Really?

I've been seeing many writings and blogs on the Internet recently, some insinuating and some even directly claiming, that our current PM has been merrily dishing out economic and financial goodies to family members ever since he took over the mantle of leadership. Indeed, it almost seems like a shark feeding frenzy, with everyone jumping on board to have their bite (or rather, stab). After reading all this, the ordinary man-on-the-street would inevitably transform into an expert on this topic and happily parrot the same things over teh tarik at their local mamak stall. Often, I can tell even people whom I know have no idea what they're really talking about, except to repeat what they've read in the popular blogs. But you should see the amount of conviction with which they speak.

I might be wrong, but I would have thought most Malaysians should have become immune to such allegations against politicians by now. What I find surprising though, is that so many of these "reports" and allegations are even allowed to appear at all in the alternative media nowadays and against a sitting PM, at that. Does this hint at a more open and freer society?

Anyway, I would like to relate a personal story here which may or may not mean anything to others. Late last year, when Habib (name later changed to Scomi Marine / SCOMIMR) was completing its acquisition of Singapore-based Chuan Hup, I read about the soon-to-be completed Tg Bin and Jimah IPP power plants. Now, Chuan Hup was supposed to be the region's largest coal-carrier, with more than 180 vessels to its name. Realising that both the new IPP's were to be coal-fired and bolstered by my belief that coal-fired plants would become increasingly popular in Asia due to rising energy and other costs, I bought into SCOMIMR. I had also read somewhere that each plant when fully commissioned and running at full capacity would require 2-3 mil metric tonnes of coal per annum (hope I've remembered this correctly).

For those who don't know, all IPP coal requirements are not sourced by the IPPs themselves, but actually bought by a unit of TNB called TNB Fuel Services and supplied to the IPPs. I thought it was gonna be a no-brainer that SCOMIMR would get the coal carrying contracts from TNB. After all, it was buying Chuan Hup, supposedly the region's largest coal-carrying entity. And we all know SCOMIMR is part of which group. And we all know who is a major shareholder of that group. And I knew who was going to be buying the coal.

Well, as it turned out, the Letter of Intent to SCOMIMR came out in April 2006 and was finalised in July. The final volume for the region's LARGEST coal-carrier was 500,000 mt per year. Apparently, the remaining millions of mt per year were parcelled out to several other smaller carriers. So, instead of the bonanza I was expecting, I sold my shares (for a small gain) and since then the stock has slid to below 0.80. Now, what do you wanna say about that?

/ichithekiller