by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Java on Thursday, 15th July 1993:
Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim should present a White Paper in Parliament next week on the Union Paper scam and the role played by the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange and the Securities Commission
Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, should present a White Paper in Parliament next week on the Union Paper Holdings Bhd (UPHB) scam and the role played by the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange {KLSE} and the Securities Commission.
As properly pointed out by the Singapore Business Times recently, the Union Paper scam is a critical test as to whether the KLSE could achieve its avowed goal of becoming a world-class bourse ox-remain a cowboy market shunned by serious investors because well-connected predators are seen as being able to fleece ordinary investors with impunity.
The KLSE has been plagued by persistent allegations of trading abuses such as insider trading, poor corporate disclosure, syndicate play and the market rallies caused by politically-linked stocks following rumours of these companies winning lucrative privatisation contracts.
In the Union Paper scam, the KLSE and the Securities Commission have failed to protect the small investors and they have rightly been accused of protecting the manipulators and short-sellers of the Union Paper scam.
The UPHB share price shot up from RM4-00 to a staggering RM23.00 within two weeks in June, only to come crashing down to RM4.72.
The KLSE had acted indecisively and irresponsibly in first allowing the price of Union Paper to gyrate so wildly, and when the price collapsed, in taking actions like the suspension of trading of Union Paper on June 29, 1993 after declaring Union Paper as “Designated Securities” and that a ~corner” existed in the shares of Union Paper – which only benefitted the manipulators and short-sellers and detrimental to the small investors.
As Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim is the Minister responsible to Parliament for the Union Paper scam and the role played by the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange and the Securities Commission, and it is for this reason why he should present a White Paper on this KLSE fiasco to the Dewan Rakyat when it begins its meeting next Monday.