Australian election campaigns in Hong Kong & China raise the obvious question:Are Australian political parties holding funds in HK bank accounts; who funds them, and have these been declared ?

by Ganesh Sahathevan





During the 2013 election campaign China expert and then Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, advertised in Hong Kong. Mumbrella Asia noted:

A huge outdoor poster for the ruling Labor Party has been erected at a car park at City Hall in Central, Hong Kong’s busiest district.

The campaign has caused a stir locally because of the high cost of the ad. The billboard would have cost between HK$100,000-HK$200,000 (US$13,000-US$26,000), a local media buyer told Mumbrella.Rudd had also done so for the 2007 campaign, and The Age went so far as to suggest that the HK advertising was at least partially responsible for Maxine McKew's victory over John Howard in the contest for the seat of Bennelong.


In the 2019 election campaign both Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten , as well as a number of other politicians, used accounts held in the name of Chinese nationals to register onto WeChat.The ABC Investigations reported:


Prime Minister Scott Morrison's WeChat official account was registered in January under the name of an unknown Chinese citizen in Fujian province, while Mr Shorten's and the ALP's official account is registered to an unidentified Chinese man in Shandong province.

The ABC has identified 12 Australian politicians who are using WeChat accounts registered in other people's names in China, including government ministers.

Under WeChat rules "the initial registration applicant shall not donate, borrow, rent, transfer or sell the Weixin [WeChat] account, nor permit any non-initial registration applicant to use the Weixin account."

WeChat's user agreement states it is entitled to ban or cancel accounts that break the rules.

Neither party would disclose which Chinese citizens owned these accounts.

It is clear that both parties have not insignificant China and Hong Kong election campaign expenses.These expenses would be best  paid out of bank accounts in mainland China and Hong Kong,and funding would best be in the local currencies; it follows then that funding for these expenses would be sought from China and Hong Kong based donors.

Election funding  disclosures do not provide any details of where the funding is held,

so  unless the two parties provide details, voters will never know if there are not secret donors providing HK Dollar and Yuan funding for the China and HK campaigns.

END 

Now that Mahathir has said it,Australians can finally have that debate about Asian immigration that their leaders say they cannot have;time also to debate how Australia will cope with Asian style race relations laws(think 18C)

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Pauline Hanson called for a citizenship and immigration plebiscite for essentially the same reasons enumerated by Mahathir.





Malaysia's PM Mahathir has said what many Australians think, but their leaders are too afraid to have debated:

“They can try and sustain their culture, their language, but the inflow of Asians into Australia will certainly change the character and distribution of population in Australia. And in the future, they are going to be more Asian than European.”

(Malaysian PM says Australia's European roots will give way to Asian influence)

Mahathir says so with the knowledge of the special laws required in Malaysia and Singapore designed to prevent racial riots. Australian leaders pretend that immigration here is so different that there will never be a need for those type of laws.Yet, we have 18C which no one dares repeal,  and there are constant reminders of the need to "maintain" racial cohesion.

Perhaps now that Mahathir has said it, Australians can finally have that debate about immigration that they have been prevented from having, and consider if they can live with Asian style race relation laws;18C is bad enough but these are much worse.

The Hanson plebiscite of immigration, voted down by the Senate should be reintroduced, and carefully considered.

END

Singapore and global warming: Avoiding a heat island at the Botanic Gardens another cheap solution that is being ignored?

by Ganesh Sahathevan

As previously reported, Singapore has the infrastructure and data to manage its global warming concerns economically but appears however to have ignored that infrastructure and instead chosen to pursue very expensive large scale projects.

In fact, research into micro-managing Singapore climate with vegetation using the existing GIS infrastructure and data  was commenced in 1994, by Janet Nichol who established Singapore National Park's GIS system.

All that work appears to have been ignored and instead projects which appear not to have any real social value are being pursued while disregarding urban heal island consequences. 

The Wilshire Residences condominium project on the very border of the Singapore Botanic Gardens,f acing the Cluny Road entrance is likely to radiate  heat onto part of the Gardens ,given its concrete and glass form that will overlook the Cluny Gate entrance (see pictures above).

The proposed development sits in an upmarket  residential area that is quite leafy, so the social or communal need for a high rise apartment block that is likely to impair the Botanic Gardens cooling effects is hard to understand.

END 

Goldman's USD 2B settlement offered Malaysia might be the profit from the Signum Magnolia bonds, which in any event belong to Malaysia

by Ganesh Sahathevan

“Goldman Sachs has offered something like less than US$2 billion,” Tun Dr Mahathir told the newspaper. “We are not satisfied with that amount so we are still talking to them... If they respond reasonably we might not insist on getting that US$7.5 billion.” - NSTP/LUQMAN HAKIM ZUBIR

FT UK and others have reported that Malaysian PM Mahathir rejected an offer from Goldman Sachs of USD 2 Billion, in settlement of all and any liability arising out of the 1MDB matter.


It is likely that Goldman was simply offering Mahathir the profit from its Signum Magnolia bond offering, which is in fact a derivative of the USD 3.5 Billion bond offering arranged by Goldman which lies at the heart of the 1MDB theft (see below).

It is important to recall that Goldman's 1MDB bond strategy, and hence the strategy underlying its Signum Magnolia bond offering, is selling as sovereigns bonds bought as junk ie 1MDB junks were bought unrated,or as junk,and then immediately sold and repackaged as the sovereigns which they always were.

Anyone can make money that way,so Goldman may well be offering Mahathir its free lunch (or riskless profit) courtesy the Najib administration, in an industry where free lunches are never ever supposed to exist.Goldman's profits from the sale of the 1MDB bonds and the derivatives, including the Signum Magnolia bonds, are all owed the Malaysian people.

Having said that, all matters will be clearer if Lim Guan Eng's Ministry of Finance makes known all arrangements with Goldman Sachs.

END 

SEE ALSO 

Sunday, October 7, 2018

1MDB and the USD 28 Billion Signum Magnolia Ltd of the Cayman Islands.

by Ganesh Sahathevan






IPIC made an announcement to the London Stock Exchange on 10 October 2018.The announcement concerned ,among other things, the  resumption of its !MDB guarantee obligations by Abu Dhabi's Mubadalla.The announcment included these statements:

Signum Guaranteed Obligations means the notes and loans of Signum Magnolia Limited which are collateralised by the USD 1.75 Billion 5.75% Guaranteed Notes due 2022 of 1MDB Energy (Langat) Limited guaranteed by 1MDB and further guaranteed by IPIC."


There does not appear to be any mention of Signum Magnolia Limited in any previous IPIC announcement which concerned 1MDB.


Signum is a Cayman Island incorporated company. However Emirates NBD Bank describes in its 2012 Annual Report as a Malaysian company:

Some of the notable transactions concluded during the year included acting as mandated lead arranger, advisor and bookrunner for syndicated loans valuing USD 6.5 billion, arranged for high profile clients like Signum Magnolia Limited-Malaysia,



Signum bonds pay a coupon of 4.805%. The bond was issued on 07.01.2013 and has a term of up to 02.11.2022. The company is able to issue bonds with a face value of up to EUR 25 Billion , or USD 28.8 Billion. It is not clear if it has already issued bonds up to the maximum allowable.

It is also unclear where and to whom the coupon differential of 0.895%  is going to.Given the USD 1.75 Billion face value of the 1MDB bonds, the differential works out to approximately USD 160

Million (given half yearly coupon payments and accounting for compounding).

This type of secrecy does not sit well with professed ethos of New Malaysia.

END 

Australian government agencies continue to ignore 1MDB issues and to discredit work of journalists pursuing 1MDB theft, despite growing international cooperation to recover the funds

by Ganesh Sahathevan


While there has been a "Deafening Silence Out Of Australia Over 1MDB's Connection To Top Bank ANZ",Australian government bodies have been more than willing to discredit the work of journalists and governments that have been instrumental in exposing what is the biggest case of kleptocracy ever


The US Department Of Justice issued a press statement last week to announce the recovery of some USD 900 Million for the Malaysian fugitive Jho Low. The DOJ thanked specifically a number of enforcement agencies:

The Department also appreciates the significant assistance provided by the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia, the Royal Malaysian Police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Attorney General’s Chambers of Singapore, the Singapore Police Force-Commercial Affairs Division, the Office of the Attorney General and the Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland, the judicial investigating authority of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Criminal Investigation Department of the Grand-Ducal Police of Luxembourg.


Absent from the list are Australian enforcement agencies, despite the pivotal role played by Australia's ANZ Banking Group Ltd in the theft, and evidence of 1MDB linked assets being held in or managed out of Singapore.


Meanwhile, an Australian statutory board, the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board, which is chaired by the Chief Justice Of NSW, Tom Bathurst, and under the purview of the Attorney General NSW Mark Speakman, continue to maintain that this story from "Thirdforce" and "Malaysia-Today" is true:

Ganesh Sahathevan, RPK, Clare Brown, Ginny Stein and the blood money trail

They have done so despite their actions being the subject of a story published in Australia's only national daily,The Australian, on 17 January 2019.

They have in fact gone further to discredit as untrue, false, misleading or exaggerated stories by this writer on the 1MDB matter and on all the personalities involved, despite  this writer's publications being confirmed by evidence being now produced in court, and DOJ court filings. The Chief Justice and the AG consider the persons investigated and written about with regards the 1MDB issue to be "eminent persons" who have been "defamed".

It  was initially assumed that  Australian agencies were attempting to protect ANZ Bank, one of this economy's so called "4 pillar" banks.However the NSW AG Mark Speakman's attempts to discredit as well this writer's publications about the Kestrel Group of off-shore companies, and the Top Group affair, suggest that factions within Australian state and federal governments are concerned about any investigation into offshore entities, for reasons best known to them.

END 

1MDB asset recovery: Malaysia does not have to "make a claim",and the DOJ will take steps to ensure the USD 1 Billion recovered from JLow is returned to the people:Guan Eng & advisers should not interfere

by Ganesh Sahathevan

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.See again Good of Guan Eng to warn Malaysians of the "deep state who undermines the administration and cohesiveness of PH" but what of the the faceless ones within the MOF from the 1MDB linked KPMG and other consultancies ?

CNA and others have reported: 


Malaysia will make a claim over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) assets in the United States following a settlement by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) involving the recovery of the fund's assets.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday (Oct 31) that part of the 1MDB money had been used by Jho Low to buy assets in America, estimated to be worth US$600 million.


“He (Jho Low) has now surrendered ... Therefore, DoJ now holds and freezes the assets that were bought with Malaysian money.

“We had proof he is using Malaysia’s money to buy the asset and we will now make a claim (over the 1MDB assets) to the American government,” Dr Mahathir said.


The statement above is a bit perplexing for the entire DOJ action, under the United States' kleptocracy regime, is premised on the theft of money from the people of Malaysia. The recovery and repatriation of funds stolen from the people by their leaders and banked or invested in the US is the purpose for being of the kleptocracy regime.

There is therefore no need for Malaysia to "make a claim" for something that US laws recognise is the property of the Government and people of Malaysia.


All that remains is a mechanism for the repatriation and here of course the Ministry of Finance and its advisers and consultants may get frustrated for the DOJ might not see things their way and decide instead to return the money to the people via UN or World Bank programmes. 

END

SEE ALSO

Good of Guan Eng to warn Malaysians of the "deep state who undermines the administration and cohesiveness of PH" but what of the the faceless ones within the MOF from the 1MDB linked KPMG and other consultancies ?

 

SA Chief Justice Kourakis terrorism decision makes Dutton's surveillance laws a necessary evil

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The US NSA Uses Social Network Analysis To Map Terrorist Networks.Terrorist 

networks are not like the Army Reserves or the French Foreign Legion; one does not look

for conventional command and control structures but rather networks and the links and

nodes within them.





The ABC reported:


A former Adelaide student found guilty of being a member of Islamic State (IS) has had her conviction overturned on appeal, despite the state's chief justice accepting she had pledged allegiance to the terror group.

Her legal team argued there was no evidence presented at trial about the organisational structure of IS and how a person might become a member and, therefore, no evidence that Ms Abdirahman-Khalif had taken steps to do so.

They also argued that the trial judge's summing up to the jury was unbalanced and failed to present the defence case.

Three judges presided over the appeal, Chief Justice Chris Kourakis, Justice Trish Kelly and Justice Greg Parker.

The chief justice said the evidence at trial supported an inference that Ms Abdirahman-Khalif was a supporter of IS, its extremist ideology and its terrorist activities.

"It also supported the inference that she intended to travel to Turkey to make contact with members or supporters of Islamic State in Turkey, with the intention of travelling into areas of Syria, Iraq and Turkey … for the purposes of either providing medical assistance to fighters and others or to marry an Islamic State fighter," he said.


However, Mr Kourakis  said the prosecution did not produce evidence about IS's organisational structure or membership.

"No evidence was adduced on how members were recruited or selected, or of any process by which they were inducted and finally accepted into the organisation," he said.

"Other than references to [IS leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi's autocratic rule and to several of his immediate subordinates, there was no evidence about Islamic State's decision-making processes or command structure


"There was therefore no evidence against which to evaluate any connection between the proved conduct of the appellant, her communications, pledge of allegiance, singing and attempt to travel to Turkey, with formal or informal membership of Islamic State."
Jihadi organisations like IS comprise independent cells; look for an "organisation" is often impossible, as is any search for "command structure". Jihadi networks comprise nodes and links (see article below) and this decision by Kourakis  will require prosecutors in future cases to provide evidence of the nodes and structures in order to prove structure and decision making processes. Current surveillance laws may not allow this, and the expanded spying
powers reported to have been proposed by Peter Dutton are probably the remedy.

END

The Problem Of Passive Supporters Of Jihadi Terrorists And The Putin Solution

by Ganesh Sahathevan

While I have previously taken a top-down approach to describing the networks that support  jihadists (see http://gsahathevan.blogspot.com/2018/11/structures-for-support-of-muslim_83.html) , the proliferation of Al-Qaeda franchises and off-shoots, such as those at work in Syriaⁱ requires that a bottom-up , or grassroots, approach be adopted.

While the top down approach looked at the support states provided jihadists, the bottom-up approach is concerned with how individuals at the grassroots can comprise networks that jihadists might rely on for their activities. Civil rights activists might be alarmed by such language, afraid that large sections of a given population could be branded jihadists, but there is in fact a theoretical framework and empirical  evidence to support this hypothesis.

Juan José Miralles Canals ⁱⁱ describes these types of networks using a mathematical and computer modeling approach:

Passive supporters of the jihadist cause are normal people who do not need to express their position explicitly. They just do not oppose a jihadist act in case they could. They are sharing independently an identical opinion of identifying with the jihadist cause. They do not need to communicate between then. This is an individual dormant attitude associated to a personal opinion. It does not need to be explicitly so. They are unnoticeable, and most of them reject the violent aspect of the jihadist action.

Social permeability to the jihad describes the physical pathways that nodes of the jihadist networks can establish and use to move freely and safely along, thanks to the passive supporters of the jihadist cause.

Social permeability to the jihad  describes the physical pathways that nodes of the jihadist networks can establish and use to move freely and safely along, thanks to the passive supporters of the jihadist cause.

Canals provides a mathematical analysis which concludes that disruption at the nodes is required to disrupt jihadists activities. Given what was seen in Iraq, and now Syria ,and well before these, Gaza, of apparently innocent non-combatants supporting the jihadists' cause, it does appear that Cannals theoretical perspective has and is being borne out in the real world.

I have previously written about the relevance to this day of the British Malaya administration's policy of new villagesⁱⁱⁱ, used to defeat the Communist Party Of Malaya, which while being financed by the Peoples' Republic Of China, relied heavily on the support of local Chinese to facilitate their activities on the ground.

That solution may today seem inhumane, but critics conveniently forget that lives were saved by that solution. Be that as it may, Russian President Vladimir Putin might have provided an alternative , a middle path:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law the controversial bill ….amending the Criminal Code to expand the number of offenses classified as terrorism and require the relatives of people deemed to have committed acts of terrorism to pay financial compensation for the material damage they caused^iv.

Not unexpectedly Putin's law has already come under criticism. However it is suggested that critics should rather see this law as the basis for other similar policy instruments that might be used to curb acts of terrorism. Either that, or a return to the new villages.

END

i http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/20/us-syria-crisis-raqqa-idUSBREA0J17W20140120,

ii Fourth-generation warfare: Jihadist networks and percolation

• Juan José Miralles Canals

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895717709001526

iii http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2007/04/ending_support_.html

iv Russia To Hold Relatives Of 'Terrorists' Financially Responsible For Material Damage
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-terrorism-law-terrorists-financial-liability/25157756.html

Posted by Ganesh Sahathevan on February 25, 2014 at 18:10

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