Where is the RM52Billion given to BUMI?

Guan Eng raps BN for RM52b bumi share loss

By Boo Su-Lyn

August 16, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 – DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng criticised the Barisan Nasional (BN) today for failing to act against those he claimed stole RM52 billion worth of Bumiputera shares from poor Malays.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak reportedly admitted in June last year that only RM2 billion out of the RM54 billion of Bumiputera shares given out since the inception of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971 remained in the hands of the Malays.
“What is surprising is the reluctance by MCA, Umno or even Perkasa to address this important issue of a monstrous hijack of RM52 billion worth of Bumi shares,” said Lim in a statement today.
“All of them have failed to call for action against these saboteurs of the NEP,” added the Penang chief minister (picture).
Lim claimed that BN has refused to take action because the RM54 billion shares were given to the cronies of Umno or BN component parties at the expense of poor Malays.
The NEP has come under fire from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and businessmen alike for failing its original goal of alleviating poverty by enriching well-connected Malays instead.
“If the RM52 billion worth of Bumi shares still remained in Bumi hands, then the 30 per cent Bumi or Malay equity target under the NEP would have long been achieved,” said Lim.
Najib reportedly said last June that the total Bumiputera equity was only 19.4 per cent, a far cry from the target of 30 per cent almost two decades ago.
During the recent MCA Chinese Economic Congress, Najib had called all Malaysians to jointly grow the economic pie while his younger brother Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, who is the CIMB chief executive officer, had called for a review of the affirmative action policy, citing abuse by Malay and Bumiputera businesses.
Besides urging Chinese private sector companies to spearhead the economic reforms laid out in the New Economic Model (NEM) and the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), Najib had also assured the congress that the Foreign Investments Committee (FIC), which monitors the application of the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity policy, would soon be dismantled.
MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek had called for a reduction of the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity to liberalise the economy and had proposed appointing non-Bumiputeras in government-linked companies (GLCs), besides creating an open tender system for government procurements.
Such remarks have raised the ire of Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali who warned that Umno would lose Malay votes should the ruling coalition remove Malay privileges which he said were enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
Lim also lambasted the BN for refusing to support DAP’s call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to compel BN leaders who allegedly stole the RM52 billion shares to return them to the government for redistribution among the poor Malays.
“So long as (the) BN government refuses to demand full accountability and action over the ‘lost’ RM52 billion in Bumi shares, they are using the NEP to divide and rule by playing racial antagonism against Malaysians,” said the Bagan MP.
Najib has been accused of flip-flopping over the thorny issue of the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity target when he backtracked on the NEM, which was meant to remove the rent-seeking and patronage practices left over from the NEP, by calling it a “trial balloon” when faced with a sour reaction from some Malay groups.
The Najib administration had also decided to maintain the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity target in the 10MP

MI.