The recipe of half truths, by Tony Pua & Why Malaysian Insider chicken out!

This was Tony Pua's song. It was sung by Pakatan Rakyat mouthpiece Malaysiakini, the FREEmalaysiakini.

The following is Deputy Finance Minister Donald Lim's official reply in Dewan Rakyat.

YB Petaling Jaya Utara telah membangkitkan isu berkaitan 1MDB.

Untuk makluman Yang Berhormat, didapati Yang Berhormat Petaling Jaya Utara telah tersalah fakta atau kurang faham dengan situasi sebenar.

Transaksi tanah Sungai Besi adalah amat berlainan sekali dengan transaksi tanah di Bayan Mutiara. Tanah Sungai Besi dibeli oleh sebuah syarikat milik penuh kerajaan. Tanah Bayan Mutiara yang kononnya open tender sebenarnya telah

dibeli oleh syarikat persendirian.

Walau bagaimanapun, biarlah saya menerangkan keadaan sebenar transaksi tanah Sungai Besi.

Kita perlu melihat transaksi ini dengan menyeluruh, bukan hanya memfokus kepada pembelian dan penjualan tanah sahaja. Ini adalah kerana ianya adalah projek kerajaan yang didukung oleh syarikat milik penuh kerajaan.

Bagi pengetahuan Yang Berhormat, transaksi tanah di Sungai Besi melibatkan bukan sahaja pembelian, penjualan tanah, tetapi ia melibatkan juga pemindahan, pembinaan kem-kem baru di sembilan lokasi dan penempatan semula Kem Sungai Besi di ke semua lokasi tersebut.

Kos projek ini adalah sebanyak RM2.718 bilion. Kos ini dikongsi bersama di antara 1MDB dan kerajaan.

Yang Berhormat Petaling Jaya Utara membangkitkan kos RM1.178 bilion yang

dikatakan dibayar oleh kerajaan kepada 1MDB, ini adalah fakta yang salah dan tidak bertanggungjawab dari Yang Berhormat.

RM1.17 bilion adalah bahagian kos yang dikongsi oleh kerajaan daripada jumlah keseluruhan RM2.718 bilion.

Harga RM74 kaki persegi seperti yang dituduh Yang Berhormat Petaling Jaya Utara mengenai kos penjualan tapak tanah Sungai Besi adalah satu spekulasi sepertimana yang telah dinyatakan oleh Timbalan Menteri Kewangan I, Yang Berhormat Senator Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussein dalam perbahasan penggulungan Bajet 2012 peringkat jawatankuasa.

1MDB akan menanggung RM1.6 bilion daripada jumlah kos dilokasi Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia dan pangkalan Gerakan Udara Polis Diraja Malaysia. Ini termasuk juga kos pembelian tapak-tapak baru. Pihak kerajaan pula akan menanggung RM1.1bilion daripada jumlah keseluruhan kos sebanyak RM2.718 bilion.

Berkenaan dengan keuntungan yang disebut oleh Yang Berhormat Petaling Jaya Utara, 1MDB akan membuat keuntungan tersebut. Walaubagaimanapun, ia bukanlah seperti yang dituduh atau dinyatakan oleh Yang Berhormat.

Keuntungan 1MDB diperoleh daripada keuntungan nota Murabahah dan penilaian semula hartanah. Keuntungan ini adalah nyata dan mengikut standard perakaunan antarabangsa atau international accounting standard yang memerlukan sesebuah syarikat itu melaporkan sebarang perubahan nilai di dalam hartanahnya.

1MDB is bound by the strict accounting standard to revalue the land since the land is now no more an army base but a commercial land. The evaluation was done by independent third party valuation, dengan izin. Itulah jawapan.

Another Pakatan Rakyat mouthpiece The Malaysian Insider was also singing Tony Pua's song but the 'well cooked half truths' have been removed from the news portal's website.

Guess the only way to teach these liars a lesson is to sue them. Decency is certainly not their virtue. 

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/litee/business/article/pua-prime-land-sold-cheaply-to-pump-rm2b-into-1mdb/

http://www.google.com.my/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=tony+pua+1mdb&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=iLx9T4aVBpGurAeN1u3QDA 

Death of journalism in Malaysian Insider

At the end of the day, Datuk Seri Jamaludin Jarjis and the country’s oldest newspaper the New Straits Times Press may not take ‘independent’ online newsportal the Malaysian Insider to court.

Both Jamaludin or JJ as he is popularly known and NSTP may have been clear victims of the Malaysian Insider’s latest fabrication but the real victim is the level of professionalism among Malaysian journalists.

How else would one view the latest fabrication spun by the Malaysian Insider, that has both JJ and the NSTP all riled up, other than the sorry state of the professionalism of the vocation.

The article in the centre of the storm, ‘Five issues likely holding up June polls, say sources’, was written by an experienced and a veteran journalist who is now The Malaysian Insider’s No 1 editor.

Jahabar Sadiq is no ordinary journalist as he has had years of experience serving both the mainstream newspapers and foreign wire agencies before venturing into what is claimed to be an ‘independent’ journalism.

The article, which has since been removed from the news portal’s website, appeared like an ordinary breaking news item until the moment JJ sent a stinging letter to Jahabar.

“Based on the absolute absence of any truth in your report as far as my so-called briefing to NST editors is concerned, I can only conclude that your unnamed sources have lied to you or are absolutely unreliable or simply do not exist or have simply attempted to deflect from their identity.

In either case, it is also obvious that you have failed in your journalistic duty of trying to verify the truth of your information, choosing instead to run your story despite the absence of any sort of concrete evidence to prove your allegations.

In the process, you have dragged my name into your web of lies and have caused me undue inconvenience in having to defend the truth.

I am therefore demanding that you remove the posting with immediate effect and also run an apology for your article of untruths. I also reserve the right to institute further action against you and your newspaper.

Lastly, I find it most unfortunate that a newspaper which claims to offer “an unvarnished take on events and personalities in Malaysia” and one that claims to have among their readers “Malaysians who crave for balanced and serious reporting on issues”, can take such a lax attitude towards the authenticity of its information and the credibility of its sources. - Jamaluddin Jarjis

If JJ’s letter didn’t do enough to expose Jahabar and The Malaysian Insider’s lack of professionalism, NST’s group managing editor Abdul Jalil Hamid has followed up with a similar demand of apology and retraction over the same article they said were manufactured.

“You had every opportunity to verify with us regarding the accuracy and truth of your allegations in the First Report prior to its publication but failed to do so. In the Second Report, you were presented with another opportunity to clarify on our involvement in the alleged briefing but once again you failed to do so.

We therefore demand that you run an immediate and unreserved apology to us and our editors and correspondents for your fabricated report failing which we will not hesitate to take this matter further. This notice shall be without prejudice to take any action that we may deem necessary to protect our interests”. - Abdul Jalil Hamid

While the Malaysian Insider has dutifully published both JJ and Jalil’s letters, the newsportal or rather Jahabar’s professionalism continues to be questioned.

Blogger Freedie Kevin, who is not even a trained journalist, has pointed out the Malaysian Insider’s lack of professionalism.

The Malaysian Insider, Freddie says, never learns. 

Optimising energy efficiency

By Stephen Kay in NST

THE minister for energy, green technology and water recently blogged (http://peterchin.my) that "we are quickly moving towards becoming a country that has to rely on imports to meet our domestic energy needs".

One may wonder on reading this: so what? How is life different for an energy importing country relative to an energy exporting one? Like it or not, the difference is much larger than one might expect, because an importing country is fully exposed to the global energy situation.

The background to the situation facing Malaysia is that the world is facing depleting fossil fuel reserves, resource nationalism, the emergence of China as a major energy consumer and greater awareness of environmental issues (particularly global warming).

These factors are not within Malaysia's control and will push fuel prices up.

Malaysians have been "protected" from global energy prices for a long time. Malaysia's subsidies for gas, electricity and petrol are well known. This policy has been implemented together with an energy sector where various sub-sectors are dominated by only one or at most a few players.

Perhaps these policies were appropriate in the past; they were well intended and based on Malaysia having large oil and gas surpluses combined with shortages of skilled technical and managerial personnel at the different stages of the energy chain.

However, these circumstances no longer exist. While we are rapidly becoming an energy importer, the good news is that we have developed the skills to manage the full energy chain.

If we accept that we are becoming an energy importer, the question becomes, "What is the key issue for an energy importer?" Clearly, the answer is not "energy prices", but rather "energy security", which has to be addressed in a systematic and comprehensive manner.

For example, the price of electricity is only important if electricity is available when and where we need it.

If we constantly have brown-outs and blackouts, then "cheap" electricity is of no value.

What would a Malaysian policy framework encouraging innovation and efficiency (as also mentioned by the minister) look like? Perhaps this can be illustrated by focusing on the electricity sector, since the recent sale of Tanjung's power assets puts this in the news.

In order to get the right balance between price and security, a country has to accept what it cannot affect, and focus on what it can affect. Thus, a possible approach for the electricity generation chain could look like this:

DIVERSIFY fuel supply options to reduce the risk and impact of unforeseen events (this would include options for importing gas and coal, and perhaps also new players in the import space).

SELECT a fuel mix which provides a weightage to Malaysia's remaining fossil fuel reserves (for example, gas in Sabah and Sarawak) to provide a natural "strategic reserve" for times of crisis.

OPEN up the independent power producer (IPP) space to new players to encourage competition (as might happen if Tanjung assets are sold to a non-IPP player).

SEPARATE electricity transmission from power generation to encourage market forces in generation, transmission and distribution.

GIVE incentives to consumers to increase energy efficiency (yes, this might require raising prices).

PROVIDE spare generation capacity appropriate to Malaysia's rate of energy demand growth.

Taken together, such initiatives would encourage innovation and efficiency in areas which can be controlled by Malaysia, while reducing the risk and impact of unforeseen events, problems or disasters.

Perhaps more importantly, such an approach would, by rationalising prices, set the stage for the next step in electricity management, which includes smart grids, smart meters and the like.

These new technologies are designed to optimise energy efficiency and overall cost to society, but they typically do this best in an environment where the price of electricity reflects the true cost of generation and distribution (which in turn should be as efficient as possible).

Recent events, (for example, the severe losses borne by Tenaga Nasional Berhad because of gas shortages), show that it would be better if such initiatives were introduced in a planned fashion, well in advance of the next energy “crisis”.

In this regard, the pre-qualification exercise for the Prai power plant appears to be a good step, attracting many interested parties.

An even better step would be to develop, publish and periodically update clear plant-up sequences for future power generation. This would have the effect of providing clarity to consumers, industry and potential investors.

It would allow industry players the best opportunity to prepare for future power plant tenders. The result would be to increase the overall quality of proposals and hence increase the likelihood that the winning bid is actually the best value for money.

The global energy industry is going through a significant period of change. Because of this, there is clearly much to do as we move forward on energy in Malaysia.

It does appear though, that the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, MyPower Corp, Energy Commission and others are focusing on the correct issues. We should wish them well. 

NST