MAHB: Back to business as usual?
Need it be pointed out that RM20.5b of BlackRock’s stock holding is nothing but a single percent of the country’s stock market of RM2t capitalisation
SO, WHAT do we do now?
Now that the government was clearly adamant any disruption to the Malaysian Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) privatisation offer by a BlackRock-linked consortium could jeopardise the Malaysian investment agenda, do we go back to our usual way of doing business?
Act I
The horse has bolted, so say the powers that be. It is irreversible, unless we want BlackRock to exit Malaysia with the RM27.5 billion of securities and bond assets it already owns in the Malaysian stock exchange and debt securities market.
Omitting all questions on morality or human values, do we argue against the economics of it? Need it be pointed out that RM20.5 billion of BlackRock’s stock holding is nothing but a single percent of the country’s stock market of RM2,016.7 billion capitalisation (as at June 27, 2024)?
Do we back down to the grand-standing of economic extortion?
Shall we give the consortium Gateway Development Alliance Sdn Bhd a free pass to our airports operator whose concession has just been extended for the next 35 years not many moons ago? Have our strategic investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd and our pension trust Employees Provident Fund (EPF) lost their resolve, to be so blindly led by BlackRock’s newly acquired subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners’ (GIP) playbook?
They seemed genuinely helpless in repeating the ridiculous excuse that GIP acquisition by BlackRock “will-only-be-completed-in-third- quarter”. And seemed to be too overawed to notice the pettiness of the “BlackRock-is-not-directly-involved” defense.
Act II
In the US, the powerful lobby organisation American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has shamelessly claimed victory in defeating 13 Democrat congressional primary candidates who opposed the genocide in Gaza.
AIPAC is the most prominent foreign affairs lobby group in the US, with declared direct or indirect “donations” to at least 342 out of all 535 congress members. It raises fund in glittering annual galas, where both Democrats and Republicans scramble to secure speaking slots, hence, priding itself on being non-partisan, funnelling money from a long list of rich backers to their preferred candidates. It also donated to various pro-Israel thinktanks in Washington to influence Middle East policy.
In March, AIPAC publicly claimed credit for defeating Demo- crat’s congressional primary candidate Kina Collins in Illinois. Collins is a community organiser and lifelong anti-gun violence activist, who has called for a ceasefire and attributed the war in Gaza as a genocide. AIPAC publicly spent hundreds of thousand dollars in attack ads to kill her campaign.
Ever wondered why the US is so far the only country in the world that has passed ridiculous bills such as the legislative to punish individuals, companies or entities that encourage boycotts of Israel and Israeli products?
True story. As of January 2024, 38 out of 50 US states have passed bills and executive orders designed to discourage boycott, divestment or sanction against Israel. This happened despite more than 72% of Americans surveyed by University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll actually opposed these laws. In the country proudly claiming to be the capital of freedom of speech.
Ever wondered how the US keep on pumping billions of dollars every year, rounding up approximately US$300 billion (RM1.41 trillion) aid, mostly military, to Israel since its founding in 1948 by killing and robbing Palestinian lives and land?
Upon Israel’s heightened aggression over Gaza in October 2023, the US government immediately drawn up a multi-billion-dollar bill of foreign military aid. It was expeditiously and overwhelmingly passed by the US Senate in February 2024, with US$26 billion military assistance allocated entirely to Israel.
Ever wondered why the Israel lobby slogan goes as easy as “Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics”?
Act III
In Gaza, on June 27, the terrorist Zionist regime Israel’s aggression continues. No more skimpy excuses — just murder, and massacres.
In the early hours, 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 40 were injured when tents of displaced persons in the Al-Mawassi area, west of Rafah, were ruthlessly targeted. Later during the day, four others lost their lives when the tents in central Gaza
were shelled by Israeli artillery. Up to today, the 266th day of increased aggression, more than 37,765 Palestinians have been murdered, the majority of those children and women, all civilians. In excess of 86,429 individuals have been injured, maimed and scarred while an infinite number by the tens of thousands are feared dead, buried under the rubble of residentials in the whole Gaza.
In May, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza Strip, a 41km x 9km concentration camp, has easily exceeded 70,000 tonnes of explosives, far surpassing the devastation of World War II’s worst bombings including Hiroshima’s 15,000 tonnes of nuclear explosives.
The United Nations and the International Court of Justice’s demands for the killings to stop were mockingly defied. The officials of the International Court of Crime and their families were openly threatened by Israeli spies.
So. What do we do now?
Do we stop protesting and resign ourselves to the fact that the world is indeed controlled by Israel through proxies and affiliates?
No. The horse has not bolted. Everyone seems to forget that. In this controversy, the minority shareholders still hold the key to MAHB’s privatisation. Would they take the offer? Would they see beyond the playbook?
We should not lose the Gaza narrative and trust that others will not as well. Free Palestine.
Asuki Abas is the editor of The Malaysian Reserve.
This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition.
