Rich non-Malays worked hard, through blood, sweat and tears for their wealth

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Rich non-Malays worked hard, through blood, sweat and tears for their wealth

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12, 2024: Yes! There are more non-Malay millionaires or billionaires in Malaysia.

But they succeeded not by stealing but through sheer hard work, blood, sweat and tears.

So, to all racial and religious bigots, get that clear. The non-Malays succeeded without any help from the Governments (elected every five years).

Neither did they steal from the Malays or Bumiputras! Or via political means. Get it???!!!

No News Is Bad News reproduces below two articles on the issues:

Malaysia’s super rich — old, diversified and Chinese

Geoffrey Williams-30 Apr 2024, 08:00 AM

There is little change and little cause for envy in the latest list of Malaysian billionaires with traditional ways of making, inheriting and losing money remaining the same-old style.

 

Forbes’ recently released annual list of the top-50 super-rich in Malaysia came with many of the same names we have seen for decades.

My name did not appear and some other high profile names are also strangely absent.

Perhaps their assets and incomes have not been declared in court but it may be that although the absentees are rich in Malaysian terms they are not so rich in global terms.

Centenarian Robert Kuok is the richest Malaysian but ranks only 176 in the world for example, and most of the others do not even make it onto the world list.

This gives the impression of stagnation and no real sense of a shift in the way wealth is created and accumulated.

Around 86% of the list are Chinese who account for 87% of the total net worth.

Although there are many reasons for this, genetics is not necessarily one of them. Entrepreneurial success is poorly correlated with ethnicity, as millions of low-income people in China will testify.

One explanation in Malaysia is that the New Economic Policy (NEP) and Bumiputera affirmative action policies have pushed the Chinese community towards entrepreneurial activity.

The absence of government support has worked to their benefit, reducing dependency and spurring independence and enterprise.

Another factor in wealth accumulation is how old the super-rich are and how long it took them to make the money. Around 58% of those on the list are older than 70 and 86% of them are past 60.

The average age when they started their business was around 30 years old but was younger for those who started before the launch of the NEP in the 1970s.

It also took decades to become wealthy. The average company is around 46 years old and 81% started before the period of liberalisation in the 1990s.

When it comes to where the money is made, the traditional, mainstay sectors of manufacturing, finance and investment, food and beverage, real estate, construction and engineering account for 47% of net worth.

Wealth accumulated through diversified industries accounts for 34% of net worth. Diversification is often a defence against expropriation.

Other sectors account for less than 20% with telecoms at 6% but technology less than 1%.

One of the biggest gainers this year are Francis Yeoh and his family. Their shares in YTL have grown following successful technology investments including the recent partnership with a US technology giant to build AI infrastructure and a data centre in Johor.

The list is also made up of a large number of people who have inherited the wealth of their families.

For the younger generation, more than a third inherited their wealth and among those below 60 the majority have inherited rather than created their wealth.

More than half of the list is wealth accumulated within families and this raises issues of leadership succession for many companies.

This is often noted as a cultural trend particular to wealthy Asian families but it is not unique to Asians.

Family businesses were common in Europe before the devastation of the Second World War and in the US family businesses are still very common.

Apparently there is a Chinese belief that a family’s fortune lasts only three generations: The first makes the wealth, second consolidates and the third squanders it.

In reality many family fortunes hardly make it from the founder to the grandchildren.

This is a common, welcome and unenviable feature of capitalism. Often fortunes go more quickly than they come and new billionaires arise to replace the super-rich who are here today but gone tomorrow.

Only 3 Bumiputera billionaires on 2024 Forbes list of M’sian tycoons but exact figure likely anybody’s guess

By Cheah Chor Sooi

 

PRESUMABLY the Bumiputera business fraternity need not feel left out that there are only three Bumiputera billionaires in the Forbes’ list of 50 richest Malaysians.

The trio are Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary at the 15th spot with US$1.3 bil (RM6.2 bil); Tan Sri Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim at 28th with US$756 mil (RM4 bil); and Tan Sri Azman Hashim at 32nd with US$660 mil (RM3.1 bil).

This is simply because Forbes has disclosed that its list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, annual reports, analysts, government agencies and other sources.

Net worths were based on stock prices and exchange rates as of the close of markets on April 2, 2024 and private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded.

“For those who have been following the Forbes list for a long while, they certainly know that the number of Bumiputera billionaires was larger previously,” penned veteran journalist and blogger Datuk A. Kadir Jasin in his latest Facebook post.

Datuk A. Kadir Jasin

“But year after year, their number declined while the number of non-Bumiputera billionaires, especially the Chinese, has increased rapidly. It seems that it is not the government’s policy to produce Bumiputera business magnates.”

Added the national journalism laureate: “It can be said that apart from Syed Azman who runs a fleet of helicopters that serves the oil & gas (O&G) industry, there has been no other Bumiputera billionaires after Syed Mokhtar and Azman but instead many found themselves eliminated from the list.”

On the other hand, Kadir reckoned that the government – has been directly and indirectly – competing with the Bumiputera business fraternity through government-related funds and companies, ie government-linked companies (GLCs) and government-linked investment companies (GLCs).

“This has not taken into account the competition with the Malay rulers and their family members who are also active in business,” observed the former editor-chief of mainstream New Straits Times.

“In certain aspects, it seems that the government is inclined to implement policies practised by international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which eliminates subsidies, encourages free trade and reduces budget deficit.”

While Kadir has nevertheless highlighted the three Bumiputera tycoons acknowledged by Forbes, there were some cheeky comments to his Facebook post claiming that there could be an even a longer list of Bumiputera billionaire politicians or even their cronies than genuine business tycoons.

 

This of course cannot be immediately verified but a case in point is that it has been almost nine years and counting yet the inheritance dispute over the late former science, technology and innovation minister Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis’s (JJ) estate valued at an estimate of RM2.1 bil remains unresolved. – April 22, 2024 Focus Malaysia