Archive for January 21st, 2011

Malaysia is world’s No 5 in illicit outflows

Jan 20, 11
Malaysiakini

Malaysia is among the countries which registered the highest illicit financial outflows over a period of nine years in the last decade.

According to a ground-breaking report by Washington-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI), money flows out of Malaysia have more than tripled from 2000 to 2008.

The outflow from Malaysia in 2000 was RM67.7 billion (US$22.2 billion). Eight years later, this has ballooned to RM208 billion ($68.2 billion).

The report warned that the sharp increase of capital flight in Malaysia is “at a scale seen in few Asian countries”.

It said that it was difficult to point out the reasons behind this massive outflow of illicit capital – estimated at RM889 billion (US$291 billion) between 2000 and 2008 – without carrying out an in-depth study of Malaysia, which is outside the scope of the report.

“It is clear however that significant governance issues affecting both the public and private sectors have been playing a key role in the cross-border transfer of illicit capital from the country.

“For instance, there are reports in the Malaysian media that large state-owned enterprises such as Petronas could probably be driving illicit flows.”

The financial watchdog said that its research has indicated that political instability, rising income inequality and pervasive corruption are some of the structural and governance issues that could be driving illicit capital from many developing countries. Read the rest of this entry »

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Malay history: What’s missing from the textbooks (2)

by John Doe | CPIASIA

Also interesting to note is the following:

In Late Yuan Dynasty, China became chaotic, people who lived along the coastal area of Fujian, under the leadership of Ong Sum Ping’s siblings, escaped to eastern Kalimantan — they landed at the river mouth. When they were exhausted, facing a shipping crisis, someone lost their arms. After that, the Kadazans named it as Sungai Kinabatangan — the place where the Chinese lost their arms.

Ong Sum Ping and his sister, and the Chinese people developed the area of Sungai Kinabatangan, and they increased their influence there. With the increase of his prosperity, the natives named him Raja, or King. The Chinese named him as ‘Chung Ping’ — meaning the General. We can clearly see that Ong Sum Ping controlled Eastern Kalimantan.

This is Ong Sum Ping Road in Brunei.
Read the rest of this entry »

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