Questions are being asked as to why the portion of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) held by NTT of Japan is being sold to Global Telecom Holdings (GTH) of Malaysia with utmost secrecy and urgency.
The legality of the whole exercise is further questioned as SLT is a public company, listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange. A little over 15% (15.3%) of the enterprise is held by the public, who flocked to purchase its shares during the IPO making it one of the most successful public offerings in Sri Lankan history.
Extract from News Reports:
"Given that 15.3% of the company is owned by the public, the fact that none of its 28,000 shareholders were informed of the deal is both illegal and unethical," UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera said at a press conference yesterday.
Jayasekera further said that tenders had not been called and normal procedure had been flouted in the process of drawing up the deal.
"Why would President Mahinda Rajapakse single handedly close the deal with a Malaysian company without looking at any other offers, unless he had some personal interest or a lot to gain monetarily, even at the cost of the country, from this deal?" Jayasekera questioned.
Jayasekera said the UNP had evidence to show the owners of the Malaysian company Global Telecom Holdings, which had purchased NTT’s shares, were close associates of President Mahinda Rajapakse, and moreover had helped him financially during his last presidential campaign.
"Not only have valuable national assets been sold to this company, but the deal also entitles Global Telecom Holdings to a TV Channel. Why these privileges?" Jayasekera further asked. He also inquired if Post and Telecommunications Minister Rauf Hakeem, under whose ministry telecommunications currently was, even knew about this deal.
"Sri Lanka Telecom is one of our profit making ventures, and the Mahinda Rajapakse regime before coming to power promised they would disallow privatization and deal with profit making institutions appropriately."
"Instead they’re blatantly selling public property," Jayasekera said.
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The Malaysian Telcom is owned by Malaysia's richest man Ananda Krishnan who is a Jaffna Tamil. Even Prima which supplies flour for bread etc was set up by the former deputy prime minister of Singapore Rajaretnam who is a Jaffna Tamil.
He was born in 1938 in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur's "Little India" to a Tamil immigrant family from Sri Lanka and is of Sri Lankan Tamil descent.
Ananda Krishnan studied at Vivekananda Tamil School in Kuala Lumpur and furthered his studies at Victoria Instituition, Kuala Lumpur. Later, he attended University of Melbourne, Australia for his B.A. (Honours) degree majoring in political science. Following that, Krishnan obtained a Masters in Business Administration at Harvard University, graduating in 1964.
Anada is married twice. First to a Thai priness. He has 2 daughters and a son. His rise is due to his marriage to thai royalty and also his close relationship to the former prime minister mahathir mohamed.
Malaysia practices policies similar to Sri Lanka in race related policies.
Mahathir and Mahindha are both Malayalees who claim to be Malay or Sinhalese respectively to be elected to parliment.
Singapore Airlines, Development Bank of Singapore, Singapore Stock Exchange are the brainchild of a Jaffna tamil JYM Pillai.
SIA is the world's largest and most profitable airlines, holding NO 1 spot for many years. DBS is one of Asia's largest banks. Singapore Stock Exchange is moving to become one of Asia's main Stock exchanges which JYM Pillai is presently spearheading.
Malaysia practices race policies 10 times worse than Sri Lanka, yet no riots from the Tamils who are dirt poor in that country. JYM Pillay had little to do with SIA and SES.
The government is certainly not selling the shares already owned by the public. I think SLT should be fully privatised along with the rest of the government enterprises. This is a free economy after all. I'm sure the right thinking UNPers agree with this.
NTT is selling the shares owned by them to a Malaysian telecom company. It's NTT's own business. SLT is a listed public company. What does this imbecile Dayasiri expect the government to do. NTT is well within its rights to sell their shares to who they please, however they please. I guess there isn't anyone proficient in the basics of Fianance in UNP after Professor Peiris left.
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