DAP welcome Daim’s promise to make a full disclosure of the five-year-old mysterious tin-buying operation in London which is estimated to have resulted in a $1 billion loss

by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 27.6.1986;

DAP welcome Daim’s promise to make a full disclosure of the five-year-old mysterious tin-buying operation in London which is estimated to have resulted in a $1 billion loss

Was the $1 billion mysterious tin-buying scandal in 1981 part of international Jewish conspiracy against Malaysia?

I welcome the promise by the Finance Minister, Daim Zainuddin, to the UMNO Youth delegation yesterday (New Straits Times, Bernama reports) that the Government would issue a comprehensive statement on the 1981 billion-dollar tin-buying mystery in London.

For over a month, I had been pressing for the government to give the people a full accounting, especially as it is estimated that this operation had cost Malaysian taxpayers $1 billion. This mystery became thicker when the $2 company, MAMINCO, suddenly appeared as a government department in the Ministry of Finance in the 1985 Telephone Directory. It is open secret that MAMINCO was the vehicle used to conduct the London mysterious tin-buying operation.

MAMINCO was incorporated as a $2 company on 23rd June 1981, with its two $1 director-shareholder given as (a) Abdul Rahim Aki I/C No. 4071471 of 31, Jalan Langgak Golf, Kuala Lumpur; and (b) Faisal Haji Siraj I/C 1805416 of 89, Lorong Setiabistari, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur. This ‘mysterious’ $2 company operated as a ‘law unto itself’, which does not have to comply with the Companies Act, for apart from the 1981 record of incorporation, it had never submitted any annual company returns as required by law!

The London mysterious tin-buying operation started in July 1981, which was the time Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed became Prime Minister, seeking to purchase every pound of tin on the world market, stockpile it in Singapore and elsewhere and hope to push up the world price. The cost of tin on the London Metal Exchange ballooned from s low of US$4.33 a pound to nearly US$7.50. Tin consumers were in shock, for between March 1980 and July 1981, the price of tin had tumbled from a high of US$8.65 a pound to the US$4.33 figure.

The whole tin-buying operation collapsed in February 1982 When the United States released tin stockpiles.

It is now clear that the Government had made use of the public taxpayers’ money to meet the losses of the London mysterious tin-buying scandal, which is estimated to be at $1 billion. The question Malaysians have a right to ask is who would make the money if the London tin-buying operation had succeeded, making billions of dollars of profits?

Recently, the Malaysian Government leaders have been accusing an international Jewish conspiracy of trying to blacken the nation’s international image by spreading lies and falsehood about Government Ministers and leaders.

I want to ask Daim Zainuddin a specific question, whether the mysterious tin-buying operation of the Malaysian Government was part of an international Jewish conspiracy to entrap and embarrass Malaysia, for the international metal trader the Malaysian Government and MAMINCO relied on to conduct the mysterious tin-buying operation was a Jewish by the name of David Zaidner.

A recent book on international metal trading, which also devoted a section on the 1981 London mysterious tin-buying operation, described David Zaidner as ‘A slender Egyptian Jew who bandied a Swiss passport’, and “one of the hottest ‘tin shooters’ in South East Asia and South America”.

Zaidner was operating as a Malaysian agent for one of the leading international commodity traders, Marc Rich, another Jew. Zaidner’s commission for the London tin mysterious tin-buying operation was supposed to be a hefty US$50 million – so we can imagine how much his principal, Marc Rich, and the Malaysian counterparts were to get out of the operation if it had been a success!

A few days ago, the Finance Minister, Daim Zainuddin, said that chief executives and directors of failed government companies and statutory bodies should have the sense of shame to resign voluntarily. By the same logic, who should bear responsibility for the colossal losses in the London mysterious tin-buying operation, and must have the sense of shame to resign their posts?

DAP welcomes the waiver of quit rent for all Chinese and Tamil schools in Perak

The DAP welcomes the waiver of quit rent for all Chinese and Tamil schools in Perak. This is long overdue, and should be extended to all states in the country, as well as to all schools, charitable and public interest organisations.

It is for this reason that the DAP had vigorously opposed the arbitrary attempt by the Malacca State Government to demand $2 million quit rent from Cheng Hoon Teng Trustees for Bukit China, especially as it was only an excuse to further the Malacca Chief Minister’s plan to demolish Bukit China, excavate the graves and turn the site into a commercial centre.

Chinese and Tamil primary schools are already performing a great national service in contributing to the education of the people, and this is no reason for the government to demand quit rent payment from them.