the financial firm-for-a-fee says the bonds have a truthful politician?s chance of redemption, the bonds should be insurable at a small extra charge through any large local insurance firm offering that service. These transactions are routine, and known as ?insured bonds?. After the experience of soul-brothers Enron and Argentina, Malaysia should expect no better than two finger white glove treatment.

Contrary to tropical torpor, New York money still has a sensitive nose, terrorists or no terrorists. Malaysia?s prime minister may huff and snort about the fact the Malaysian government puts its full faith and credit behind the bonds, and that his say-so should be enough. So said Argentina, and that guarantee subsequently proved worthless.

Some lenders might want concrete collateral as a more substantial form of security. What collateral is there to offer? Any collateral of value would be un-collectable. A view to finding legal remedy in Malaysia lacks historical merit. Malaysian courts are always able to find for the defendant when a case is brought against the government?s interests. To be fair, the delegation should be allowed to stand before the cameras and defend themselves in the presence of a panel of inquisitive independent financial journalists.

The bonds themselves require close scrutiny. When a Malaysian Ministry last went to London to arrange a $5 billion loan, crisp new Malaysian bonds were offered as collateral. Routine verification revealed the bonds were counterfeit. The scam was revealed by a Malaysian newspaper. The editorial staff of the newspaper has been fired, along with the cream of the reporters. There is, of course, no offical connection between this exhibition of investigative journalism and the newspaper's demise.

The investigation into how the officers of an official Malaysian government ministry happened to offer up counterfeit bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the Malaysian government has been put behind the customary stone wall of official silence, to rest quietly there along with piles of other matters also submitted to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency. The Malaysian ACA has not been known to make a successful prosecution to date, although the evidence of bribery and corruption spills from its files.

Hear ye, hear ye! Now comes an ally in the war against terrorism. All rise.