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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright May 2023
Murray Hunter, in his most recent article, questioned the validity of RM170 billion Chinese investment quoting Johari Ghani, who first raised the issue recently in Parliament.
If indeed the doubts raised by Johari and re-echoed by Hunter are true, then "This is a scandal of deceit of monumental proportions. This appears to be an attempt to deceive Malaysians into believing the government is performing well in gaining investment and as a justification for the reported RM 18.6 million spent on overseas travel."
Before they were signed and witnessed by the prime minister in China because there are supposedly flaws in reports on the MOU released to the press.
Johari said, "several companies do not appear to have any track record worthy of collaboration with an economic giant like China."
Also, Johari claimed many details are missing under the column for ‘Brief Description of MOUs’ made available to the public, raising doubts on the validity of these MOUs.
Now, if this was the case then the MOUs must have been hastily put together to make it look like the China trip headed by PMX was indeed a great success and the millions spent on the trip was justified.
Hunter raises more doubts when he alleges that "Reporting MOUs as investments has been an old trick played on the public for decades. Politicians, ministries, agencies, and universities have historically organised sham MOUs to give a positive appearance to the public. It’s sad to see that the Madani government, which should be based on trust, would also stoop to such low practises."
Murray Hunter may be sceptical because few MOUs actually materialise into on-the-ground projects. The standard rule of thumb is to expect only about 10% as a safe measure of success for all MOUs signed. So, we may look forward to seeing at least 10% of RM170 billion happening on the ground eventually.
In sum, we may safely say that there is some measure of success from the trip by PMX in bringing investments from China but might not be as much RM170 billion as the story goes. Maybe it'll be more like RM17 billions. That is a more realistic expectation and more easily believable.
If this was the case then we may put aside Hunter's claim that what was signed in China was totally false. We beg to differ with Hunter when he concluded that the exercise was orchestrated mainly for the purpose deceiving Malaysians with MOUs.
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