YOURSAY | ‘When all the cookies have been depleted, we blame the whole world except ourselves.’

WSJ: China offered to bail out 1MDB in return for projects

P Dev Anand Pillai: Where are the race and religion champions? Who went about offering Malaysia to the mainland Chinese?

In a country like ours, it is easy to blame every other person except yourself when we face obstacles and grievances because we have always been kept apart and only come together once in a while to put up a show for the world to see.

If we had practised prudence and proceeded with infrastructure projects on a necessity basis, we would have had enough reserves to brave any bad economic climate should there be one in the region.

However, as usual, we are a nation that endorses the concept of the "first right to dip into the cookie jar", and when all the cookies have been depleted, we blame the whole world except ourselves.

Ruben: Umno talks so much about how well they had been running the country but they were allegedly selling off our country to the Chinese.

Can you imagine the rakyat paying RM80 billion for just a rail line from Gombak to Wakaf Bharu, when it should have cost much less?

My goodness, for Umno, one billion is like one million.

Anonymous_1538808416: If this revelation is true, then it is very sad to learn that an economic superpower like China, which many Asian countries look up to, would resort to such dirty deals in pursuit of its own interests, while hiding the truth from the people of Malaysia and abetting Malaysia’s biggest crooks.

Spratlys: What a disgrace for Chinese president Xi Jinping.

How could a nation such as China be in cahoots with then PM Najib Abdul Razak to force lopsided East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline (TSGP) contracts on a small nation like Malaysia?

For the ECRL, there is absolutely no viable economic business model to support the massive construction cost.

China has clearly demonstrated it is making Malaysia an economic hostage through ECRL and TSGP. What an utter shame for Xi indeed.

Quigonbond: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) could unwittingly end up doing the hatchet job for US President Donald Trump’s administration in their trade war with China, as this kind of thing inflicts maximum embarrassment.

But China will just simply say this is imagined, and that if there are any documents, they are fake. One could also be more inclined to believe the WSJ story because firstly they have credibility, and secondly, various other countries have complained about the high cost of receiving Chinese money.

The bottom line is, what will Malaysia become if we do not have Chinese investments? We are not likely to stir a diplomatic storm with China anyway.

In any event, the blame falls on BN for entering this kind of anti-national deal in the first place. As for the US, investments aren't coming in rapidly from it either.

If the US is trying to pivot some Southeast Asian countries back to itself, it should put its money where its mouth is first.

New Hope: I do not think this will come as a surprise. Whilst we can say that China is unscrupulous, but it is conducting business.

Business deals take place when there is a party in need and another party offers to satisfy the need in return for terms which they set for the deal to take place. Once the terms are accepted, then a deal is closed.

The problem here is not China, but the Najib-BN government which has allegedly looted the country to such an extent that the country cannot cover up their misdeeds.

It did not bother the Najib-BN government that this deal would bind further generations to debt up until the third and fourth generations.

That was the government that used race and religion to stay in power while they allegedly continued looting.

So let the majority community know that 'race and religion', especially that pushed by Umno and PAS, will bring the country to ruin.

KJ: We didn't know China deals were made to bail out 1MDB

Ipohcrite: For an ex-minister who deigns to criticise the Pakatan Harapan ministers almost every other day, Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin did not know much about what was actually going in the country even though he was in the cabinet.

And to claim that his ignorance was born out of the fact that the cabinet was not briefed that the China deals were linked to 1MDB is the height of idiocy.

As a minister, he should be smart enough to smell that something was not quite right. Remember that maxim: if something is too good to be true, it probably is.

I, for one, would not have expected an Oxford University graduate to play the country bumpkin to get out of trouble.

Cogito Ergo Sum: What did you not know and when did you not know?

Khairy, are you saying there was an inner circle of cabinet members that wheeled and dealed and you were not part of it?

As to the meeting minutes, as some here have asked, I am sure even Umno is not dumb enough to keep soft or hard copies lying around. But the WSJ obviously got them before they vanished.

Cyclonus: You didn't know, cabinet didn't know - but the whole world was talking about it already.

We've seen what happened with China's economic colonialism in parts of Africa and Sri Lanka.

But what do the Umnoputeras care? They've got their contracts and fantasy-like lifestyle. Why rock the boat? Let the people eat cake.

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