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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Europe Crisis Clouds Malaysia Rate Call
Malaysia is human trafficking hotspot - WikiLeaks
Bribe probe hits former Malaysian PM Abdullah Badawi

Posted: 06 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT

Malaysia's inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in more than two years in May as consumer prices rose 3.3 percent. Bank Negara has raised the benchmark rate by a percentage point since the beginning of March 2010 to curb inflation, most recently a quarter-point increase at the last meeting in May.

Bloomberg

Europe's debt crisis and signs of a slowdown in global growth are complicating Malaysia's decision on interest rates as a pickup in inflation coincides with dimming prospects for export gains.

Bank Negara Malaysia will raise its benchmark overnight policy rate to 3.25 percent from 3 percent at its fourth meeting of the year, according to 10 of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The rest expect no change. The central bank will release its policy decision at 6 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

The likely discussion tomorrow may echo debates across the Asia-Pacific region, which has led global growth and where policy makers have enacted the steepest increases in borrowing costs. While India, South Korea and Thailand opted to raise their key rates last month, China and the Philippines asked lenders to set aside more cash as reserves instead.

"The rates call is 50-50," said Matthew Circosta, an economist at Moody's Analytics in Sydney. "Bank Negara Malaysia will be mulling global worries against domestic inflation pressures."

European finance ministers have authorized an 8.7 billion- euro ($12.6 billion) loan payout to Greece by mid-July, pulling the country back from the brink of default and gaining time to hammer out a formula for ending the debt crisis. Economic growth in the U.S. slowed to a 1.9 percent annual pace in the first quarter from 3.1 percent in the previous three months and the unemployment rate has climbed back above 9 percent.

Over Adjustment?

Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said last month central banks around the world should be wary of an "over adjustment" in their response to faster inflation. Malaysia has raised rates four times and doesn't want to overreact, she said in an interview with Reuters Insider.

Banks are charging each other 30 basis points more than the benchmark policy rate for three-month loans, according to the Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate, signaling expectations for higher interest rates and bank reserve requirements. Interest- rate swap forwards show traders are pricing in 43 basis points' increase in lending rates between September and June next year.

The Malaysian ringgit has jumped more than 6 percent against the dollar in the past year, and reached 2.9598 against the U.S. currency on May 2, the strongest level in 13 years. It traded at 3.0088 as of 6 p.m. local time yesterday.

Power Prices

Officials may also consider increasing the statutory reserve requirement level to 4 percent from 3 percent, nine of 14 economists predict. The central bank last raised the reserve requirement in May, saying it was a "pre-emptive" measure to manage a "significant" buildup of liquidity.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's government allowed national power distributor Tenaga Nasional Bhd. to raise electricity charges for the first time in almost three years in June, adding to price pressures for business and consumers.

"Inflationary pressures are expected to continue to climb," said Daniel Wilson, an analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore. "Demand-side pressures will be fuelled by a tightening labor market and positive consumer sentiment. We believe the proactive Bank Negara Malaysia will hike rates."

Consumer prices may climb 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent this year from 1.7 percent in 2010, the central bank said in March.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shamim Adam in Singapore at sadam2@bloomberg.net; Michael J. Munoz in Hong Kong at mjmunoz@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net

Malaysia is human trafficking hotspot - WikiLeaks

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT

Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN

Thousands of women from Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, as well as China and India were trafficked to Malaysia for forced labor and prostitution, according to an unclassified 2006 cable from the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur released by WikiLeaks, the online whistle-blower.

In a memo to the US Department of State dated March 3, 2006, then US Ambassador to Malaysia Christopher LaFleur also reported that the Southeast Asian country was a "destination and -- to a lesser extent -- a transit country for men and women trafficked for forced labor."

"Some economic migrants from countries in the region who work as domestic servants and laborers in the construction and agricultural sectors face exploitative conditions in Malaysia that meet the definition of involuntary servitude," Lafleur disclosed.

Aside from the Washington-based State Department, the envoy also furnished the following US agencies copies of the embassy memo, titled "Malaysia's Sixth Annual Trafficking in Persons Report": Homeland Security Center, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Treasury, and American diplomatic missions in Southeast Asia.

In addition to women from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, "smaller numbers" of women from Cambodia, Burma and Laos were also trafficked to Malaysia, said LaFleur.

All eight countries are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean.

"Anectodal evidence indicates that numbers of victims coming from neighboring Asean countries have remained relatively constant over the last few years. The number and patterns of victims coming from source countries tend to reflect Malaysian government immigration and visa policies," the envoy pointed out.

According to LaFleur, China "has become the largest and fastest-growing source country for prostitutes in Malaysia. Many of these Chinese women and girls are likely trafficking victims."

"China has grown as a source country in recent years due to a more liberal Malaysian visa policy that reflects growing economic ties and Malaysian government efforts to encourage tourism and university enrollment from Chinese students," he explained.

LaFleur noted that "while there are no reliable statistics revealing the total number of women trafficked into (Malaysia), estimates can be made drawing from different sources."

"Foreign embassies and (non-government organizations') report that in 2005, at least 500 trafficking victims were rescued and repatriated," he said.

The US diplomat also revealed that "during the first nine months of 2005, 4,678 foreign women were arrested and detained for suspected involvement in prostitution, compared with 5,783 arrested during all of 2004."

"Chinese nationals accounted for 40 percent, the largest percentage of such arrests, followed by nationals of Indonesia (25 percent), Thailand (17 percent), and the Philippines (10 percent). According to the government-funded National Human Rights Commission, or Suhakam and involved NGOs, a significant number of these women were probable trafficking victims," said LaFleur.

The Royal Malaysia Police "compiles statistics on arrests of foreign women with suspected involvement in prostitution, broken down by nationality. The Immigration Department's enforcement division also collects data on trafficking cases."

However, "Malaysian authorities do not adequately distinguish illegal migrants from trafficking victims. Law enforcement officials assert that the great majority of the foreign women arrested for prostitution in Malaysia entered the country voluntarily and with valid travel documents."

On the other hand, "surveys by the Suhakam and interviews with Indonesian, Thai and Philippine embassy officials indicate that as many as 50 percent of foreign women arrested for prostitution are possible trafficking victims," said LaFleur.

The Malaysian government "encourages victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases, but reports says that most victims are unwilling to testify... One NGO reported that pimps and traffickers are often present in the courtroom during court proceedings to intimidate the victims."

In terms of prevention, "the Malaysian government took steps in 2002 and 2003 to toughen the criteria for young foreigners seeking student visas. It has also stepped up border detection for smuggling, illegal migration and people trafficking,"

LaFleur added "there is no evidence of widespread tolerance of complicity in trafficking-in-persons by government authorities, though accusations of more general corruption, particularly at the local police and immigration levels exist."

Bribe probe hits former Malaysian PM Abdullah Badawi

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 08:14 PM PDT

An AFP-led international corruption taskforce continues to work towards further arrests, having already charged seven former senior Securency and NPA executives with foreign bribery offences. Mr Abdullah is believed to have been involved in approving the contract won by the RBA firms to supply Malaysia with its polymer five Ringgit note, which began circulating in 2004.

Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker, The Age (Australia)

The Reserve Bank of Australia's banknote firms are suspected of attempting to bribe former Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Badawi in order to get his help to win a $31 million currency contract.

Mr Abdullah is one of a several highly influential Malaysian political figures whom anti-corruption authorities believe Securency and Note Printing Australia— firms respectively half and fully owned and overseen by Australia's reserve bank— allegedly sought to bribe using part of $4.2 million in commission payments made to two Malaysian middlemen.

Malaysian sources confirmed to The Age that the Australian Federal Police have gathered information about attempts to bribe Mr Abdullah by Securency and Note Printing Australia, which are respectively half and fully owned and overseen by the RBA.

The Age sought comment from Mr Abdullah last night.

Asked about the approach to Mr Abdullah yesterday, an AFP spokesman said: "Given that matters relating to investigations into Securency International and Note Printing Australia are currently before the court, the AFP is unable to make any further comment."

It is understood the attempt to bribe Mr Abdullah related to contract negotiations that occurred around 2003, the year he became prime minister and finance minister. He served as prime minister until 2009.

Before becoming prime minister, Mr Abdullah was deputy to long-serving Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad.

The alleged attempt to bribe of Mr Badawi, who remains a serving MP, adds to the list of high-profile Asian politicians and central bank officials targeted by the RBA firms.

The AFP last week alleged Securency bribed Vietnam's former central bank governor by paying his son's English university tuition fees. Authorities in Malaysia last Friday arrested a former Malaysian central bank assistant governor accused of receiving two bribes from NPA.

The revelations about the attempt to bribe Mr Abdullah come as the fallout from Australia's plastic note bribery scandal continues to spread, with The Age reporting yesterday about the intimate involvement of senior officials from the Australian government trade agency Austrade in Securency's allegedly corrupt Vietnam dealings.

An AFP-led international corruption taskforce continues to work towards further arrests, having already charged seven former senior Securency and NPA executives with foreign bribery offences.

Mr Abdullah is believed to have been involved in approving the contract won by the RBA firms to supply Malaysia with its polymer five Ringgit note, which began circulating in 2004.

Securency and NPA's agents for the 2004 were former state MP and senior figure in the country's ruling party, UMNO, Dato Abdullah Hasnan Kamaruddin and arms trader Abdul Kayum, who was arrested and charged on friday with two counts of bribery.

Mr Kayum, who pled not guilty to the charges, worked as NPA and Securency's main middleman in Malaysia and allegedly promised the firms that he was able to convince senior Malaysian officials to buy the plastic bank note technology.

Several senior Securency and NPA former executives are believed to have been aware that payments to Mr Kayum may have been used to pay bribes. He acted as their agent between 2000 and 2007, before being sacked after an internal audit raised probity fears.

His hiring and subsequent receipt of several million dollars from the RBA firms raises further questions about the adequacy of supervision provided by the RBA-appointed directors of Securency and NPA.

Mr Kayum also represented one of the Pakistan Government's main weapons making facilities, the Air Weapons Complex, which is believed to play a central role in the nation's nuclear weapons program.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission yesterday refused to confirm or deny whether it was investigating the performance of the Securency and NPA boards after Greens leader Bob Brown and federal Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson suggested last Friday that it should.

Former RBA deputy governor Graeme Thompson, who is also a former chief of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, chaired Securency and NPA during the 1999-2005 period the alleged bribes in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia took place.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 6 Julai 2011

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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