The Securities Commission (SC) must reprimand those government-linked companies (GLCs) listed on Bursa Malaysia for failing to disclose material developments over their civil litigation against former MAS chairperson Tajudin Ramli.

NONE Saying this today, DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua pointed out that none of the listed GLCs with pending suits against Tajudin have made any public announcement over the directive given by Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz to all GLCs to drop their claims against Tajuddin.

In his directive, Nazri 'advised' the GLCs, including Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Axiata Group Bhd, Atlan Holdings Bhd and Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) to consider settling out of court with Tajudin.

Nazri’s letter sent last Monday had also directed the lawyers acting for the GLCs to hand over their cases to the firm of Hasfarizam Wan and Aisha Mubarak, a well-known Umno lawyer.

Pua said that such a directive from the minister to public-listed entities should have been immediately disclosed to Bursa Malaysia as the litigations involved billions of ringgit in claims and counter-claims which are surely “material” to finances of these companies.

“The board of directors of these companies must also immediately state their immediate position vis-à-vis the letter from Nazri to allow investors, particularly the minority shareholders to weigh their investment options," he said in a statement.

However, Pua noticed that none of these companies have issued any announcements pertaining to the matter, nearly a week after the government directive was given.

Act without fear or favour

The MP for Petaling Jaya Utara warned that failure to disclose material developments on a timely basis may subject the companies and/or their directors and officers to penalties under the Listing Requirements and the Securities Industry Act, including a fine not exceeding RM1 million, a suspension of trading of the company’s securities, and/or the delisting of its securities.

Therefore, he urged the SC to act without fear or favour and reprimand these listed companies for failing to make the necessary disclosures to protect the public and shareholder’s rights.  

More importantly, he stressed, the SC must require these companies to publish the government’s directive in full to ensure that investors are not confused by “hearsay” over the exact content of the letter.

"The blatant interference by the government will also rock investors’ confidence in our stock markets as it becomes questionable if the board of directors will act in the best interest of these companies, or will be nudged to comply with arbitrary government decrees.

 

"SC which has worked hard over the years to improve Malaysia’s reputation for poor corporate governance since the Asian financial crisis especially over the then RM3.2 billion bail out of Halim Saad, must not allow this incident to reverse the progress it has achieved," Pua added.

Malaysiakini

has learnt that the government's investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd has summoned all GLCs involved for a pow-wow this week over the matter.

Although the purpose of the meeting is not immediately known, speculation is rife that it is towards directing the GLCs concerned to 'toe the line' following the letter issued by Nazri.

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