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No. 4654 PP 2644/12/2008 (020369)
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pg26
11 cars buried in landslip
KUALA LUMPUR: Eleven cars parked between
the CIMB and Amanah Raya buildings in Ja-
lan Semantan here were buried under mud
and rubble when a landslip occurred there
yesterday.
Heavy rain since 2pm was believed to have
caused earth to loosen at a hill close to the
buildings, and crash down after a 15m retain-
ing wall at the parking area gave way.
“It’s possible that the rain factor and the
underground drainage could have caused
the landslip,” said the officer-in-charge of the
Jalan Hang Tuah fire station, Azizan Ismail,
when met at the scene.
However, he said, the actual cause of the
incident was still being investigated.
Azizan said the owners of the 11 vehicles,
who are mostly CIMB employees, had lodged
a report stating that their vehicles were
involved in the incident.
As of 9pm, several cars had been retrieved
from the rubble using two excavators, Ber-
nama reports.
ORIENTAL DAILYPIX

The landslip had also caused traffic con-

gestion stretching 3km in both direction in
Jalan Semantan.

» Turn to Page 19

Najib: ValueCap not for bailouts

‘THERE WILL BE NO POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN THE COMPANY’S INVESTMENT DECISIONS’
UALA LUMPUR: Addressing continued quarter, and is also significantly lower than the ment to review it,” he said. economic crisis as the magnitude of the impending

K concerns over the RM5 billion injection of

public funds into ValueCap Sdn Bhd, Deputy
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak
yesterday assured the people the extra allocation
will not be used to bail out politically-connected
individuals or government-linked companies.
“I wish to give a categorical assurance that
ValueCap will be used for value investing and will
not be used to bail out anyone,” Najib, who is also
finance minister, said at the 13th Malaysian Capital
Market Summit here.
He said ValueCap would be professionally and
ethically-managed, adding that there will be no
political interference in its investment decisions.
His assurance comes in the wake of a report
that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), which
will lend the RM5 billion to ValueCap, has reported
that its unaudited investment income in the third
quarter had fallen more than 60% from the second
corresponding quarter last year. This was mainly
due to a fall in income from equities.
Earlier, when the fund injection was first an-
nounced by Najib, the government had soothed
immediate fears that the money was meant to
clear ValueCap’s loans of approximately the same
amount due early next year to its shareholders
– Khazanah, the Pension Trust Fund Council (KWAP)
and Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB). The gov-
ernment had said the three bodies had agreed to
extend the loan.
It was earlier said the RM5 billion allocation was
for ValueCap to invest in under-valued stocks with
good upside potential.
Asked about the government’s growth projec-
tion of 3.5% for next year, Najib said although there
were lower forecasts made by others, “let us see the
development for the next one or two quarters”.
“Right now it is 3.5%, but it is not an embarrass-
He said even Singapore reviewed its growth
forecast four times.
“Nobody really knows the problem out there or
how deep the problem is, it is anybody’s guess.”
He said there were no indications that Malaysia
would slip into recession next year or even into a
technical recession.
Asked whether the RM7 billion stimulus pack-
age he announced recently was enough to achieve
growth next year, Najib said: “Let us see develop-
ments because there are all kinds of views and
forecasts.”
“Let us not get excited about the forecast,”
he said, when commenting on statements made
by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research
(MIER) that the government needed to spend more
than RM7 billion to avoid slipping into recession.
MIER claimed the RM7 billion stimulus pack-
age would only help to soften the blow of a global
crisis was too big to be contained by a stimulus
package of this size.
On another matter, Najib urged Malaysians to
unite and concentrate on building the nation in
overcoming the economic challenges ahead and
creating opportunities for the people.
He said they must build their internal resilience,
reduce wastage, promote efficiency and upgrade
productivity.
“This is not the time for politicking or to score
points politically. The general election is over. This is
the time when we, as a nation, must come together
and unite to face the grave external economic chal-
lenges.
“We shall be fair to all. National unity and justice
for all are of paramount importance. This predict-
ability, stability, pro-business and certainty in our
system of governance must be maintained,” he
said.