PROLOGUE
Often does he castigates the public and the press on the constant cacophony regarding the offshore bankings his family have. He rues Malaysiakini's 'obsession' with him, saying those offshore trusts are legitimate.
With the publication of the Pandora Papers, it was reported that Daim Zainudddin's youngest sons became owners of a British Virgin Islands (BVI) firm by the ages of nine and 12.
Yet he had once stated Why is wealth, power placed in hands of 'unqualified' few? when questioning the number of politicians appointed to (government-linked investment companies) GLCs and GLICs by then Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's Perikatan Nasional administration.
If one is willing to fathom deeper then it is a norm in this country to have political appointees in the GLCs and GLICs. It is part and parcel of rentier-clientel capitalism as articulated by Weiss where clientelism throughout Malaysia’s political landscape has “over time, citizens came to expect and rely on patron-client relationships, nested within party machines, albeit reinforced by carefully structured distributive and development policies”.
Whereas, rakyat2 see this mode in governance as being executed blatantly with the sole intention of buying political support to sustain power and position yet impoverishing the marginalised mass.
His biographer Backman (Daim Zainuddin: Malaysia's Revolutionary and Troubleshooter) has accepted wholeheartedly Daim’s claim that throughout a career he was entirely free of any financial, political or general ethical impropriety. Backman had ignored the assertion made by Edmund Terence Gomez and K.S. Jomo in their book, ‘Malaysia’s Political Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits’, that Daim acquired “a lucrative piece of land on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur” (which eventually developed into as Taman Maluri), that was to be the source of his initial business success, largely because of his close association with Harun Idris, the then Selangor menteri besar.
Of course, there are compelling evidence provided by a wide range of scholarly and other journalistic sources, past nefarious activities which trigger a deluge of recollections especially when injustices have not been redressed and issues involved have not been resolved by which suggest that Daim melded his personal and political interests. As Wain once commented in Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times: “By his actions, Daim made it clear that he was not going to let conventional notions of conflict of interest interfere with the way he ran his private business empire, the economy or Umno’s financial affairs."
In 2014 the PKR Youth had lodged a report with the anti-corruption authorities over the wealth amassed by Daim.
Among the documents submitted included the latest review by a publication on all banking activities by Daim – which included stakes in bank operations in countries such as Indonesia, Albania, Hungary, Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Sierra Leone.
At a Kajang by-election, PKR’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had claimed that Daim was involved in transactions worth billions of ringgit in African and eastern European banks through proxies.
A Malay daily had also reported that Daim confirmed owning a bank in Tanzania, but denied any abuse of power; he had said though being investigated on the matter twice in 1999, the authority had found nothing.
One may be wondering why Forbes or Fortune never listed the wealth of this individual, but based on the evidence, the richest man in Malaysia may indeed be a Malay instead of a Chinese. At one stage this ex-Minister of Finance was reported to have said he had at least RM$65 billion visible in the Bursa Malaysia.
DAIM'S WEALTH
Report herein is thecoverage on Diam's wealth
as written by Professor Mohamed Zain (Professor of Technology & Strategic Management, College of Business & Economics, University of Qatar) who also said while most people get upset if an ex-politician or finance minister is exposed as having a secret account in a Swiss bank, it appears one of them had actually OWNED a Swiss Bank – plus FOURTEEN (14) other banks around the world.
The professor continued that apparently, this “hidden” richest man indeed owns 75% of this Swiss-based group.
While the Malaysian economy is nearly in ruin: indebted with scarse developmental funds to propel the nation forward, the man - like many in the Mohammed Mahathir cohort - remains a billionaire. Has he
yet to show any concern over the rise in the price of chicken or the leaps in fish prices or how the price of rice has boiled over? Neither has he talked about declining small businesses enterprises during or in their post-Covid-19 period. It is known reality that many Class F contractors are going bankrupt or kampung road projects being abandoned or inunadated during floods. In his dictionary, it seems that there are no entries for the small man’s worries, nothing about low-cost houses, water cuts, study funds or internet accessibility for the children of poor Malays.
He cares only values containing billion size in figures.
READ HERE.
EPILOGUE
The top 20% of population – the T20 – possess 46.2% of the national income share, while M40 have 37.4% of the national income share but the bottom 40% of population – the B40 – only get 16.4% of the national income share of wealth.
That the ruling class within ethnocapitalism shall continue, and perperuate, to rule, divide, and make money for themselves and continue to loot the country dried without really empowering rakyat2 to produce wealth for themselves except generating a generation of poverty poors - instead towards sharing a common prosperity.