MAIKA Scandal 101: Say NO to Bailouts!

(Although this is unlikely to be entertained by the Government in view of the weak economic outlook next year, still, it does not stop anyone from questioning the idea of bailout from MIC)

(The trademark of MAIKA AGMs since the scandal broke out. Video source: Malaysiakini)

We all know that MIC have lost their purpose after the last general election but when I read this in Malaysiakini titled “MIC man suggests gov’t bailout for Maika”, I think they have reached the point of no return.

Blaming a weak management for the failures of MIC’s investment arm Maika Holdings, a former party leader today urged the government to bailout the ailing company for the sake of the Indian community.

Deputy President aspirant Teagarajan proposes the government to pump in RM150 million to safe the party’s ailing investment arm and return the investors’ hard-earned money

Government’s money is the public’s money and why should we allow our hard-earned taxpayer’s money to be used to bailout MIC’s mismanaged, scandal full, personal piggy, shit known as Maika. Haven’t we had enough when 66,000 Malaysian Indians invested their hard-earned money in Maika and see it vanish by mismanagement and corrupt practises!

The dust on Maika’s manner of handling the Telekom shares had hardly settled down and the main culprits yet to be made responsible for these huge losses and yet here we have someone with the cheek to suggest the Government for a bailout using taxpayer money!

What was he thinking when he came out with the suggestion? That the shareholders and others will just forget about the past misdeeds of MAIKA management and MIC’s hidden hands on the direction of the company?

Damn you if you think that is going to happen!

This 2008 letter in Malaysiakini is nothing new and reminds all of us that we have not forgotten what happened when MIC got involved and got away with it.

Maika Holdings raised RM108 million in 1981 from Indians, especially rural folks from the lower- and middle-income groups. These people were told to use their life savings – and even sell their jewelry – to invest in Maika Holdings because they were told the company would give them returns that were 10 to 20 times their initial investment.

In other countries, this would have been considered a huge financial scandal, not just because of the amount of money involved, but because of the number of people involved in fleecing equally vast numbers of poor and less-educated citizens.

The RM108 million then had a buying power that was 10 to 15 times its value today. In today’s terms, it would be valued between RM1 billion and RM1.5 billion. Shortly after the initial investments were collected, the recession in the mid-1980s enabled the cash-rich Maika Holdings to go shopping for properties and collect fantastic deals.

If those properties were still in the hands of Maika Holdings, the company would be worth some RM3 billion to RM5 billion today.

Some of us may also remember the Telekom shares scandal, in which Maika Holdings was extended an offer to buy Telekom shares during its initial public offering (IPO). But Maika Holdings did not buy the Telekom shares.

Instead, Samy Vellu bought them through his personal company, because Maika Holdings, supposedly, did not have the money to do so. Maika Holdings could have made RM30 million, but this opportunity was hijacked by the sole defender and representative of the Indian community.

Where are the people who were heading the management of the company all these years and not only duped the shareholders into giving away their hard-earned monies but also for not making any attempts to take responsibility in answering the shareholders’ queries and concerns? Why they are not made answerable to the mismanagement and are made to pay back the shareholders’ losses by bad and dubious business ventures?

Anyone with a right sense of ideals would have taken their share of the blame and at the least, resigned with their heads down in shame.

Watch what happened in the last Maika AGM?

Please lah, enough is enough – bury Maika for good and better spend the money for the prosecution of the management and board of directors for breach of trust and criminal intimidation. We had enough of misuse of the public fund on wasteful projects and bailout of Maika goes beyond the realms of “wasteful”.