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Oil Prices Debate – Shabery slaughtered by Anwar



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Jul 15 2008
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After watching the debate between opposition de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and Information Minister Shabery Cheek, I finally understand why the Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and his deputy Najib refused to enter the ring but instead sent the Information Minister instead. Anwar had earlier challenged both the PM and his deputy to debate with him – two against one. It is without doubt that the sleepy PM would be cooked alive while his deputy would be trembling like Mr Bean the moment the word Mongolia being mentioned. So a soldier was sent to the battlefield.

Obviously Anwar won the applause for tackling the questions the smart way and chewed up Shabery alive. Anwar wasn’t so convincing with his opening statement and to a certain extent looked quite nervous, probably he felt somewhat intimidate with the presence of police force outside the building where the debate was taking place. Hey, who can blame him for being suspicious of an arrest immediately after he step out of the building? After all, about 15 police officers were sent to his house in an apparent effort to harass and intimidate his family members especially his grandchild even though he had promised to co-operate to give his statement to the police earlier on. In fact the smart police had even obtained a court order barring Anwar from coming within three miles (five kiilometers) of Parliament but strangely the police station to which Anwar was suppose to attend is located inside this perimeter. So Anwar was perplexing whether to go or not to go.

Today, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) Group announced that it posted a record profit of RM61bil for the financial year ended March 31, 2008, which was a 31.5% increase from RM46.4 billion a year ago. Petronas Group’s revenue rose 21.2% to RM223.1 billion from RM184.1 billion; its total assets rose 15.2% to RM339.3 billion from RM294.6 billion while shareholders’ funds rose 17.6% to RM201 billion from RM170.9billion. Its’ chief executive officer Tan Sri Hassan Merican said the national oil corporation also decided to pay out a special dividend of RM6 billion to the Federal Government.

For the year, Petronas Group paid out RM67.6 billion (63.1% of the Petronas Group profits) to governments, bringing the group’s total payments to governments to RM403.3 billion since its incorporation in 1974. Of the RM67.6 billion payment for the year, he said RM62.8 billion was paid to the Federal Government comprising RM30 billion dividends which included a RM6 billion special dividend, RM20.6 billion in the form of petroleum income tax, RM5.4 billion in corporate income tax, RM2.1 billion in export duties and RM4.7 billion of royalty payment.

Anwar vs Shabery Oil DebateAnwar revealed the magic figure when he claimed he could immediately reduce the petrol price by RM0.50 a liter tomorrow if he were to form the government today. He justified that Tenaga Nasional Berhad (KLSE: TENAGA, stock-code 5347) has to pay 40 percent excess capacity (inline with what FinanceTwitter has wrote in previous articles and also the reason why I believe the country do not need another white elephant – Bakun dam project) to government’s cronies (the IPPs) and if the excess could be reduced to only 20 percent and plug the corruption leakages, the government could spare RM3 billion which can be used to reduced the petrol price by RM0.50 a liter. Make perfect sense I would say.

Credit should goes to Shabery at the initial debate because he argued well but as the debate continues the vessel seems to be losing steam and focus when he started to launch personal attack at Anwar, while the latter slowly gained his composure. Shabery also never learnt from the past mistake by constantly compared Malaysia with Venezuela, Iran and other countries in an attempt to run away from the question raised by Anwar’s representative – where was the promise from the RM0.30 petrol hike in 2006 to improve public transportation? Shabery went around beating the bush by repeatitively say the global oil prices affect all the countries including Malaysia. Of course we knew that Mr Shabery dim-witted but in the process Petronas also enjoy the fruits, no?

It was funny that Shabery chose to compare Malaysia with Norway and Finland who do not practice subsidies but have shown good economic performance. I almost fell off my sofa laughing – Norway’s GDP per capita is $55,600 while Malaysia’s only $14,000. The Information Minister also on numerous time tried to confuse the illiterate village people who might be watching the debate that we cannot take all the money from Petronas because the company needs to re-invest despite Anwar’s clarification that he wasn’t suggesting so but merely to efficiently use the “money paid” from Petronas’ taxes. Frankly if we can really reduce the petrol price by RM0.50 a liter by taking only RM1 billion from the RM67.6 billion paid to government on top of the RM2 billion saved from IPPs leakages and other area of corruptions, I strongly believe it would work marvellously in solving the current inflation.

At one point Shabery tried to create fear and confusion (and hope to score some points) when it was his turn to ask Anwar question about his subsidy policy when the country would have no more oil to export by 2015. Of course the well-equipped Anwar cheekily questioned Shabery from where did he get the fact that it was a sure thing that there would be not more oil after the date as the job of Petronas is to continuosly explore more oil fields; the same way when it was predicted 30 years ago that the country’s reserve would be empty by 2005 (smart ass).


The soldier who was sent by Abdullah Badawi to be slaughtered tried to trap Anwar by accusing him as dirty as his accusation since he was part of the government when the concept of IPPs started together with the lopsided PPA (Power Purchase Agreement). Anwar replied that he didn’t agreed to the IPPs clause in pushing all the 100% of electricity generated into the throat of TENAGA (regardless whether the utility body needs it or not) so much so that former TENAGA boss Ani Arope resigned in protest.



But the funniest part was when Shabery’s representative asked a stupid question when it was his turn to do so. Come to think of it, it was more like an attack statement rather than a question. He (can’t remember this dumbo’s name) accused Anwar of deviating from the original topic of oil by linking it to IPPs. Every Tom, Dick and his dog know that IPPs is related to oil and gas but it’s super-strange that such a stupid person was chosen as the government’s representative. No wonder we won some rocks while Singapore won an island. Remember I said in stock market – Bull and Bear makes money, Pig gets slaughtered? Well, that’s precisely what happened to poor Shabery. But expect the government-controlled media to report otherwise. Maybe the police will stormed into Anwar’s house tonight out of frustration and give him the perfect panda-eye.

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Comments

Well said article. No need for further comment.

Well said article. No need for further comment.

Hi Bro,

That government representative, if I am not mistaken is the president of malaysian university. He normally chaired forum on RTM with regards to university students debate.

And Anwar said, “rather than asking question, he make a statement, this is due to influence from counseling, trying to teach people”. Anyway he is a Tan Sri if I am not mistaken.

What a shame.

Hi Bro,That government representative, if I am not mistaken is the president of malaysian university. He normally chaired forum on RTM with regards to university students debate.And Anwar said, “rather than asking question, he make a statement, this is due to influence from counseling, trying to teach people”. Anyway he is a Tan Sri if I am not mistaken.What a shame.

I was hoping anwar would slaughter shabery and had expected it to be so. but base on what i saw yesterday, i don’t think it was a slaughter. Kinda 60-40 for Anwar.

I was hoping anwar would slaughter shabery and had expected it to be so. but base on what i saw yesterday, i don’t think it was a slaughter. Kinda 60-40 for Anwar.

i honestly think that your title is biased. I also think that your article is biased. This is due to the mindset which already set to have DS Anwar as your leader. No doubt the Tan Sri who were making statement rather than asking question. But IPP contract cannot be re-negotiated. The IPP wont let that happen. Imagine if you are an owner of IPP, you are making money, suddenly that is to be taken away because you are making tonnes of money and other majority people are suffering. IPP was a result of DS ANWAR being the Finance Ministry. As smarter than the IPPs, the government is trying to pull it back by windfall tax. Smart!
Further, related to IPP, if the government are to re-negotiate, amend the contract terms, international investors like me, will blacklist Malaysia from my list. The reason being if the can government easily change any contracts, contracts are not honoured! Stupid move!.
I agree that DS Anwar activities on the street has caused political uncertainties. If he is so smart, he can provide a lot of ideas in making improvement to the country. But he has to make it public and make sure that people know all those bright ideas came from him, or rather ‘Pakatan Rakyat’. People are not stupid to recognize that those bright ideas came from them, if they are new ideas. Bloggers also are not stupid, they can think rationally. However, if the mindset has already been SET to receive only what you want to hear, you will never agree with matters that you wouldnt want to hear.

i honestly think that your title is biased. I also think that your article is biased. This is due to the mindset which already set to have DS Anwar as your leader. No doubt the Tan Sri who were making statement rather than asking question. But IPP contract cannot be re-negotiated. The IPP wont let that happen. Imagine if you are an owner of IPP, you are making money, suddenly that is to be taken away because you are making tonnes of money and other majority people are suffering. IPP was a result of DS ANWAR being the Finance Ministry. As smarter than the IPPs, the government is trying to pull it back by windfall tax. Smart!Further, related to IPP, if the government are to re-negotiate, amend the contract terms, international investors like me, will blacklist Malaysia from my list. The reason being if the can government easily change any contracts, contracts are not honoured! Stupid move!.I agree that DS Anwar activities on the street has caused political uncertainties. If he is so smart, he can provide a lot of ideas in making improvement to the country. But he has to make it public and make sure that people know all those bright ideas came from him, or rather ‘Pakatan Rakyat’. People are not stupid to recognize that those bright ideas came from them, if they are new ideas. Bloggers also are not stupid, they can think rationally. However, if the mindset has already been SET to receive only what you want to hear, you will never agree with matters that you wouldnt want to hear.

hi bro, well said n commented, totally agrees with u, congrats, go bro…

hi bro, well said n commented, totally agrees with u, congrats, go bro…

greetings folks
that counsellor idiot is none other than the vice chancellor of uum, and wait, there’s more, he was also the former head honcho of btn. now you know why he’s such a plonker. nuff said, i think.

greetings folksthat counsellor idiot is none other than the vice chancellor of uum, and wait, there’s more, he was also the former head honcho of btn. now you know why he’s such a plonker. nuff said, i think.

I thought it was just a close win for Anwar too. Shabery didn’t do so badly.

The only thing I found disgusting was when that government representative asked questions. You can see the way he looked at Anwar, full of contempt, but then he himself ask some really stupid questions.

I thought it was just a close win for Anwar too. Shabery didn’t do so badly. The only thing I found disgusting was when that government representative asked questions. You can see the way he looked at Anwar, full of contempt, but then he himself ask some really stupid questions.

Like other said, your article are biased. Anwar’s figure can be magically pluck from a sky and yet people think it is a brilliant. He just hungry for power as he used to be.

Like other said, your article are biased. Anwar’s figure can be magically pluck from a sky and yet people think it is a brilliant. He just hungry for power as he used to be.

As an investor how would you react if contracts are revoked? The idea sounds good in theory but will be a disaster if it happened. I can see institutional foreign investors avoiding Malaysia at all costs. Has Anwar’s populist but flawed approach conned you?

This Govt isn’t very smart either. Petrol prices should be raised in view of global market but raising it by 41% is just plain ridiculous. It should have been done incrementally to lessen the people’s pain.

As an investor how would you react if contracts are revoked? The idea sounds good in theory but will be a disaster if it happened. I can see institutional foreign investors avoiding Malaysia at all costs. Has Anwar’s populist but flawed approach conned you?This Govt isn’t very smart either. Petrol prices should be raised in view of global market but raising it by 41% is just plain ridiculous. It should have been done incrementally to lessen the people’s pain.

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