A yacht to sail
Dec 21st, 2006 by Tian
I took this picture from the ferry on Bosphorus, June 2006
Pak Lah was having a good time in Turkey. I was in Istanbul June this year, and fortunate enough to have the opportunity to cruise on the Bosphorus. It was a marvelous experience. I could imagine no mortal could resist splendid scenery.
Turkish paper Hurriyet reported PM Abdullah bought a USD 8 milion yacht. If this news is not true, Our Foreign Ministry should demand the paper to apologize for misreporting. We have been tough many others. Don’t forget the government sued the Guardian for its report on Tahir and Scomi. Malaysia had also demanded Lee Kuan Yew to apologize when he said things that displeased our leaders. In 1998, Prof. Jomo was sued for 200 million by Vincent Tan.
The allegation of purchasing a luxury boat is very serious. If it is untrue, the news has misrepresented our PM as a corrupted politician indulging in hedonistic pursuit. All Turkish people may be having a poor opinion on our beloved Pak Lah now. The Foreign Ministry must clear the PM’s name and demand Hurriyet’s apology.
Go for it, Pak Lah! Reclaim your innocence.
Hi Tian,
Merry Christmas, Peace be with you.
I actually don’t quite believe this newspaper story at face value. Not because I think the guy’s clean, as he pretends to be. It just doesn’t make sense for him to own the boat himself. A few known facts.
1. The Guy likes boating - there’s a priceless photo on Jeff Ooi’s blog of the guy with the Star editor, on a boat somewhere.
2. There’s any number of mega cronies, who stand to benefit from being in the guy’s “good books”. The tycoon mentioned with him in the newspaper report (the satellite & handphone zillionaire)is a good example.
3. Most of these guys could be easily persuaded to own the yacht and then place it at The Guy’s personnal disposal.
So legally, The Guy’s clean, he could even sue the Turkish paper for $$$ millions for soiling his reputation. But he still gets to go sailing into the sunset when gets tired of running (or mis-running) Malaysia.
Agree. I don\’t think Dollah paid for the yacht. Some kaki bodek would have paid for everything. He just went there and had a look, as the Turkish paper reported. Technically the paper was correct: Dollah came to see his boat.
Anyway, he needs not wait till his retirement. The boat could be made good use in the flood. He should now sail around to kiss babies of the refugees. Dollah can present himself as a sort of Hadhari version of Noah.
Have a leader like this, we ought to laugh more often to keep our sanity.