Of cronies, sweetheart deals and Francis Yeoh

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KINIBIZ YTL group’s Francis Yeoh ( below ) has got himself into quite a bit of a pickle over some statement on cronyism he made at a talk on going global. He denies he is a crony and that the crony way is not how business is done in Malaysia.

But is that the truth? Let Tiger dig to unearth the bare truth with his claws.

Who is a crony really? Tiger, without any reference to a dictionary, thinks its a cosy relationship with the powers that be so as to obtain an advantage over others and get what is commonly known as a sweetheart deal, that is an uncommonly good deal which no government in its right mind will give you.

And crony capitalism defines a situation where this is rampant – that is a cosy relationship between the state and businessmen for the benefit of the businessmen primarily and often the state leaders too.

Just to be sure Tiger looked it up. Merriam-Webster defined a crony as “a friend of someone powerful (such as a politician) who is unfairly given special treatment or favours.” And Investopedia (Tiger’s favourite site for business terms) defined crony capitalism as a capitalist society based on the close relationships between businessmen and the state.

In Tiger’s books his definition is not significantly different from the dictionary definitions – just a matter of phraseology and an emphasis here and an emphasis there – nothing anyone will tear their hair out over discussing differences

Now that we are clear on what we mean by crony and crony capitalism. Let’s dig in. This is going to be a long dig so be prepared to stay with it – it will show things up quite clearly as we unearth the truth.

There are two parts to it. Is there crony capitalism in Malaysia? And the second part is this: Is Francis Yeoh a crony?

For the complete article go to KiniBiz .

Utusan sinks fangs into tycoon Francis Yeoh


This article was written by P Gunasegaram .



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