Negri Sembilan First Family- A Bankrupt State
A story not many knew until it was made public recently. For your
reading albeit a bit lengthy.............
MALAYSIA TODAY SPECIAL REPORT ON NEGERI SEMBILAN
A state bankrupted by its own royal family
The Negeri Sembilan royal family is known among the
public at large as successful businessmen. However, in business circles,
the envy is more directed towards the success of the Negeri Sembilan
royal family for so long being able to avoid the impending bankruptcy and
foreclosures that should have visited it many years ago. For example, take
Antah Holdings, which is controlled by the ruler, Tuanku Jaafar, through his
sons, Tunku Naquiyuddin and Tunku Imran. As of the end of 2004, the ruler and
Tunku Naquiyuddin had pledged over RM350 million worth of Antah stocks as
collateral for loans which have never been paid since the last economic
crisis of 1997.
Accordingly, some of those shares have devolved to several Chinese
businessmen associated with Tuanku Jaafar. They have taken control of
certain aspects of Antah’s business resulting in the property section
of the company, which owns large parcels of land in Negeri Sembilan, now
almost totally no longer in the hands of the Negeri royals.
In addition to the Antah debts, Tuanku Jaafar has personal liabilities
of around RM300 million. This is by no means unusual; the
Tuanku having followed in the footsteps of his father, the late
Tuanku Abdul Rahman, who when ascending the throne was a technical bankrupt..
Tuanku Abdul Rahman was then owing a Chinese businessman partner from Klang
more than RM300,000 as a result of some failed property deals. To save the
newly independent state of Malaya from embarrassment, the then Prime Minister of
Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, instructed finance minister H.S. Lee to find
ways to resolve the Agong’s debts. Embarrassment averted, the Negeri
Sembilan royals learned quickly that this was a profitable way to make money
-- through taking loans and having it paid for by other people.
Antah had, for many years, been a very high-profile company. This was
not really due to a successful business model or a shining
track record but because of the social hubbub that is the Negeri royal
family. Feted by high society, almost Western to the core, the
part-Portuguese Negeri royals, with their flashy lifestyle, brought
Antah to the core of the public imagination by the many parties they attended and the gallons of
champagne they drank. They were always in Malaysian Tatler or magazines of
that ilk.
Behind the scenes, Antah was really a sick company. It survived mainly
on government contracts which were sub-contracted out to
various European and Chinese companies associated by marriage or friendship
with the Negeri royals.
Yet Antah could rely on Tuanku Jaafar in getting more
quarries, pig farming lands, housing estates, plantations, factories and
other such gifts from the Negeri Sembilan government, which was the mainstay of
their business. A few trophy businesses such as the 7-11 convenience stores
and part-ownership of the carbonated drinks manufacturer, Permanis Sdn Bhd,
were shown off as the successes of Antah. In reality, post-1997, the well
dried up and even these were up for sale. Antah shares in Permanis were first
hawked to the Yeo Hiap Seng group of Singapore but later sold to someone
else. And the 7-11 chain has been going through the doors of several banks in
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, looking for a new home.
The extravagant lifestyle of the Negeri Sembilan
royals is explainable because they understand that their tenure of the state
is limited. The children and grandchildren of Tuanku Jaafar are fully
aware that the head of their family is not the rightful ruler of Negeri
Sembilan.
The system there is unique. The Yang Dipertuan Besar
is elected by four Undangs, commoners with almost equal status to the
ruler himself. The Negeri Sembilan ruler, unlike for example the Sultans of
Selangor, do not really own the state but share it with the Undangs.
Tuanku Jaafar realised early on that the Undangs must
be manipulated. His first tactic was to replace dead Undangs with
uneducated, pliant yes-men. He continually bribed them with datukship
quotas which
could then be sold off to others. He encouraged them to get into debt (often
with his own business associates) and then pretended to “save†them by
paying off these obligations. In the beginning of his reign, he had as
Undang a lawyer and several ex-civil servants. Through manipulating the
system, Tuanku Jaafar now has as his Undangs, a petai-seller, an ex-TNB
meter reader, and a former bank teller, amongst others. Tuanku Jaafar had
succeeded the throne in 1967 due to the interference of former Prime
Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, a close friend of Tuanku Jaafar since their student days in
England.
The story is interesting: Tunku Abdul Rahman was a
failure at university and had to repeat his legal studies many times over the
course of 20 years. He started in England with Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the
father of Tuanku Jaafar, but graduated with Tuanku Jaafar himself. While in
England, he became bosom buddies with Tuanku Jaafar. In 1960, Tuanku Abdul
Rahman died while serving as the first Agong. His eldest and royal son duly
succeeded him. However, Tuanku Munawir was already a sick man, riddled by
diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Four decades of overeating
caused him to go blind almost immediately upon succession. By 1967, at the
age 45, Tuanku Munawir was bedridden, completely immobile and was directing
state affairs from his bedside or from a wheelchair. He rose from his sleep
at noon, but often went back to sleep by early afternoon. Affairs of the state
could hardly work during such incapacity.
Tunku Abdul Rahman watched the event with great
interest. He knew that Tuanku Munawir had a son and heir who was in fact the
Tunku Besar (a title that in Negeri Sembilan is the equivalent of Crown
Prince). But as the son was still quite young, upon his father’s death in
1967, Tunku Abdul Rahman staged a bloodless coup.
The Negeri Sembilan throne is not hereditary but
elective in a limited sense of the word. Four Undangs were given
nominal authority
to select any prince as the ruler. However, such a prince must come from a
list of which the Tunku Besar should be the first considered. In 1967,
Tuanku Munawir having died, while the coffin lay in state at the Istana in
Seri Menanti, Tunku Abdul Rahman sent his political secretary, Datuk Nik
Hassan, to meet up with the Undangs. An offer was made to the Undang of Sg
Ujong, Datuk Mohamad Kassim, and the Undang of Jelebu, Datuk Abu Bakar, for
them to consider instead the election of Tuanku Jaafar as the new
ruler, then number four in line to the throne and Malaysia’s
ambassador-designate to Japan.
Tunku Abdul Rahman instructed his secretary for the
payment of RM100,000 to be made to each of the Undang’s account with the
promise of another RM100,000 each upon the installation of Tuanku Jaafar.
His interest in this was quite simple. Tuanku Jaafar was a loyal UMNO
supporter at a time when PAS was making inroads in Negeri Sembilan. His full
brother, Tunku “Charlie†, was an UMNO MP for Rawang. Both could
be expected to manipulate the system and ensure that Negeri Sembilan
was free of opposition influence. The money duly appeared in the Undang’s
bank accounts, paid for by a Chinese businessman who is currently a Tan Sri
and a long time friend of the Tunku.
Tunku was right. Only two years before this happened,
PAS and DAP made inroads and even succeeded in toppling several UMNO
stalwarts including Dato’ Samad (father of Tan Sri Isa Samad).
Swaying the Undangs was too easy. As the Tunku Besar,
Tuanku Munawir’s son and heir, mounted the dais to instruct the
preparations for the funeral of his late father, the Undang of Jelebu
stepped forward
to announce to everyone’s shock that the Tunku Besar would not
succeed to the throne but that the next Yang Dipertuan Besar would instead be
Tuanku Jaafar.
Negeri Malays were shocked and Tuanku Jaafar’s
background was the main reason for this. The election was controversial to
some also because Tuanku Jaafar’s mother was a divorced Portuguese-Indian who
had reconverted to Christianity after separation from Tuanku Jaafar’s
father.
But this did not matter to Tunku Abdul Rahman who
wanted to ensure that the rulers were strong UMNO supporters at a time when his
leadership was increasingly being questioned.
It was to be a costly mistake for Negeri Sembilan.
Tuanku Jaafar realised that, as an usurper, he had limited time to enjoy his
tenure in office. Soon Menteri Besar Tan Sri Mohamad Said began to receive
massive requests for land from the Istana. Several huge pieces were
alienated without land premium in the Paroi region of Seremban as well as in
Senawang. Several thousand acres of residential development land, golf
courses, commercial sites and industrial parks which could have been sold
at higher prices to genuine businessmen were alienated to Tuanku Jaafar
and his children at cheap prices. Much were later sold off to Chinese
businessmen who bought them from the Istana and received datukships as
grateful presents.
As the Tuanku’s children grew, their incessant
demands for more money multiplied. Menteris Besar Datuk Mansor Othman and
Datuk Rais Yatim both had to deal with more requests for land, in particular
limestone and rock quarries. They found almost weekly that their meetings
with the ruler were often accompanied by subtle requests for land on Antah
and Melewar letterheads. Leaders who were known to be reluctant to
give away such gifts to Tuanku Jaafar’s children found themselves
sidelined politically.
When Isa Samad became Menteri Besar, the Tuanku was
one of the first Malay rulers to discover a new source of income. Isa, not
being a very pliant Menteri Besar, had said to the Tuanku that he would
not object if the Tuanku would sell off state titles. Accordingly, the Darjah
Paduka Tuanku Jaafar (DPTJ) was created to fill the Tuanku’s coffers.
Malay and Chinese businessmen, some with criminal records and impending
bankruptcy petitions, made appointments with the Tuanku’s personal
secretary to pay their homage at Seri Menanti. Brown paper packets
containing up to
RM300,000 in cash were exchanged for nomination forms for datukships. By
2004, the Tuanku’s datukship list had swelled to over 40 awards per year.
Some of the Tuanku’s datuks were in their twenties.
In the last few years, businessmen lining up for the datukships would find
that upon receipt of the cash, the Tuanku would put the envelopes under the
carpet of the audience room of Seri Menanti to be discreetly collected by the
Tunku Ampuan later. Only last week a 34-year old businessmen (the son of a
former UMNO minister) was casually informed by Tuanku Jaafar that this may
be the last year he receives payments for datukships as the public furor
was getting louder. Come 19th July, it would not be a shock to find that
again the Tuanku had sold off several datukships to 30-somethings who had
done nothing worthy except pay the requisite fee.
The blatant sale of public titles has been further
augmented by the Tuanku giving away datukship entitlements to several of his
children. Tunku Naquiyuddin, Tunku Imran and their brother-in-law,
Tunku Muzaffar, are amongst the most well-known brokers of Negeri
datukships. Charlie, otherwise known as Tunku Abdullah, is also
another seller of
titles. He needs this to cover the extravagant wedding expenses and alimony for
his seven wives. It has become so embarrassing that genuine recipients of
DPTJ have rejected the title and requested the higher title of DSNS for fear
of being laughed at by their peers. A former officer of Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi even remarked that when he went to receive his
own award he
did not recognise a single recipient of the DPTJ as people who have been
of service to the state. They were all businessmen who bought the titles
willingly and flaunted it to get even more contracts. The officer
was so embarrassed that he left immediately after the investiture without
joining the tea party with the Tuanku.
All of the Tuanku’s actions are aimed towards one
sole purpose â€" enriching his family in case the Undangs decide to
return the throne to the rightful heir. At 83, death is on his mind. Since the
last two years, Tuanku Jaafar has been so worried about the succession that
he instructed Chinese datuks of Negeri Sembilan to begin making regular
payments to the Undangs in order to get their support for Tunku Naquiyuddin to
succeed him.
Last year, Tunku Naquiyuddin himself made payments of
between RM500,000 to RM1.5 million to the four Undangs in order to get
their support. The Undang of Johol (recently infamous for showing off the finger
to the Menteri Besar at a public function) was grateful for the RM500,000
but requested the right to make ten Datuks every year. Tunku Naquiyuddin,
being the businessman that he is, bargained it down to six. The Undang of Sg
Ujong was more erudite and asked for cash of RM1.5 million. A Chinese
construction company based in Kuala Pilah duly made payment on behalf of Tunku
Naquiyuddin.
But Tunku Naquiyuddin’s postion is not secure. The
people dislike him for his blatant abuse of rank and title. He has made his
non-royal wife a full Tunku and several sisters-in-law besides. His son and
daughter of university age are known for their poolside parties which are
sometimes carried out at the wee hours of the morning in true Bacchanaelian
fashion with free-flowing wine, pink champagne and both male and female
strippers. A commoner stepson of his brother Tunku Imran goes around
by the name of Tunku and makes fun of doa readings in public functions at the Istana in Seri
Menanti.
On the other hand, the Tunku Besar Mukhriz, son of the
long-forgotten Tuanku Munawir, has proven to be a man more suited to the
people’s taste. Having married a genuine royal from Terengganu, he has
produced three successful sons holding high positions in the civil service. The
only fault he has is that he has been excluded from many state functions,
and although the most senior prince of the blood, he has never been called
upon to perform official duties. In the previous reign, whoever was
Tunku Besar was made regent when the Yang Dipertuan Besar was
incapacitated. Tuanku Jaafar blatantly ignores this rule and instead
appoints Tunku
Naquiyuddin, in spite of the higher ranking of his nephew.
In doing all this, Tuanku Jaafar has misused his
position. By bribes, threats and other such means, Tuanku Jaafar ensures
that the adat chiefs are put to a much lower level than is their right. For
example, on the 26th of June, the installation of the Undang of Sg Ujong was
fully funded by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage instead of the state
government. It reduces the role of the Undangs to that of a dancer in any
rumah terbuka Malaysia.
In the meantime the rot continues. In 2001, Dr
Mahathir, a former business partner of Tunku Charlie (their company was known as
T. Abdullah Mahathir & Co. and had ownership of hotels in Indonesia) gave his
bosom friends, Tuanku Jaafar and Tunku Abdullah, the last “machine†to
print money in the form of the Jimah IPP Project.
The project is worth RM6.1 billion. But Antah is
incapable of raising the required funds to finance the project. Instead, the
project is fully funded (both equity and debt) by banks. The banks had no
choice. They were told in no uncertain terms to give the loans.
When Abdullah Badawi came to power, this was one of
the megaprojects considered for shelving. But Abdullah Badawi was
persuaded by son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin that to cancel this project would
mean that he (Khairy) cannot rely on Tuanku Jaafar’s support for his
political future in Negeri Sembilan.
The project was not cancelled although it can only
make a 12% return in the most optimistic of cases (low for IPPs and definitely
not enough to service the debt over the expected slowdown of the next few
years). But the RM300 million debt of Antah and other obligations of the
Negeri royal family must somehow be paid. One can scarcely expect the Negeri
family to work it off themselves.
TNB is now forced to pay for expensive electricity in
a glut market. But that is not a problem for TNB. They can always pass
the cost onto consumers like you and me. And Datuk Che Khalib, perhaps the
most corrupt of the Young Turks put by Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yackop in charge of
the GLCs, has already got a Negeri datukship in his pocket and he is under
strict orders from his real boss, Khairy Jamaluddin, not to irk Tuanku Jaafar
and his sons.
Meanwhile, the state of Negeri Sembilan is so poor it
cannot pay its obligations to Felda settlers except by the grace and
favour of EPF.
While the running down of the state is due to the inept
leadership of longtime Menteri Besar Tan Sri Isa Samad, the rapacious and
greedy nature of Tuanku Jaafar and his children is also largely to blame.
Tuanku Jaafar’s legacy in his nearly four decades as ruler is that he is
perhaps the richest of all the Malay rulers and his family is by far the
wealthiest of all the Malay royal families.
It is no surprise that the Negeri royal family was one
of only two Asian royal families (the other being Brunei) to be featured
in Hollywood’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous†. As long as
the unholy alliance between Tuanku Jaafar and the UMNO politicians
continue, the milking of Negeri Sembilan to a dry pit will also continue.
--- On Mon, 5/1/09, Tan Sri Ani Arope
From: Tan Sri Ani Arope
Subject: The "uncommon commoner" who became king
I'd like to be brutal about my kampung people's comment on the family of the late tuanku jaafar. My wife hails from kuala pilah, giving me the proxy to make some comments now that the family's rein has gone overhill. Like my former sultan too, sultan perak, sultan idris shah, died a few days after xmas dining and wining sessions. Tuanku jaafar was in a similar circumstance. The whole family is famous among the non malays as the high class society animals without borders. Besides drinking, casinos of the street types were a must to to be held on the istana's sidewalk at every birthday celeberation of the tuanku..
Except for tuanku, the famous sons enjoys eating pork infront of their non muslims friends as were related by several chinese businessmen friends to me a few years ago. The sons thought they were open minded, but my friends thought the sons were truly bastards who enjoys
spitting at their own race and religion.
Tuanku's younger brother pressed the EPU people to give them the kl/sban expressway, which had just been completed days ago after more than ten years, only to learn that its not theirs after all.
Similarly the Jimah Power plant is now clearly owned by YTL. The family truly is depriving bumis and glcs of big tickets business opportunities. Of late, tuanku's cucu was hantam by the sultan johors cucu in kl's night club, and the cucu's dad is claiming rm 2 mil from the johor sultan cucu. Orang nogori kato, laku eh tak somonggah, maluka rakyat nogori jo.
The undang system of pepateh adat is truly magnificent for check and balances of authoritarian rulers. I guess all the Temenggong system must adopt the system. Right now all the sultans have their council of advisers, mini sultan themselves, getting pasir permits here and there
and have 4 wives, konon nya dato bergelar. So many of these parasites hanging around. no wonder they were beheaded in the 40's by the rakyat of indonesia . So tuanku muhriz must take some notes on the rakyats present thinkings.
From: Tan Sri Ani Arope
To: Tan Sri Ani Arope
Sent: Sunday, January 4, 2009 1:27:37 PM
Subject: The "uncommon commoner" who became king
SEREMBAN, Dec 30 — The election and proclamation of Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir as the 11th YangDipertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan on 29th December2008 has all the
trappings and makings of a greatGreek epic. It is the story of a prince, broughtup as the heir apparent, through a tweak of fate loses the succession to the throne on the untimelydeath of his father. The court elders conspire in their wisdom and judgethe young prince as too young to> > succeed the dead king and thus pass on the throne to the wise and older paternal uncle of the prince. They did as it wastheir right to do so in accordance with accepted rights
and privileges of their Office as Court Elders.Perhaps, only in the state of Negri Sembilan in particular,and, in the Malay mind in general could such an act have been accepted
without question or reservationin the modern world. The young prince then lives a life among the commonersfor forty years while his uncle rules the kingdom. We may, perhaps, never truly know what transpired in the mind of the young prince, but, for 40 years he watched as his royal
cousins prospered in the newly prosperous and independent Malaysia . For 40 years he watched in silence as his royal cousins made their marks in sports administration and became
fixtures in the country's social circuit and permanent features in the society pages. There will no end to the speculation and analyses on the significance of this succession. But it has to be said that perhaps, the Undangs not only voted to restore what was rightfully Tuanku Muhriz' but, to signal CHANGE. What the Tuanku did the last 40 years away from the throne?Well, not much different from what we millions of commoners do on a daily basis. Work to pay the monthly bills and raise a family. The Tuanku after reading Law in Wales , he returned and joined Citibank in
Kuala Lumpur in the mid 1970s. He honed his skills in the Treasury, Foreign Exchange, Money andCapital Markets Department. He then went on to partown a small international money broking firm in thelate 70s to the late 80s. He married Tengku AishahRohani in 1974 and had three children,
Tunku AliRedauddin Muhriz , Tunku Zain Al'Abidin Muhriz andTunku Alif Hussein Saifuddin Al-Amin. By and large, Tuanku's engagement in business and commerce can best be described as that of a small businessman. Not even sufficient to get on the front cover of the Edge. His first son Tunku Ali worked in McKinsey and is nowDirector of Investments at Khazanah Nasional. The secondson,Tunku Abidin works in the World Bank actively engaged in poverty eradication initiatives. In Tunku Alif, reside the combined compassion, generosityand humanity of both Muhriz and Rohani. Tunku Alif was born autistic. The parents spent the better part of their wealth and time to make sure this special child was ableto get the best possible educational and health care.This included moving to the United States to get specialized help. The child has thought them the qualities patience, tolerance and compassion. These are qualities we
too often casually and liberally use on some undeserving leaders. So may we hope that the combination of his early year experiences as an heir apparent, a normal working lifeand taking care of a special child, will in the new role of Yang diPertaun Besar , bring a soft thoughtful touch to the Royalty. More recently rulers like the Sultan of Selangor and the Raja Muda of Perak have injected logic, reason and compassion in debates on various issues including race relations. Perhaps the new Tuanku, given his intellectual background, will be another voice of reason and moderation in these challenging times for Malaysia . His 40 years of waiting offers some life lessons for all of us.
