Mahathir defends sale of companies

Mahathir defends sale of companies

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday defended his sale of government companies to "only certain" Malay individuals.

The prime minister said the favored individuals would get even bigger deals if they proved successful and he would continue to nurture them until they caught up with the richer non-Malays.

"I admit that it appears that opportunities and help were granted to only certain people," Mahathir told 1,886 delegates of his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) at the opening of the party's annual general assembly.

"But if we care to investigate, those who have become rich contractors, developers and those who are allowed to buy multi- million dollar companies, are those who are capable of success, without any special help," he said.

Disgruntled UMNO members have accused Mahathir of practicing favoritism and forsaking other Malays by "always giving contracts to the same group of people over and over again."

Specifically, they questioned the government's recent sale of 32 percent of former state-owned heavy industry group HICOM Holdings Bhd. to Malaysian industrialist Yahaya Ahmad, transforming him overnight into a billionaire.

Yahaya in October used his wholly-owned Mega Consolidated Sdn Bhd. to buy a 32 percent stake in HICOM from the government for 1.72 billion ringgit (US$688 million).

Yahaya's acquisition of HICOM has made him Malaysia's auto king as he effectively controls the manufacturing and distributing arms of the national car venture.

Fairness

Without making specific reference to the deal, UMNO's powerful youth wing Thursday called on Mahathir to implement Malaysia's privatization program "fairly and equally."

It wanted Mahathir to ensure that the government's sell-off policy did not only benefit a certain group of Malay businessmen and cause a growing gap in the haves and have-nots."

An adamant Mahathir said he would have no qualms about granting more and even "bigger" opportunities in future to the same group of people that had clinched government deals if they were successful in their ventures.

"We will groom them until they are on par or be able to compete with the rich non-Malays," he pledged.

The spin-off effect, he said, would benefit the Malay community as a whole.

Party officials said rising affluence and the emergence of a more materialistic younger generation, had drastically transformed the party.

"Gone are the days when Malays were looking to rival non- Malays. We now have Malays envious of their own richer breed," an UMNO veteran noted.

UMNO, formed in 1946 essentially to safeguard the dominance of Malays in multi-racial Malaysia, is the biggest political party grouping 2.4 million members of the country's 19 million population.