BN’s poll debt makes front-page news in Hong Kong

BN's poll debt makes front-page news in Hong Kong
Jun 21, 2005, Malaysiakini

More than a year after the general election, scores of suppliers who claim that the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition owed them up to RM100 million worth of poll merchandises are still left empty-handed.

Many of the suppliers are getting increasingly desperate as some have gone bust while others are at the brink of bankruptcy.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) yesterday ran a front-page report on the plight of a local businesswoman who had delivered 705,000 small metal badges to Malaysia days before last year's March 21 election.

Jo Tsui Lap, 50, whose company F & Denzil Limited Manufactory was owed RM850,000, had written to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to seek his help. Tsui said that photos of Abdullah during the election period showed him adorning some of the badges she made. She recalled seeing her badges on the television the day BN won its landslide election.

"Even the prime minister was wearing my badge," Tsui was quoted as saying.

'Lucrative govt contract'

On July 7 last year, malaysiakini disclosed that a group of suppliers - who had provided posters, badges, banners, caps and mineral water for the ruling coalition's election campaign - had claimed BN owes them an estimated RM100 million.

The suppliers - some of whom are major printing and mineral water firms - struck a deal with Kuala Lumpur-based Elegant Advisory, a company which had claimed to have secured a lucrative "government contract" to supply the ruling coalition with campaign paraphernalia.

However, Elegant had shut down its office in Setapak, north of Kuala Lumpur, when malaysiakini visited the place in late July.

The scandal has put a spotlight on the enormous amount of money BN had spent in the general elections. SCMP said efforts to contact Elegant failed and phone calls to Samsudin Ibrahim and Hasan Ayuob, the company directors who dealt with Tsui, went unanswered.

Shahrir Samad, the chairperson of the parliamentary Backbenchers Club and Johor Baru member of parliament, told SCMP: that "a lot of money is involved".

"I don’t know if the suppliers (Elegant) made money on deposits or whatever. It is very strange. As far as campaign headquarters is concerned, they didn’t order anything. All that happened was things were delivered and they signed for it."

Shahrir had earlier conceded that his campaign office was among those who had received the poll merchandises from Elegant.

Abdullah has denied BN's involvement in the scam and advised the suppliers to settle the matter with those who made the purchase orders.

Told to remain quiet

Tsui told SCMP that she was not paid a deposit by Elegant before the delivery of the badges.

"They said if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. But I had already bought the raw materials, so I made the pieces."

She went to Malaysia on the day the goods were delivered, but was told that she would be paid the next working day. But when she called Elegant the next day, the office staff hung up.

Unable to collect her payment in the past 15 months, Tsui has since torn up her credit cards. However, the mother-of-three kept her company afloat by meeting orders for small consignments of badges.

"I cannot do any big jobs at the moment. I can't afford to buy large quantities of raw materials. I still have regular customers though, so that helps."

According to her, it was the first time that she had face such a crisis in her 20 years in the business.

Tsui has made badges for George W Bush’s 2000 election campaign as well as for Disney and McDonald's.

She said she was struggling to keep her four staff in Hong Kong and 60 in China, where the badges are manufactured.

"It is very difficult for me. We are not a big company. Some of the companies affected in Malaysia are very big and maybe they can afford these losses. I cannot. I have not received even a dollar."

Tsui said that she had be told by other suppliers in Malaysia to remain quiet. However, she decided to speak out when she realised it was unlikely she would be paid.