By : WILLIAM LEONG
MCA through its Young
Professionals Bureau Chief, Datuk Chua Tee Yong, held its fifth press
conference yesterday, 17 July 2012, in its continuing attempt to raise
allegations of impropriety by the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor Government in
entering into a Settlement Agreement with Talam Corporation 2 years ago.
MCA in its latest press
conference now alleges that the Selangor Government is 'shifting goalpost' in
answering Chua Tee Yong’s allegations.
Fallacies
In Mca’s Arguments
MCA and Datuk Chua Tee Yong
should spare the public from suffering further insults to their intelligence by
ceasing their disingenuous arguments on this issue. When reviewed logically,
the fallacies and deceptive arguments are plain for all to see. Fallacies are
fake or deceptive arguments employed by the intellectually dishonest to provide
a false conclusion that proves nothing when the fallacies are finally exposed.
Half-Truths
Half-truth is the fallacy of
telling the truth but deliberately omitting important details in order to
falsify and support a false conclusion. The first fallacy in MCA’s arguments is
the use of half-truths, while deliberately withholding material facts. MCA has
deliberately withheld the following material facts:
a) That MCA failed to
disclose the debts were incurred during the BN administration of the Selangor
Government;
b) That the Pakatan Rakyat
Government acted to recover RM392 million debts owed by Talam to Kumpulan Darul
Ehsan, Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad and Yayasan Pendidikan Selangor in
connection with several property development projects carried out in the last
10 years;
c) That the BN Selangor
State Government allowed Talam to incur the debts during the time 3 MCA
representatives were Selangor EXCO members;
d) That the BN/MCA state
government allowed the state GLCs and agencies to enter into highly
questionable transactions in which Talam was given land as consideration for
contracts before Talam had even completed its part of the contracts;
e) That the BN/MCA state
government did not take any action to collect the debts to the extent Talam in
its 2007 Annual Accounts did not consider the debts as current liabilities but
instead treated them as long term payables;
f) That the BN/MCA state
government failed, neglected and/or refused to take any action or proper action
to collect the debts:
-Even after Talam was
declared to be an affected issuer pursuant to Practice Note 17/2005 of the
Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements on 1 September 2006;
-Even though Talam had
accumulated losses of RM446.53 million, as at 31 July 2008 with total
borrowings of RM1.184 billion of which RM924.8 million or 78.1% of the total
borrowings were in default;
-Even though Talam was
unable to pay its debts when due because it had over RM2 billion in debt and
trade payables whereas its receivables and cash was less than RM280 million;
g) That the debts were not
secured and upon the winding-up of Talam, the preferred and secured creditors
would have priority over the state and other unsecured creditors;
h) That Talam had proposed a
restructuring plan to settle the defaulted debts by issuing various forms of
preference shares and loan stock to its lenders which excluded the state GLCs
and agencies;
i) That the Securities
Commission had by a letter dated 25 September 2007 rejected Talam’s Proposed
Regularization Plans; and
j) That there were various
petitions filed by several creditors for the winding-up of companies in the
Talam Group.
MCA has withheld the above
information from the public in their press conferences. It is clear to those
who have checked the publicly available information such as Talam’s public
announcements on the settlement, its annual reports and circulars to
shareholders that the Pakatan Rakyat State Government would not be able to
recover any cash. The taking of the 13 pieces of land was the best available
option in the circumstances.
Lying
With Statistics
Another common deceptive
argument is lying with statistics. This is using true figures and numbers to 'prove'
unrelated claims. MCA has lied with statistics by focusing only on 1 out of 13
pieces of land. MCA in alleging that the State Government had given an
excessive value of RM181,082,000.00 for the Bestari Jaya land when the market
value is RM139,090,000 failed to apply the proper statistics that is, that the
Menteri Besar and the Selangor Government had taken back 13 pieces of land with
a total market value of RM685,230,000 for a consideration of only RM676,094,000.
In any event, MCA did not
disclose that in the same document disclosing the market value and the
consideration value of the Bestari Jaya land, the book value was
RM215,128,000.00 and therefore Talam suffered a book loss of RM34,046,000.
MCA’s allegation that Talam was able to negotiate “a good deal” is therefore
without substance.
Playing
On Emotions
Playing on emotions is the
classic fallacy of ignoring facts and calling on emotions alone. MCA in
alleging that a 'debt free' Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad (PNSB) is now
saddled with a RM230 million debt in buying 2 of the Talam assets from the
Selangor Pakatan Rakyat Government is invoking emotions while ignoring the fact
that it was the BN/MCA administration that saddled the Selangor GLCs and
agencies with a RM392 million problem in the first place.
Clean
Hands
It is a well-established
principle that “he who comes to equity must come with clean hands”. MCA is
precluded from questioning the Pakatan Rakyat Government’s efforts to recover
the Talam debts without MCA first purging themselves by taking the appropriate
action against their Selangor EXCO members who permitted such debts to be
incurred in the first place and had failed, refused and/or neglected to collect
the debts.
The
Big Lie
The big lie technique is the
contemporary fallacy of repeating a lie or deceptive half-truth over and over,
particularly in the media, until people believes it without further proof or
evidence. MCA in repeating their unfounded allegations against the Pakatan
Rakyat Selangor Government in 5 press conferences after explanations have been
put forth by the Menteri Besar and others are putting into practice the famous
quote by Joseph Goebbels:
“If you tell a lie big
enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The
lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people
from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus
becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress
dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension,
the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
It is also a common fallacy
befalling those who believe that it is necessary to continue on a wrong course
of action after discovering that it is a mistake because of the fear that by
admitting the mistake, there would be unthinkable consequences to his
leadership.
The fallacies of these “big
lie” technique and Goebbels’ doctrine had been exposed on November 19, 1863, at
the dedication ceremony of a military cemetery at Gettysburg that “you cannot
fool all of the people all of the time”.
Intellectual
Honesty
It is hard to find a more
tired and intellectually dishonest argument even in Malaysian politics today
than MCA’s continuing allegations of impropriety against the Pakatan Rakyat for
recovering the Talam debt in the vain hope of attracting political support in
Selangor. This episode is a clear indication that MCA is not interested in
speaking honestly to Malaysians. If MCA is sincere in helping the people of
Selangor, then it should help in converting the 13 pieces of Talam land into
cash for the people’s benefit.
There are times and events
when politicians should stop trying to score cheap political points and act for
the benefit of the people. The tragic events in the State having lost its
assets and the difficulty encountered in recovering the Talam debt is one of
this.
If MCA persist with these
allegations, let the people judge those who were busy playing little political
games while the adults were working quietly in the serious business of
collecting RM392 million.
(NOTE: William Leong Jee
Keen is the PKR Member of Parliament, Selayang)
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