May 28, when I was attending the first sitting of the 12th Parliament — for the first month as an elected representative — I blogged about the Maybank-PT Bank International Indonesia (BII) Controversy that warranted the bank’s senior management to give us MPs a briefing en masse.

One of the key issues, then, was the contentious topic of why Maybank had agreed to buy over from Temasek Holdings the block of shares at RM4.9 billion, which calculated to paying 23% premium over the market price at the point of agreement signing. Was there a broker from Malaysia who benefitted as the middleman in the deal?

The second serious issue was whether Maybank, by entering into the deal after CIMB had made an earlier market entry into Indonesia’s banking industry — both CIMB and Maybank ultimately report to the same person, the Prime Minister — had flouted local law on the ownership in Indonesian banks.

It was only after that the Government made a startling revelation that Maybank could suffer total losses of up to RM3.5 billion as regulatory requirement in Indonesia warranted it to sell down the 20% block within two years.

Worse, if the Maybank-BII deal falls apart, Maybank may lose a further RM480 million which it paid as deposit to the vendor, Temasek Holdings, which was trying to dispose off the 55% controlling stake it owned in BII.

Typical of Malaysia, what were market rumours are now boiling over into facts.

When the final nail is knocked into the coffin, it’s suckers like you and I, the taxpayers, who will rise to the occasion to pay for the mistakes that these GLC’s made on behalf of Khazanah Inc, and the country.

BY THE WAY… Apart from the recalcitrant IPPs who refused to agree to PPA negotiations and refused to pay Windfall Tax, toll collectors are also thumbing their nose at the Abdullah Administration.

What toll cut, Zin?

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Suthan M