Kj Blames Ph Communication Failure For Tabung Haji Asset Controversy

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Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the move to take underperforming assets off Tabung Haji’s balance sheet was not well publicised, leading to confusion.PETALING JAYA: Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin says a “communication failure” by the Pakatan Harapan government is responsible for the furore over Tabung Haji’s (TH) assets being allegedly sold to non-Malays or non-Muslims in 2018.
He said the explanations provided by the government at that time were not particularly effective.
“We all know that the asset transfer at that time was merely a ‘parking’ manoeuvre, where they wanted to park it outside TH’s balance sheet through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) fully owned by the finance minister,” he said in the latest episode of the Keluar Sekejap podcast today.
He said the SPV managers did not have names that were Muslim or Malay, so it became easy to claim that the assets were being sold to non-Malays or non-Muslims, he added.
“For whatever reason, it became a post-truth situation where something untrue could be considered the truth,” Khairy said, adding it clearly indicated a failure of the PH administration in 2018, the finance ministry and Lim Guan Eng’s communications team.
Meanwhile, former Umno leader Shahril Hamdan said he had no love for Lim but the former finance minister’s action allowed TH to pay hibah that year.
“I thought it was a creative way to solve the problem in a short period of time,” he said.
In December 2018, it was reported that the finance ministry took on RM19.9 billion of TH’s underperforming assets, comprising equities and properties.
At the time, TH group managing director Zukri Samat said the assets would be transferred to the SPV to rehabilitate underperforming assets and to normalise the fund’s financial position.
Recently, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said TH assets that were handed over to the SPV would be returned to the TH board.
Anwar said the decision was taken following the “recovery” of the fund, which is now “well managed”. - FMT

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