Utterly flabbergasted by the mind-boggling realisation that the 67,158 APs released by the Prime Minister’s Offfice was for 2005 and not for the past 35 years as I and many were under the impression – which means that the four AP Kings stand to make some RM850 million this year alone

Media  Comment
by Lim Kit Siang  

(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): I am utterly flabbergasted by the mind-boggling realisation that the 67,158 APs released by the Prime Minister’s Offfice yesterday  was for 2005 and not for the past 35 years as I and many were under the impression – which means that the four AP Kings stand to make some RM850 million this year, at the average worth  of RM30,000 per AP.

I have again  studied the two APs list, for Open and Franchise APs, released by the Prime Minister’s Office, and it is very clear that the 49,632 Franchise APs and 17,526 Open APs were for this year 2005 and not for previous years.

I had this morning asked what was the basis for the issue of 12,524 APs to “AP King” Tan Sri Nasimuddin SM Amin, “comprising 3,112 Open APs in 1988, and the rest  as Franchise APs through five companies, Naza Kia Sdn. Bhd, Next Car Sdn. Bhd, NZ Wheel (M) Sdn. Bhd,  Nasim Sdn. Bhd and Naza-Brabus Sdn. Bhd between 1997 – 2004”.  

This was a mistake, as it is now apparent that the facts as follows:

Nasimuddin through Naza Konsortium Sdn. Bhd was first given an Open AP in 1988 and for 2005, he was issued 3,112 APs.  He was also given 9,412 Franchise APs  for 2005 through five other companies, viz Naza Kia Sdn. Bhd. 8,432 (AP first issued in 1997),  Next Car Sdn. Bhd. 76 (first issued 1997), NZ Wheel (M) Sdn. Bhd 419 (first issued 1997), Nasim Sdn. Bhd 293 (first issued 2002) and Naza-Brabus Sdn. Bhd. 192 (first issued 2004).

Similarly, the “AP King of Kings” trio, Datuk Seri Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim, Datuk Mohd Haniff Abd. Aziz and Datuk Azzuddin Ahmad were issued  15,759 APs not in the four years between 2002-2005 which I had wrongly assumed, but for 2005 alone, although the first of the six companies they controlled got the franchise AP in 2002, viz:

It is mind-boggling that 67,158 APs worth RM2 billion could be issued for one year, with four AP Kings given the opportunity to amass RM850 million. It is even more mind-boggling that this is just for one year, as such APs scandal had been going on year-after-year going back for more than three decades, involving a total mind-boggling sum of tens of billions of ringgit!

Clearly, the next immediate thing which the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should do is to make public the full list of the AP holders and the total number of APs issued to each for every year going back to 1970!

(19/07/2005)