BMF had lent to some shaky companies, including the giant Carrian Group headed by Malaysian-born businessman George Tan, which eventually crashed in October Among other things, Jalil had tried to find out who owned a block of 25 million Carrian shares and whether loans had gone to undeserving but well-connected borrowers.
His friend's killing led the Universiti Malaya professor to his life mission: the fight against cronyism, the cozy and often corrupt connections between politicians and businesses. He has also received death threats, including, he recalls, a letter soaked in blood warning against his activism.
Reduce the state's power to control business activity. That would lessen the incentive to buy influence. Allow the media to expose crony deals. Publicize the details of all big government contracts. In probing and prosecuting sleaze, hit top people and big money. That will scare the small fry. That's the only way to keep the house clean -- and to eventually change a nation's attitudes. Named after two African nationalist leaders, Jomo fights at the frontlines of Asia's war on cronyism, along with other prominent opponents of impropriety in public office see stories, page Firing up their struggle have been the spread of democracy in recent decades, the Asian Economic Crisis of and the global push for better governance, transparency and accountability.
The ongoing political storm rocking Philippine President Joseph Estrada see story this issue , accused of taking millions in illicit gambling money from a crony, is but the latest public eruption over the endemic cronyism afflicting Asia.
Jomo fumes that in Malaysia "practically every big businessman has had to ingratiate himself with politicians. And if Asia is to stay competitive and stave off another meltdown, it must not let up on its crusade against crony politics. Besides giving a privileged few obscenely huge gains at public expense, cronyism discourages investment by the great majority of firms which don't know people in high places. That translates into slower economic growth, lower government revenues and fewer jobs.
Scandals over shady deals can destabilize governments and unseat national leaders. If cronyism is such bad news, why is it still stubbornly flourishing? One immediate reason: the region's economic rebound, which has dulled the zeal for painful change. Wolfensohn warns: "You can mask the problems by economic growth, but you have within it the seeds of the next crisis. Kim has used state power to try to force leading chaebol to restructure, and to reduce their influence in government.
But business groups like Daewoo and Hyundai have been able to rebuff many of Seoul's restructuring demands, and in thousands of companies and agencies across the country, contacts forged in school, at work or in business still afford advantages to the well-connected. The long, bruising fight, however, comes as no surprise to veterans of the war on cronyism.
Like President Kim, whose decades of struggling for peace, human rights and democracy was finally recognized with this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the investigators, journalists, academics and bureaucrats taking aim at anomalies know that they must dig in for a protracted battle against daunting odds and powerful forces. Jomo certainly knows how relentless the struggle is and how strong the forces ranged against reformers.
Over the decades, he has written or co-written 81 books on political economy, especially the links between business and politics. One of them, The Political Economy of Malaysia, co-authored with his colleague Terrence Gomez in , spurred calls for change from the opposition and even members of the dominant United Malays National Organization.
Harvard- and Yale-educated Jomo has emerged as one of the harshest critics of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government the PM no longer shakes his hand when they meet , though Jomo has not joined any opposition party. One difficulty about fighting cronyism is that doing so seems to go against Asian ways. Rooted in centuries of feudal and peasant life, personal relationships and patronage have long been a part of politics and business in the region. Moreover, decades of government involvement in national economies, whether socialist like China or capitalist like Japan, have promoted close ties between officials and business people.
Such cooperation has even been praised for driving East Asia's so-called economic miracle; its one-time admirers included the World Bank, now a leading critic of cronyism. Carrian Group's fortunes began to sour in The downfall began when a man named Chung Cheng Man, a major partner of Carrian and member of the Chung family whose company Tan worked for after his arrival to Hong Kong, parted ways with Carrian due to his discovery of major debt accumulation from Carrian's business ventures.
In return, Tan gave Chung a generous severance deal because Chung had knowledge of improprieties allegedly committed by Tan. This, along with a general economic downturn, led to a strained financial state for Carrian. The company eventually collapsed in a financial scandal. Tan, along with a business associate, was arrested in October by Hong Kong authorities for making false and misleading statements.
Tan was also accused by a government prosecutor of overstaying his visa and illegally living in Hong Kong for over a decade. Tan's attorneys denied Mak's accusations. Tan's legal troubles lasted 13 years, and included an acquittal in on fraud charges in following a month trial.
He was released from custody in Following his release from custody, Tan was involved in a legal dispute with the son of Hang Seng Bank co-founder Lam Bing Yim , Rogerio Lam, over five antiques from the Song and Qing dynasties era that were lent to Tan during the s.
Biography Lists News Also Viewed. George Tan. His two children are already of the age he left his family for the last time in Seremban to return for 10 days to celebrate Hari Raya that year. The public outcry in Hong Kong back then was no more the losses incurred by banks but rather the financial cost to taxpayers. The public wanted an immediate end to the case but the police and public prosecutor were still pursuing Tan, Lorraine and Rais.
It was not done but what was done was a major media exercise to divert public attention. Jalil was glorified as a national hero, a Malay warrior. He was posthumously awarded the Pingat Gagah Perkasa. But the motive behind his death remains a mystery till today. He fought extradition from a London prison for seven years until he finally relented and was sent to prison for a few months in Hong Kong.
At the time Jalil was in the hotel room before being murdered, Tan was at BMF urgently requesting an assistant manager to release a loan with a letter from the BBMB chairman. The call ended abruptly. BBMB was established to assist ethnic Bumiputras by providing access to capital but instead ended up backing Chinese ethnic businessmen to be corporate players in a foreign market.
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