APA KATA JONGKONG SELEPAS SEBULAN MEMBISU !

 

KALAU NAK SELAMAT

(Nota: tulisan berikut adalah khayalan pakcik semata mata.Tak ada kena mengena dengan yang masih hidup atau yang masih tak mati mati )

Sebulan lebih pakcik diam. Sebabnya ada org kata pakcik tak patut guna fb ini untuk kritik orang yang berkuasa. Pakcik patut sokong saja kalau nak selamat. Orang berkuasa tu mestilah betul sebab kuasa itu kebenaran. Pakcik ni pulak lurus bendul. Ingatkan orang berkuasa tu hargai teguran yang ikhlas dan tak suka kaki bodek. Pakcik silap. Kalau nak selamat teruskanlah membodek dan mengipas. Hanya orang orang  yang gagal sibuk dengan kebenaran. Orang yang berjaya sibuk dengan  kuasa. Kalau kena jadi lembu pun tak apa asal dapat pangkat dan duduk dekat dengan penguasa. Pakcik ingat lembu lembu  ni dah kena sembelih raya haji baru ni…tapi banyak jugak yang terlepas rupanya!

Jangan tuduh pakcik bukan bukan  pulak….pakcik hanya sebut lembu tanpa mendedahkan nama atau spesiesnya!

MASA DEPAN FOREST CITY DI TANGAN PM MAHATHIR

 

FOREST CITY DAN SULTAN JOHOR DALAM PERANG MAHATHIR-CHINA

1. Kontroversi hubungan Perdana Menteri Tun Dr. Mahathir dengan China kini terus panas apabila beliau hari ini mengisytiharkan bahawa warga asing tidak akan dibenarkan untuk membeli dan tinggal di kediaman Forest City, Johor. Tindakan ini bakal memberi kesan kepada ribuan pembeli warga China. Malah, projek yang bernilai kira-kira RM400 bilion itu turut melibatkan Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan Johor Sultan Ibrahim Ismail.

2. Pemilikan DYMM Sultan Johor Sultan Ibrahim Ismail dalam projek Forest City dilaporkan wartawan MalaysiaKini, Nigel Aw dalam laporan bertarikh 14 Julai 2014 yang bertajuk ‘The Case of Forest City and the Johor Sultan’ (https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/268649) manakala dalam edisi Bahasa Melayu bertajuk ‘Alkisah Forest City dan Sultan Johor’ (https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/268658).

3. Forest City diusahakan oleh kerjasama China-Johor melalui Country Garden Pacific View (CGPV).  Sebanyak 66 peratus pegangan CGPV dikuasai oleh tiga syarikat gergasi China iaitu Country Garden Waterfront Sdn Bhd, Country Garden Danga Bay Sdn Bhd, dan Country Garden Real Estate Sdn Bhd.

4. Baki 34 peratus pegangan CGPV dimiliki Kerajaan negeri Johor iaitu Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd.

5. Baginda Sultan Ibrahim merupakan pemilik saham terbesar Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd, dengan kawalan pegangan 64.4 peratus syarikat berkenaan.  Kerajaan negeri Johor melalui Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor (KPRJ) pula hanya menguasai sekitar 20 peratus saham dalam syarikat tersebut.

6. Projek raksasa yang dibangunkan Country Garden Holdings Co. tersebut menyediakan kira-kira 700,000 unit kediaman di mana antara pembeli majoritinya (70%) adalah dari China menerusi skim ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ MM2H.

7. Malah, Tun Mahathir turut menegaskan bahawa tiada sebarang visa akan diberikan kepada warga asing untuk datang dan tinggal di sini.  Hal ini bermakna bahawa ribuan pembeli dari China tidak akan dibenarkan untuk mendiami kediaman yang telah mereka beli di Johor.

8.  Tindakan agresif Tun Mahathir ini dikaitkan dengan lawatan beliau ke China baru-baru ini di mana beliau telah mengumumkan hasrat untuk membatalkan projek Laluan Kereta Api Pantai Timur (ECRL) dan dua projek saluran paip trans-Sabah (TSGP) di Beijing.  Kemudiannya Tun Mahathir mengatakan bahawa keputusan akhir pembatalan ECRL tertakluk pada jumlah pampasan yang perlu dibayar kerajaan kepada China pula.

9. Adakah langkah ini merupakan tindak balas Tun Mahathir kepada China yang dikatakan enggan mengalah kepada tuntutan beliau ketika lawatan ke sana minggu lalu? Perlu diketahui bahawa ketika lawatan Tun Mahathir ke China, China turut telah menghantar kapal ‘Coast Guard’ mereka ke Zon Ekonomi Eksklusif milik Malaysia berhampiran Beting Patinggi Ali. Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) mengirim dua kapal Kelas Kedah iaitu KD Selangor dan KD Kelantan sebagai reaksi balas.

10. Malah, Tun Mahathir sebelum ini turut mengisytiharkan bahawa ‘Tembok Besar China di Kuantan’ perlu dirobohkan – merujuk pada struktur projek Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP).

11. Apa yang pasti, tindakan ini bakal memberi impak besar ke atas projek Forest City, imej negara, hubungan Malaysia-China, dan secara khususnya, ke atas hubungan Tun Mahathir dan DYMM Sultan Johor.

12. ‘Pertembungan’ antara Tun Mahathir dengan Sultan Ibrahim pada hakikatnya telah berlangsung secara terbuka sejak awal tahun 2017 lagi apabila kedua-duanya saling berbalas kenyataan.  Rujuk Sinar Harian ‘Sultan Ibrahim bidas Tun M’ (http://www.sinarharian.com.my/nasional/sultan-ibrahim-bidas-tun-m-1.612797) dan ‘Tun M jawab Sultan Johor isu Forest City’ (http://www.sinarharian.com.my/nasional/tun-m-jawab-sultan-johor-isu-forest-city-1.613190).

13. DYMM Sultan Ibrahim mempertahankan projek Forest City sebagai peluang untuk membangunkan hartanah Johor di samping mengatakan bahawa projek berskala 2000 hektar terbabit adalah lot antarabangsa yang terbuka untuk dibeli oleh sesiapa sahaja warga asing – bukannya dari China sahaja – malah tiada beza dengan projek perumahan mewah di Selangor dan Pulau Pinang yang turut dijual kepada warga asing.

14. Tun Mahathir pula mengkritik projek Forest City sebagai menggadai kedaulatan negara dengan anggaran 700,000 warga asing yang membeloi kediaman di sana akan memperoleh kewarganegaraan, sedangkan warga tempatan tidak berkemampuan sama sekali untuk memiliki kediaman tersebut.

15. Selain daripada kebimbangan demografi dengan kemungkinan kemasukan 700,000 warga asing (khususnya China di bawah skim Malaysia My Second Home MM2H), terdapat juga kebimbangan akan impak projek Forest City ke atas alam sekitar dan juga Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas.

16. Dari sudut pandang geopolitik, langkah pelaburan infrastruktur dan hartanah besar-besaran di luar negara oleh China ini adalah sebagai pelengkap kepada strategi agung (grand strategy) mereka iaitu Inisiatif OBOR (kini dikenali sebagai BRI): “Kebanyakan projek pelabuhan akan digabungkan dengan penciptaan bandar-bandar satelit gergasi di Johor dan Melaka, seperti Iskandar Malaysia di Johor dan Melaka Gateway yang turut disertakan dengan pelabuhan yang baru dibina.  Di Melaka, akan ada empat buah pulau buatan daripada tanah yang ditambak, yang dibahagikan kepada (1) pulau pelancongan, hiburan, dan pembangunan hartanah, (2) pulau zon ekonomi perdagangan bebas, (3) Pulau pelabuhan Melaka Gateway, dan (4) taman perindustrian maritim” (Evers 2017).

17. Hakikatnya, projek Forest City sudah menjadi persoalan sejak tahun lalu apabila kerajaan China mengetatkan pengaliran modal keluar dari negara China – sekali gus memberi impak negatif ke atas pembelian kediaman Forest City dalam kalangan warga China.  Ditambah dengan langkah terbaru oleh Tun Mahathir ini, dijangka lebih banyak isu dan permasalahan yang akan timbul.

18. Bagaimana dengan pemilikan kediaman warga asing di Selangor dan Pulau Pinang? Apakah masa depan projek Melaka Gateway? Adakah imej kita akan merosot di mata dunia korporat kerana ‘mengganggu’ persetujuan pembelian warga China di Forest City? Ataukah imej kita akan melonjak dengan laungan ketegasan mempertahankan kedaulatan tanah air?

19.  Dari sudut politik dan geopolitik pula, apa akan jadi pada hubungan Malaysia-China selepas ini? Adakah China akan menghentikan projek mereka seperti projek Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP)?  Adakah China akan menghukum kita dengan pampasan yang tinggi dalam kes pembatalan ECRL? Bagaimana pula dengan hubungan Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan Johor dan Perdana Menteri Tun Mahathir susulan kes terbaru ini?

Semoga Allah peliharakan negara kita menjelang ulang tahun kemerdekaan ke-61 ini.

Oleh: Abdul Muein Abadi

Penulis ialah Pensyarah Program Sains Politik Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

SEBUAH NUKILAN SEJARAH TUN DAIM TENTANG GEO POLITIK !

 

 

Dari kiri Dr Syed Hussein Ali, x dikenali, isteri Pak Sako, Pak Sako Ishak Hj. Muhammad, Pengerusi Parti Boroh Malaya dan Tan Kee Hai S/U PBM

Sejarah dan kenangan. Pengerusi Yayasan Usman Awang ialah Tan Kai Hee. Beliau adalah rakan karib Usman Awang. Sasterawan Negara itu mengambil perhatian berat terhadap keluarga Tan Kai Hee sewaktu beliau berada dalam tahanan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) pada tahun-tahun 1960-an hingga awal 1970-an.
Beliau adalah juga pengasas dan pengerusi Hai-O Enterprise (kini Hai-O Berhad) yang ditubuhnya bersama kawan-kawan seperjuangannya dalam Parti Buruh Malaya pada tahun 1970-an dulu.
Tan Kai Hee adalah Setiausaha Agung Parti Buruh Malaya pada tahun-tahun 1960-an. Ketika itu Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako) adalah Pengerusi Parti Buruh itu. Pada masa itu, Parti Buruh, Parti Rakyat Malaya (PRM) dan Parti National Convention menubuhkan pakatan Front Sosialis Rakyat Malaya. Ia dipimpin oleh Ahmad Boestamam yang juga merupakan Ketua PRM. Parti National Convention diketuai oleh Aziz Ishak, bekas Menteri Pertanian dalam kabinet Tunku Abdul Rahman. Aziz dipecat kerana enggan menggunakan baja buatan British, ICI yang dipaksa oleh pihak British terhadap Malaya.
Ketika aku berkunjung ke rumah Said Zahari pada tahun 2000-an, aku dapat tahu Tan Kai Hee turut membantu keperluan Said Zahari.
Ada satu ketika masa aku menunggu di bilik beliau, Said Zahari bercakap dengan seseorang di pintu pagar yang kemudian aku rasa ialah Tan Kai Hee. Mereka berbual dalam bahasa Mandarin.
Said Zahari belajar bahasa Mandarin ketika beliau berada dalam tahanan ISA di Singapura. Beliau ditahan oleh kerajaan Lee Kuan Yew dalam operasi Cold Store. Dalam operasi itu Lee Kuan Yew telah menangkap pemimpin-pemimpin Barisan Sosialis. Barisan Sosialis adalah pecahan daripada Parti Tindakan Rakyat Singapura (PAP). Asalnya Barisan Sosialis adalah sayap kiri dalam PAP.
Said Zahari adalah Ketua Parti Rakyat Singapura. Pada masa itu Parti Rakyat bergerak di Malaya, Singapura dan Brunei. Parti Rakyat Brunei diketuai oleh A.M. Azahari. Parti Rakyat Singapura adalah sekutu Barisan Sosialis.
Samad Ismail yang merupakan antara pengasas PAP adalah juga golongan sayap kiri parti itu. Beliau yang bekerja dengan Utusan telah diarahkan berpindah ke Jakarta ketika Malaya menyambut kemerdekaan sebagai tindakan memencilkan beliau daripada kegiatan politik di Singapura.
Sebelum Said Zahari mengetuai Parti Rakyat, beliau adalah ketua sidang pengarang Utusan Melayu yang jawatannya dipanggil Pengarang. Beliau mengetuai mogok Utusan untuk membantah pengambilalihan UMNO ke atas Utusan. Mogok itu gagal dan banyak wartawan Utusan yang terkenal berhenti. Selain dari Said Zahari, wartawan lain ialah Usman Awang dan Keris Mas. Kedua-duanya kemudian menyertai Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Beberapa tahun selepas beliau dibebaskan, Said Zahari berpindah dan menetap di Subang Jaya. Ada satu ketika masa aku berjumpa beliau, Said Zahari ada menceritakan bagaimana Tun Daim ada datang bertemu beliau.
Aku tanya untuk apa. Said Zahari memberitahu Tun Daim ingin mengetahui detik-detik akhir 1950-an ketika mana Malaya hendak merdeka dan Malaysia hendak ditubuhkan. Antaranya ialah mengenai fahaman nasionalisme Sukarno dan pengaruhnya terhadap Parti Rakyat. Ketika itu Tun Daim baru saja bersara dari politik dan menumpukan perhatian terhadap peranan Amerika terhadap rantau ini. Daripada perhatian itu, beliau menulis sebuah buku kecil geopolitik yang aku turut ulas dan disiarkan dalam Utusan Malaysia.

KEMUNCULAN TUN MAHATHIR MERUBAH GEOPOLITIK ASIA TENGGARA

Kemenangan mengejut Pakatan Harapan pada 9 Mei lalu nampaknya telah merubah lanskap politik Malaysia.Ia kemenangan bersejarah yang berjaya menumbangkan satu-satunya parti BN yang telah memerintah Malaysia selama 61 tahun sejak merdeka.Lebih mengejutkan bekas PM ke 4 Tun Mahathir kembali memegang tampuk pemerintahan dengan menjadi PM buat kali kedua.Dalam rekod dunia, beliau adalah PM yang paling tua  iaitu menjadi PM pada usia 93 tahun.Kemunculan Tun Malaysia bukan sahaja merubah lanskap politik Malaysia, bahkan ia juga turut merubah geopolitik Asia Tenggara.

 

Berani menghadapi kuasa besar

 

Sebelum PRU 14,umum mengetahui kecenderungan yang berlebihan Malaysia terhadap pelaburan dari China.PM ketika itu, Najib Razak memberikan projek berskala besar kepada China dengan runding terus tanpa melalui tender terbuka misalnya projek ECRL yang kontroversi itu.Sementara Malaysia pula terletak dalam lokasi strategik antara Laut China Selatan dan Lautan Hindi. Lokasi ini penting bagi menjayakan projek laluan sutera laut abad ke 21 yang Malaysia merupakan laluannya.Dalam masa yang sama, menurut Hishamuddin Rais, China akan memilih negara yang pemimpinya bermasalah dan mempunyai hasil bumi yang kaya.Kedua-dua ciri ini ada pada Malaysia.

 

Kecenderungan yang berlebihan ini tidak menyenangkan Tun Mahathir.Tindakan ini dikritik dalam ceramah dan kempennya.Malaysia sebelumnya adalah negara berkecuali dan berdagang dengan semua negara dengan keuntungan kepada kedua pihak.

 

Namun sebaliknya berlaku sebelum PRU 14.Kontrak-kontrak yang dimeterai terlalu berpihak kepada China dan boleh dikatakan menjejaskan kedaulatan negara kita.Bahkan negara tersebut telah membina tembok besar sepanjang 9 km di Kuantan.Anehnya sesiapapun tidak dibenarkan memasuki kawasan ini hatta pihak berkuasa di Malaysia sekalipun.Ia umpama wilayah China di Malaysia.

 

Oleh itu,sebaik diangkat menjadi PM, Tun Mahathir segera memenuhi jemputan ke Jepun, bagi menghadiri sebuah persidangan di sana. Ini secara tersirat telah menghantar mesej kepada China bahawa Malaysia tidak akan bergantung pelaburan kepada hanya satu negara sahaja.Tun Mahathir juga telah mengumumkan akan menghidupkan semua dasar pandang ke timur dengan mengambil Jepun sebagai model sebuah negara yang maju.Segala gerak-geri dan ucapan beliau diperhatikan dengan teliti oleh negara jiran.

 

Beliau turut berkata bahawa semua projek yang telah dimeterai dengan tidak mengikut prosedur yang betul akan disemak semula.Tindakan ini menghantar mesej China bahawa Malaysia tidak akan tunduk kepada kuasa besar dan tidak akan dibuli. Tindakan berani ini pastinya akan merubah geopolitik Asia Tenggara bagi mengimbangi kehadiran dan asakan ketara mana-mana negara yang ingin mendominasi wilayah ini.

 

Jurucakap ASEAN

 

Asakan China di Laut China Selatan telah menyebabkan wilayah ini menjadi tegang. China telah menuntut 90 % hak milik ini di laut ini.Ini kerana wilayah ini kaya dengan sumber ikan dan dipercayai mempunyai sumber minyak yang banyak.

 

Tambakan yang dibuat dengan membina pulau-pulau buatan telah menimbulkan ketegangan kerana ia merupakan laluan kapal dagang. Kekhuatiran ini berasas kerana pulau-pulau buatan ini akan menempatkan pesawat perang China dan kapal-kapalnya.

 

Antara negara-negara yang tidak tidak senang akan asakan China ini ialah Vietnam, Indonesia dan Filipina.Vietnam bahkan menukar nama sebahagian lautnya kepada Laut Vietnam Timur. Filipina pula, walaupun mahkamah antarabangsa memutuskan bahawa bahagian tertentu Laut China Selatan sebagai miliknya namun keputusan ini ditolak oleh China.Bahkan untuk menggali minyak di kawasan tersebut, Filipina harus meminta izin dari China.Walaupun dominasi China ketara, namun ASEAN tidak mempunyai jurucakap bagi menyatakan pendirian mereka.Mereka bersuara secara berasingan dan tidak menyatu kerana mempunyai kepentingan masing-masing di samping tidak mempunyai pemimpin yang kuat.

 

Kemunculan semula Tun Mahathir di persada politik negara mungkin  merubah keadaan ini.Di rantau ini,beliau merupakan pemimpin ASEAN yang paling senior selepas kematian mendiang Lee Kuan Yew.Ini merupakan kelebihan buat Malaysia untuk menjadi pemimpin dan jurucakap ASEAN.Tun Mahathir turut menekankan bahawa wilayah ini tidak perlu akan kehadiran airraft carrierdan kapal perang. Kerana kehadiran kapal perang akan menarik perhatian kapal perang lain.ASEAN sendiri boleh menjaga wilayahnya.Cukup hanya dengan bot patrol.Tun Mahathir turut menekankan akan pentingnya freedom of navigationbagi memberi kebebasan terhadap kapal-kapal dagang melalui wilayah ini dengan selamat tanpa sekatan mana-mana negara lain.Zaman penjajahan secara langsung telah berakhir,namun kita khuatir akan munculnya penjajahan versi baru.

 

 

Amaran penjajahan bentuk baru

 

Selepas tamat zaman penjajahan,Sukarno pernah memberi amaran akan datangnya neo kolonialisme atau penjajahan bentuk baru. Tun Mahathir juga dalam sidang media di China baru-baru ini di depan PM Li Keqiang memberi amaran terhadap new version of colonialismatau penjajahan dalam versi baru.Kedua-dua amaran ini mempunyai asasnya.Ia merujuk kepada penjajahan melalui perdagangan dengan perangkap hutang.Hutang yang diberikan dalam jumlah yang sangat besar sehingga negara tersebut tidak mampu membayarnya.Inilah yang dilakukan oleh China terhadap negara seperti Sri Lanka dan juga beberapa negara Afrika.

 

Melihat kepada pattern atau corak ini,Tun Mahathir bimbang Malaysia juga masuk dalam perangkap hutang yang sama.Sebab itu beliau berkata kepada PM Li Keqiang bahawa memang beliau setuju dengan dasar free trade. Akan tetapi free tradejuga seharusnya fair trade!

 

Sudah tentu tindakan-tindakan ini tidak akan menyenangkan China.Tambahan beberapa projek mereka dibatalkan seperti ERCL dan juga beberapa  paip gas di Sabah.Namun seorang pemimpin haruslah berani dan bersikap tegas dan mempertahankan kedaulatan negaranya dari sebarang ancaman.Di Asia Tenggara kita memiliki dua pemimpin yang berani berhadapan dengan kuasa besar iaitu Sukarno dan Tun Mahathir.

 

Ameen Hussaini

Naib Ketua Armada Telok Bahang

 

KINI TURKI TELAH BANGKIT SEMULA SETELAH TERSUNGKUR PADA TAHUN 1925

Syair Sultan Abdul Hamid 2 yang tersingkir daripada takhta pada tahun 1908. Beliau merayu pertolongan Allah untuk menyelamatkan empayarnya yang hampir runtuh di baham kuasa kuasa Eropa.Namun masih menaruh harapan kebangkitan semula Turki di masa hadapan

Inilah petikan syairnya itu :

Praise Of The Prophet – Poem by sultan Abdul Hamid I

O my master, O Messenger of Allah, take my hand:
I have none besides you, nor will I pause to rely on anyone but you.
For you are the light of guidance in everything that exists
and you are the secret of munificence and the best reliance.
And you are in truth the helper of all creation,
and you are the guide of mortals to Allah, Owner of help.
O you who stand on the Station of Praise, singled out
by the One Who is Single, Who is not begotten and does not beget.
O you from whose fingers rivers burst forth
so that he quenched the thirst of the numerous army.
Verily, if I am faced with harm and fearful injustice
I say: O Master of masters, O my support!
Be my intercessor with the Merciful regarding my mistakes
and grace me with what eludes my heart.
And look upon me always and ever with kind eyes,
and cover with your favor my shortcomings all my life.
Kindly bestow on me encompassing forgiveness
for from you, O my master, I was never separated.
I have sought as my means the elect one, the noblest of any
that ascended the heavens, the secret of the Unique One?
O Lord of beauty! Exalted is Allah Who created him,
for such as him in all creation I have never seen?
The best of creatures, the apex of Messengers,
the treasure of humankind and their guide to integrity!
In him I have taken refuge: perhaps Allah will forgive me.
This is what I count on and firmly believe.
Therefore his tireless praise shall never cease to be my task
and love of him sustains me in the presence of the Lord of the Throne.
Upon him the purest of endless blessings without cease
together with greetings that cannot be stemmed nor counted
And upon his Family and Companions, a glorious folk all,
The ocean of forgiveness, the people of generosity and aid!

TURKI DIGUGAT – APA PENDIRIAN DUNIA ISLAM ?

TURKEY WAS OPPRESSED BY US  : WHAT THE MUSLIMS STAND ?

 

Sultan Abdul Hamid ke 2 antara amanat terakhir setelah dipaksa meletakkan jawatan sebagai khalifah Turki Osmaniah pada tahun 1909 telah berkata :

Akan tiba masanya Turki akan bangkit semula setelah menempoh zaman gelap. Matahari akan terbit semula dari arah timur.

TURKEY – DEBT FREE COUNTRIES ON THIS PLANET

We have all these people attacking Turkey but the reality of Turkey is Turkey has only recently paid off completely their IMF debt

Turkey is only the free debt country in this planet why isn’t that in the news.Why ERDOGAN had been demonised when he has shown for his country immense growth and we are going to see constraint put on Turkey.

You will see from outside it is to get hit on economicaly .

You will see in the future ,why ?Because there are entities in this planet A SUCCESFUL  MUSLIM MODEL. AND TURKEY IS AN EXTRAORDINARY WITH GREAT PEOPLE.? They  had proven that Muslim and secular  can live side by side.

THEY HAVE PROVEN THIS …… RETHINK

PERDAGANGAN BEBAS BERERTI PERDAGANGAN YANG ADIL- “FREE TRADE MUST BE FAIR TRADE ALSO”

 

KUANTAN, Malaysia — In the world’s most vital maritime chokepoint, through which much of Asian trade passes, a Chinese power company is investing in a deepwater port large enough to host an aircraft carrier. Another state-owned Chinese company is revamping a harbor along the fiercely contested South China Sea.

Nearby, a rail network mostly financed by a Chinese government bank is being built to speed Chinese goods along a new Silk Road. And a Chinese developer is creating four artificial islands that could become home to nearly three-quarters of a million people and are being heavily marketed to Chinese citizens.

Each of these projects is being built in Malaysia, a Southeast Asian democracy at the heart of China’s effort to gain global influence.

But where Malaysia once led the pack in courting Chinese investment, it is now on the front edge of a new phenomenon: a pushback against Beijing as nations fear becoming overly indebted for projects that are neither viable nor necessary — except in their strategic value to China or use in propping up friendly strongmen.

At the end of a five-day visit in Beijing, Malaysia’s new leader, Mahathir Mohamad, said on Tuesday that he was halting two major Chinese-linked projects, worth more than $22 billion, amid accusations that his predecessor’s government knowingly signed bad deals with China to bail out a graft-plagued state investment fund and bankroll his continuing grip on power.

His message throughout his meetings with officials, and in public comments, has been unambiguous.

“We do not want a situation where there is a new version of colonialism happening because poor countries are unable to compete with rich countries,” Mr. Mahathir said on Monday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing after meeting with Premier Li Keqiang.

Image

For a time it appeared that China’s standard playbook for gaining favor was working in Malaysia. It had successfully courted Mr. Mahathir’s predecessor, Najib Razak, with easy loans and showcase projects, and secured deals that were of strategic value for its ambitions.

But in May, Mr. Najib was voted out of office by an electorate tired of the corruption scandals swirling around him, some of which involved China’s highest-profile investment deals

From Sri Lanka and Djibouti to Myanmar and Montenegro, many recipients of cash from Chinese’s huge infrastructure financing campaign, the Belt and Road Initiative, have discovered that Chinese investment brings with it less-savory accompaniments, including closed bidding processes that result in inflated contracts and influxes of Chinese labor at the expense of local workers.

Fears are growing that China is using its overseas spending spree to gain footholds in some of the world’s most strategic places, and perhaps even deliberately luring vulnerable nations into debt traps to increase China’s dominion as the United States’ influence fades in the developing world.

“The Chinese must have been thinking, ‘We can pick things up for cheap here,’” said Khor Yu Leng, a Malaysian political economist who has been researching China’s investments in Southeast Asia. “They’ve got enough patient capital to play the long game, wait for the local boys to overextend and then come in and take all that equity for China.”

In his action in Beijing on Tuesday, Mr. Mahathir said he was halting a contract for the China Communications Construction Company to build the East Coast Rail Link, thought to have cost the government around $20 billion, along with a $2.5 billion agreement for an arm of a Chinese energy giant to construct gas pipelines. He had earlier suspended the projects, leading some analysts to believe he wanted to renegotiate the terms during his China trip. Instead, he announced that the deals were off for now.

“It’s all about borrowing too much money, which we cannot afford and cannot repay because we don’t need these projects in Malaysia,” Mr. Mahathir said.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been given an electoral mandate to guide Malaysia out from under $250 billion in debt, some of it owed to Chinese companies.CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times
A rooftop bar at Melaka Gateway.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times

Pentagon report released last week said “The ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) is intended to develop strong economic ties with other countries, shape their interests to align with China’s and deter confrontation or criticism of China’s approach to sensitive issues.”

“Countries participating in BRI could develop economic dependence on Chinese capital, which China could leverage to achieve its interests,” the report said.

Malaysia’s new finance minister, Lim Guan Eng, raised the example of Sri Lanka, where a deepwater port built by a Chinese state-owned company failed to attract much business. The indebted South Asian island nation was compelled to hand over to China a 99-year lease on the port and more land near it, giving Beijing an outpost near one of its busiest shipping lanes.

“We don’t want a situation like Sri Lanka where they couldn’t pay and the Chinese ended up taking over the project,” Mr. Lim said.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Mr. Mahathir made clear what he thought of China’s strategy.

“They know that when they lend big sums of money to a poor country, in the end they may have to take the project for themselves,” he said.

 “China knows very well that it had to deal with unequal treaties in the past imposed upon China by Western powers,” Mr. Mahathir added, referring to the concessions China had to give after its defeat in the opium wars. “So China should be sympathetic toward us. They know we cannot afford this.”

Strategic Location

 The Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times

Malaysia has long served as a prize of empire, with a geopolitical importance that belies its relatively small size. The Portuguese, Dutch and British flocked here, eager to control a fulcrum linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans. China is the latest power to try to share in the riches.

Kuantan, a Malaysian city nestled on the South China Sea coast, had never been a hot spot. But then China began adding military heft to its territorial aspirations in the sea, where five other governments, Malaysia’s included, have competing claims.

Chinese financing began washing over Kuantan five years ago. Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group, a state-owned firm from an obscure Chinese autonomous region, won a contract supported by the Malaysian government to build a deepwater terminal and industrial park. Nearby was a planned stop on the East Coast Rail Link that would mostly be financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, a government institution.

Presiding over the official launch for the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park in 2013, Mr. Najib conferred on the project a global import.

“China and Malaysia remain closely connected at a time when the balance of global trade is tilting in Asia’s direction,” he said. “On economic cooperation — and diplomatic — I am proud to say that Malaysia is ahead of the curve.”

Kuantan residents, though, have long worried that the city could be saddled with white-elephant projects.

“We welcome foreign investment and development, but we question the huge price that we will have to pay,” said Fuziah Salleh, a Kuantan lawmaker for Malaysia’s new governing coalition. “Who is the real beneficiary of all this financing? The Malaysians or the Chinese?”

“I am worried that our sovereignty has been sold,” Ms. Fuziah said.

Mr. Mahathir, however, is not averse to standing up to the superpower of the day. He was prime minister before, from 1981 to 2003, and back then he railed against the United States and other Western countries for what he said was a plot to hold back developing nations like Malaysia.

“Mahathir thinks China is a hegemonic force that can control economies like Malaysia,” said Edmund Terence Gomez, a political economist at the University of Malaya. “He’s always been worried about powerful forces. Before it was the U.S., now it’s China.”

Mr. Mahathir’s administration has been in power for little more than 100 days. In that time, Malaysian officials say, they have discovered that billions of dollars in inflated Chinese contracts were used to relieve debts associated with a Malaysian state investment fund at the heart of a graft scandal that led to Mr. Najib’s downfall.

The construction site of a deepwater port in Kuantan.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times

The United States Department of Justice has accused Mr. Najib and his family and friends of plundering billions of dollars from that fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. When the indebted fund began a fire sale of assets, two Chinese state-owned giants, the China General Nuclear Power Corporation and the China Railway Engineering Corporation, moved in, prompting speculation that Beijing was happy to keep Mr. Najib’s cash-strapped government afloat.

Sitting at his desk during an interview after the election, Mr. Mahathir pointed to a sheaf of papers before him. It was a proposal from a Malaysian construction company that he said contained evidence that the East Coast Rail Link could have been developed by a Malaysian company for less than half of the $13.4 billion contract won by the China Communications Construction Company, a state-owned Chinese firm with extensive operations overseas.

Notably, the bidding process for the rail contract was closed.

Last week, Mr. Lim, the finance minister, told Parliament that Malaysia would not be able to cover the operational cost for the railway, much less the capital expenditure, which he estimated at nearly $20 billion rather than $13.4 billion.

Neither the Chinese company nor its Malaysian partner responded to requests for comment.

“It looks like not all the money is being used for building the railway line,” Mr. Mahathir said of the East Coast Rail Link deal. “The likelihood is the money has been stolen.”

Malaysian investigators are looking into whether an associate of Mr. Najib’s stepson may have brokered the rail deal to alleviate the debt accrued by 1MDB or to fund Mr. Najib’s re-election campaign.

The United States Treasury Department considers that associate, Jho Low, an exiled financier who has an arrest warrant out on him, to be the prime agent in the 1MDB scandal. On the eve of Mr. Mahathir’s trip to China, Malaysian finance ministry officials said they believed that Mr. Low had been hiding out in China.

Malaysia’s new administration, which unseated a coalition that had ruled, in one form or another, since independence in 1957, has also been scrutinizing the $2.5 billion deal for a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation to build energy pipelines in Malaysia. Mr. Lim said he had discovered upon taking up his post that the Malaysian government had already disbursed more than $2 billion for the project.

There was one catch. “From what we understand,” Mr. Lim said, “zero percent of the construction work has been carried out.”

Building Big Ports

Melaka Gateway includes three artificial islands and an expanded natural islet.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times

While the role of Chinese money in bailing out Mr. Najib’s indebted administration has received the most attention, another Chinese megaproject raises even sharper questions about Beijing’s geopolitical aims.

The Malaysian city of Malacca was once a conduit for spices and treasures that flowed from Asia to Europe. The strait named after the city is still the channel through which much of Asia’s seaborne trade — and most of China’s oil imports — flows.

But Malacca’s port silted up centuries ago and is now a backwater. Instead, nearby Singapore, which sits at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca, ranks as the world’s busiest transshipment hub.

A $10 billion development project — backed by PowerChina International, a major Chinese utility, and two Chinese port developers — is supposed to propel Malacca back into global significance, as a vital stop on a maritime trade route that stretches from Shanghai to Rotterdam.

The plan for this project, Melaka Gateway, includes three artificial islands and an expanded natural islet, which will hold an industrial park, cruise terminal, theme park, marina, offshore financial hub and self-styled seven-star hotel.

And there will be a new deepwater port, with berths large enough to host an aircraft carrier. The port operator was given a 99-year lease for the deepwater terminal, rather than the more common 30-year time frame.

The local partner in Melaka Gateway is KAJ Development, which counts among its previous accomplishments building the local zoo and bird park.

A road worker sweeping near the entrance to Melaka Gateway.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times

To explain how a little-known company was able to work with Chinese firms to transform such a strategic spot, locals have remarked on the close ties between the head of KAJ Development and Mr. Najib’s party machine. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

“We have so many questions about the project but no answers,” said Sim Tong Him, a former lawmaker from Malacca. “How did KAJ get the contract? What might happen if the Malaysian side can’t pay up? The Chinese are so secretive about this. It leaves us with a very bad feeling.”

Malacca State’s new chief minister has promised an investigation into the feasibility of the entire project, including the possibility that land on one island could be sold as a freehold to a Chinese state-owned company.

Melaka Gateway’s necessity, at least for locals, has never been clear. After all, the nearby Singaporean port is unlikely to be eclipsed. And Malaysia is already expanding other ports, even as many are running under capacity.

“We are very concerned because in the first place we don’t need any extra harbor,” Mr. Mahathir said of the Malacca project.

“We don’t have to depend upon foreigners to come,” he added. “When they build, they use foreign labor, foreign materials. What do we get? Nothing.”

But Beijing has funded the building of ports across the Indian Ocean, a strategy known as the string of pearls. Military experts have raised the possibility that these ports could one day welcome Chinese warships and submarines.

“You look at a map and you can see the places where China is plotting ports and investments, from Myanmar to Pakistan to Sri Lanka, on toward Djibouti,” said Liew Chin Tong, Malaysia’s deputy defense minister. “What’s crucial to all that? Our little Malaysia, and the Malacca Strait.”

Under Mr. Najib, Malaysia conducted joint military drills with China and allowed Chinese attack submarines to make a port call. Mr. Mahathir has shifted course.

“I say publicly that we do not want to see warships in the Strait of Malacca or the South China Sea,” he

A showroom model of Forest City, a China-financed real estate project in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times

In Forest City, a new metropolis being built at the tail end of the Malaysian peninsula, a tour guide gazed up at a bank of screens showcasing the latest in Chinese facial-recognition technology, and gave his best pitch to a group of would-be investors from a coal town in northern China.

Forest City, he said in Mandarin, was a jewel on the South China Sea.

Best of all, he said, everything in the city was designed for a Chinese clientele, from the layout of the luxury apartments to the signage in Mandarin.

The development — four artificial islands covering around eight square miles, or enough space for around 700,000 people — was conceived of by Country Garden, one of the largest private Chinese property developers, in cooperation with an investment entity whose largest shareholder is the local sultan.

In the sales gallery, an electronic display plays up Forest City’s “strategic location” and places it at the center of a map of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative projects.

“We are doing something that will alter the world map,” the sales pitch reads.

 Forest City showroom employees putting on a show in Chinese for the children of prospective buyers.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York Times
 Ceramic sea lions on the beach at Forest City.CreditLauren DeCicca for The New York 
 More than any other project, Forest City helped turn local sentiment against Chinese cash, amid suspicions that a private Chinese property developer was somehow secretly plotting to reshape Malaysia’s delicate ethnic balance.

“This is not Chinese investment but a settlement,” Mr. Mahathir said during the election campaign, using Forest City as a frequent punching bag.

Forest City is not a strategic play by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to station warships in Malaysia. Nor is it viewed as a way for Beijing to finance the excesses of a corrupt leader. Instead, it represents something even more alarming to the average Malaysian — four man-made islands on which Chinese can live as they like and, in the process, dilute the Malaysian national identity.

Although the majority of Malaysians are Malay Muslims, the country’s second largest ethnic group is Chinese, followed by an Indian population. Many Chinese migrated to Malaysia during the colonial era, and the feeling that they were given preferential treatment by the British lingers to this day.

Affirmative action programs that gained full force during Mr. Mahathir’s first stint as prime minister ensure that Malays and indigenous populations get a leg up over ethnic Chinese Malaysians.

In that context, the prospect of a new wave of Chinese migration, even if only a population of part-time sunbirds, is politically sensitive in Malaysia.

But what if that wave doesn’t even materialize? Capital controls in China have made it far more difficult for Chinese to get their money out to pay for overseas real estate, worrying the Mandarin-speaking sales staff at Forest City. Who will buy all these condominiums, which are priced far above the local property market, if not the

 “We all want Forest City to succeed, because we cannot afford for it to fail and become an empty ghost city,” said Wong Shu Qi, a member of parliament for the Democratic Action Party, which is part of the governing coalition.
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