Ganesh Sahathevan

The following excerpts from stories published in Malaysia's main stream media, beginning with the 18 April 2008 story in Vincent Tan's THE SUN , show how ERL came to be recipient of airport taxes, or air passenger services charges: A) You pay – even if you don't use ERL Terence Fernandez and R. Nadeswaran PETALING JAYA (April 21, 2008): Passengers who fly off from Sepang have been paying an additional RM2 to RM6 in airport tax for the last six years – no thanks to a lopsided deal between the government and Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERLSB) which operates the Express Rail Link (ERL). According to sources, under the terms of agreement for the RM2.8 billion ERL project, a portion of the airport taxes that departing passengers pay goes to the company – RM2 for domestic passengers and RM6 for international travellers from KLIA as well as the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). It is learnt that the rationale behind the concession agreement signed in 1997 is to ensure a return on i...

In May 2007 the Sun Herald reported, in a story about Therese Rein and Kevin Rudd's business interest: .... she borrowed AUD 7800 against their Brisbane home and set up Therese Rein and Associates, trading as WorkDirections Australia. "Well, we've struggled with our mortgage and this has been a long journey," she says. "What my parents gave me was a good education and the belief that you can do anything. They didn't give me money. When we started the business, we had a mortgage and we borrowed against the equity in the house. That only stopped ... a few years ago now." (Source:Rein & shine,By Peter Wilmoth 27 May 2007,Sun Herald) However ,an ASIC search obtained at that time showed Rein's company was subject to a charge -fixed and floating -in favour of Westpac since 1990.That loan appears to have been refinanced since then , most recently with HSBC . In other words, Rudd-Rein's business was not financed by a mere mortgage over the family ho...

As of yesterday, 17 April 2008 June natural gas was selling at $10.45 per million British thermal units (http://www.oilmarketer.co.uk/2008/04/17/oil-prices-retreat-on-stronger-dollar/) According to Anil Netto, Petronas sells gas to Tenaga and the independent power producers at 6.40 ringgit ($1.90) per million British thermal units . Netto has also reported: Since 1997, out of the 58.2 billion ringgit ($17.2 billion) that Petronas has dished out in gas subsidies, 27.6 billion ringgit or 47 percent has benefited the independent power producers, 21.2 billion ringgit ($6.2 billion) has gone to Tenaga, and small industrial, commercial and residential users received 9.4 billion ($2.8 billion). Independent power producers have thus benefited more from subsidized gas than Tenaga has . With oil and gas prices now soaring, the government and Petronas are feeling the pinch of higher fuel and gas subsidies. The Malaysian public has incurred a staggering 27.6 billion ringgit ($8.2 billion) throug...

From the Invisage website , now inoperative, but held in Web Archives: Our History In 1991, Invisage, known then as the Clements School of Management, was approached by the then Federal Minister for Education, Mr John Dawkins, to offer a unique, nationally accredited Associate Diploma in Business Studies. Since then we have further developed our workplace training programs, which cover the areas of marketing, sales and management. In January 1998, Invisage as Clements became a Registered Training Organisation under the Australian National Training Authority's Australian Recognition Framework initiative. The initiative guaranteed mutual recognition of qualifications awarded throughout Australia by other registered training organisations. Copyright © 2003 Ingeus Limited. (Source:http://web.archive.org/web/20060129001114/invisage.edu.au/about_invisage/history.shtml) From the SMH, 1 March 2008: THE wife of Kevin Rudd's chief of staff, David Epstein, has been appointed to run the ...

In the 70'swhile Lu Kewen was still practising his Mandarin at the ANU , Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew had already set Singapore on its road to China. This policy was driven in part by Lee's views on Chinese racial superiority ( see for example http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=79541) Then in 1999 Lee disaster struck: It seemed like a fine idea when Singapore agreed with China in 1994 to build a giant $30 billion industrial park in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou to serve as a model for attracting foreign investment to the world's most populous nation. Five years later, the venture is heavily in debt — undermined by local officials who set up a rival park close by, forcing Singapore to cut its interests in the original project, Singapore officials say. Singapore's senior minister, Lee Kuan Yew — who played a leading role in the effort to replicate the island-state's capitalist-style efficiency in the industrial heartland of China — conceded this w...

This is a continuation of my earlier post: "Lu Kewen friend Beijing AustChina ultimately a Chinese state-owned corporation? "(http://sahathevan.blogspot.com/2008/03/is-lu-kewen-friend-beijing-austchina.html) Beijing AustChina is also referred to as AustChina Technology (see http://chinaconnections.com.au/news/view/?id=422). It appears to also go by the names Austchina Technology (Beijing)ann AustChina Information Technology Pty Ltd. According to an ABR company search ,AustChina Information Technology Pty Ltd is a company whose shareholders are Phil Smith (4 shares @ $1 each) , and Tang Yui (6 shares @ $ 1 each).There are no charges recorded, and hence the company does not appear to have any borrowings.Hence, the company appears to be a corporate shell without the resources to conduct any form of business. Tang Yui appears to be Ian Tang's Chinese name. It is a matter of public record that Phil Smith is a shareholder in Beijing AustChina, fully aware of its political contr...

The Australian PM Lu Kewen has proposed a new regional security role for China during talks in Washington.(http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/01/2204241.htm) In doing so Lu seems to have forgotten that in our immediate neighbourhood, there remains strong suspicion of China and the Chinese. Malaysia and Indonesia have a large Chinese population, even if these are in the minority. The nature of the relationship between the Muslim majority in both countries and their Chinese countrymen is summarised by Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew who has said: 'My neighbours both have problems with their Chinese. They are successful, they're hardworking and therefore they are systematically marginalised, even in education.' Lee also said that the attitude of Malaysia and Indonesia towards Singaporeans shaped by the way they treated their own ethnic Chinese minorities. (An old Malaysian debate that refuses to die , Straits Times Singapore,27 September 2006) Both Malaysia and Indonesia ...