Naming Names: Seeing whose big money is behind the Kampung Berembang demolitions
Herman Manggal
The internet tells us that regarding the development of the land where once the 60 houses of Kampung Berembang stood, home to normal decent Malaysians, these parties were involved: Perspektif Masa Sdn Bhd, Cahaya Kelang Construction (which is a subsidiary of Acmar International - probably the primary culprit), and the Selangor State Government .
Here's how I know this. One of the clearest indicators is this map (from the Acmar International Property Division website) which places the location of the Berembang development project squarely where Kampung Berembang (RIP) used to be. The Berembang development is also listed as one of the " Future Projects" on the Cahaya Kelang Construction website (scroll down a little bit in that box in the bottom right), where the client is Perspektif Masa Sdn. Bhd.
The involvement of the Selangor State Government is only a little less straightforward. The state government's property development arm has worked together with Perspektif Masa in another area with a similiar name - Kampung Berembang Hilir, which is a different location. That project involved building 694 low-cost apartments near Jalan Aman in Gombak. We'll go more into how the Selangor government is involved later on.
I decided to take the time to see what all these people are about. Let me start with Acmar International, owner of Cahaya Kelang Construction, who will be doing the actual building.
Acmar International is a huge corporation with an extremely diverse portfolio which includes running schools and hospitals (both which require extensive licensing, etc). It's founder, Mr. Tee Leh Teck started out in rubber, moved to automotive industries and eventually grew a huge business empire.
Let's look at the board of directors of Acmar International. The board includes Mr. Tee's two sons - Dato' Steven Tee Ah Seng, Dato' Johnson Tee Kim Hock. It also includes a Mr. David Tee Kim Ke and a Mr. David Tee Kim Cheong. The remaining three members include chairman Dato' Abd. Samad bin Maharuddin @ Samat - former Special Officer (??) to the Menteri Besar of Selangor, (persumably) his son Mr. Mohammad Khairul Dato' Abd Samad and one Dato' Mustapha Abd. Hamid, who was former Senior Assistant Director in the Prime Ministers Department. (See also an older webpage indicating the board of directors with slightly different info).
Getting an idea of who we're dealing with? Good, let's move on.
So who is this Perspektif Masa? It took RM 15 to the Registrar of Companies to find out.
The company report indicates four directors. Three of these four are as follows: Samat @ Abd Samad bin Maharuddin, Dato'; Tee Ah Seng, Dato'; Tee Kim Hock, Dato'. And Perspektif Masa's two sole share holders? The two Dato' Tee's.
The Tee family has its roots in Klang, and in the growing of their business empire, seem to have developed extremely close ties with the Selangor State Government. This is perhaps most clearly evidenced by the large number of projects undertaken by what appears to be a Joint Venture company - PNSB Acmar. PNSB stands for Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd, which is the development arm of the Selangor State Government.
From the Cahaya Kelang Construction site pages on completed, present and future projects alone, one can find seven constructions projects for PNSB Acmar. This is just for construction - I haven't looked into other business ventures PNSB and Acmar are taking together.
Another RM 15 got me the company report of PNSB Acmar. They have failed to submit their accounts since 2000, which is a punishable offence I understand. In that last statement of accounts, if I read the report correctly, the company was losing RM 16 million dollars. A substantial amount of that I assume is Selangor taxpayer money.
Other ties between Selangor and Acmar that I have heard about only amount to hearsay at this point.
I daresay the relationship was close enough such that the Selangor State Government could have intervened on behalf of the villagers and called for a delay should they have so wished. Instead, whether or not the directors were aware of it or not, this happened:
in order to make these rich men (all but one from only 2 families) richer faster:
I'm sure we would welcome any justification or explanation from Acmar International or the Selangor State Government.
Here are the two company reports (you owe me 30 bucks! :)