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Tag: malayasian author

Read an exclusive excerpt from Saving the Planet

Posted on by simransingh

Saving the Planet is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the intersections between politics and climate change, as well as for an authentic voice at the frontlines of climate action in the Global South. Read an expert from the chapter Livable Cities below.  

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San Francisco has contributed much to music. Metallica, Santana, and the Grateful Dead are just a few of the bands that are from or were based in the city. In fact, journalist Herb Caen called the city ‘Baghdad by the Bay’ due to its diversity and cultural significance. But when talking about the birdsongs there, a curious observation was made. Since 1969, the songs of the white-crowned sparrows in San Francisco have been recorded for study. Similar to human beings, birds have ‘dialects’—there is a geographical variation in birdsongs, and they evolve over time. How fast or slowly this happens depends on various factors. The frequency of the songs has increased over time, possibly adapting to the city’s increased noise pollution. While dialects in the city’s bushy countryside disappeared, the dialect that developed in the city not only survived but became dominant, replacing the disappearing dialects of the countryside. 

Throughout history, the impact of cities on humans has been clear. We are only now, however, realizing the impact of cities on animals, plants, and the environment. While climate change caused by carbon emissions is a relatively recent phenomenon, air pollution is a problem that predates the Industrial Revolution. Workshops and furnaces produced dirty and unhealthy air. The Greek physician, Hippocrates, advised travelling physicians to look at the cleanliness of a city’s air and water. The use of fire from biomass for cooking, heating, and protection against mosquitoes led to lung diseases, which was recorded by various Roman scholars from over 2,000 years ago, as early as the dawn of the Common Era. At the same time, cases were heard in Roman courts about disputes over air pollution. 

About a thousand years after the birth of Hippocrates, Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca. At that time, the city was thriving with trade, attracting merchants from across Arabia and the Levant. Mecca was also already a city of pilgrimage, sustained by the Zamzam well. Yet, the infant Prophet was sent to the desert to be cared for by Halimah, a wet nurse. This was an Arab custom at that time to not only allow the young to learn the classical Arab tongue of the Bedouins but also enjoy the cleaner desert air outside the city. 

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Saving the Planet relates author Nik Nazmi’s experiences as NRECC Minister [later redesignated as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES)] and his thoughts on connected issues ranging from water management to climate financing. Get your copy to read his fascinating insights.  

 

Read an exclusive excerpt from The Siege Within

Posted on by simransingh

The Siege Within is the untold story behind the political crime that continues to make world headlines, and why a nation so full of promise has been brought to its knees. Read an exclusive excerpt from the book below. 

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Two elements are critical in a bond swindle.  

The first is securing the right coupon and the YTM rate.  

In mid-April 2009, Jonathan Manifold, the head of risk management at AmBank, emailed the bank’s top management overseeing the planned TIA scheme to say he estimated the fair market YTM for the TIA bond issues at 4.72 per cent, based on the 4.72 per cent yield US Treasuries were fetching at the time, and by assigning a so-called 25 basis points spread. This would have roughly been the rate for any typical bond issue guaranteed by the Malaysian government.  

But the TIA bond was a lot more. It was an elaborate exercise in fraud to siphon money and to use it to create a political slush fund for Najib. The rate Manifold had recommended would have been devastating for Project Tiara.  

This was a huge problem. A higher coupon would be crucially beneficial for the plan to succeed. Never mind that the Malaysian taxpayer would have to pay a high annual rate of interest for the thirty-year bond. The overriding objective was to create conditions that would provide all the latitude for the schemers to structure the deal in ways that would allow them to squeeze money up front.  

Manifold’s all-important email on the recommended rate for the TIA bonds quickly disappeared into the ether. AmBank’s Teng and Chan began arguing that the TIA bond proposal was far from being a typical government-backed bond issue.  

Further, Teng and Chan had personally lined up four foreign parties that had expressed a keen interest in underwriting the bonds. The only notable name in the list was the BNP Paribas chapter based out of Singapore. The other three were:  

  • Thailand-based Adkinson Securities, a listed financial outfit that was later renamed Country Group Securities, and which was controlled by the Taechaubol family; 
  • Little known Shikumen Capital Management Ltd, which was incorporated in the Cayman Islands and had operations in Hong Kong; and 
  • Aktis Capital Singapore, a financial advisory and fund management outfit headed by banker Cheah Teik Seng, who worked in the Malaysian Finance Ministry and was known to be close to Nor Mohamed. 

Now, the second element for the swindle would kick in— the mode of issue for the bonds. Depending on the nature of the bonds issues and arrangers, financial advisors would suggest one of three routes—a Private Placement, a Book Building exercise, or a Bought Deal. A Private Placement by a little-known company known as TIA was likely to face some hurdles. The most obvious track would be Book Building, simply because the bonds would be in keen demand to investors as the papers carried a government guarantee. All AmBank had to do was to underwrite the amount that investors would not have taken up. But there was no money to be made in these two approaches. Low and his team of schemers then decided to cherry-pick elements from all three modes of issue to create a financial structure that would enable them to extract as much as possible from the bond issue upfront.  

Project Tiara would apply a Bought Deal, which is usually utilized for cases involving high-yield papers, where the issuer’s credit standing is weak and a higher coupon is required to attract investors. 

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This is Malaysian journalist Leslie Lopez’s first book, and it delves into the writer’s own archives of previously unpublished material to go back in time and show exactly how it was possible for a Malaysian prime minister to envisage his treacherous crime, and then to execute the dastardly deed. Get your copy now.