Malaysia F-1, Made-in-Malaysia or Made-for-Cronies?

Remember how Janet Jackson’s right breast was exposed during the halftime show at the Super Bowl - more than five years ago? Some 72,000 fans in Reliant Stadium and more than 100 million watching around the world got more than what they expected to see when Justin Timberlake who was singing “I’ll get you naked by the end of this song” when he ripped off Janet’s top, exposing her bare breast – the nipple covered by a metal “solar”medallion. Of course Justin claimed it was an accident and blamed it on “wardrobe malfunction”. But if you were to talk to anyone back then, nobody would believe it was “unintentional” but rather part of a stunt simply because it’s quite unusual for anyone to put a star on the breast for personal or private viewing *grin*.

Now that the ruling government’s most hated blogger RPK has exposed copies of 18-page memorandum submitted by Finance Ministry to the cabinet seeking endorsement for RM4.6 billion government loan to cover the cost over-run of the PKFZ project, Najib’s administration cannot deny anymore that it didn’t know anything about the scandal and hope to sacrifice former Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy and a few more small fishes – if that was the intention in the first place. The immediate reaction from Najib to punish those who leaked the Cabinet documents (under the name of Official Secreat Act, OSA) was sufficient to confirm that the government knew about the scandal since day one. Unlike Janet Jackson’s NippleGate, there’s no twinkle-twinkle little star to cover Najib’s administration breast.

The ruling government tried to block RPK’s Malaysia-Today website but they knew better than anyone that it was a fruitless effort. Hence Najib’s cousin, Home Minister Hishammuddin changed the strategy and is tracking the identity of the “insider” who passed the documents to RPK. Now you know why Tiong King Sing wasn’t disturb a bit with Ong Tee Kiat’s action to expose the PKFZ scandal. Tiong knew nobody will be prosecuted because the stake was too high. If he were to be brought down, he’ll make sure he’ll bring along Transport Ministers, Finance Ministers and many of Najib’s administration top officials to become his cell-mates *grin*. Although this is a golden opportunity for Najib to prove to the voters that he’s a greater leader than Mahathir in fighting corruption, he couldn’t afford to shake the already sinking ship he’s commanding. Thus he would try his very best to cover or divert the attention from the PKFZ scandal.

Najib’s only silver bullet now is to perform exceptionally in the economy sector. He knew voters especially the Chinese voters were throwing their votes behind his advisor, former PM Mahathir, despite the dictatorship and numerous scandals because Mahathir did well in driving the country’s economy. Besides economy agendas, he also needs to do branding so that people can remember him for something he did. The mention of Mahathir and you’ll immediately think of Proton, KLCC, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya and others. Thus, Najib needs an icon associate with him. Nope, he can’t glorify the Scorpene submarine because that would bring back the bad memory of Altantuya. Neither can he imitate his predecessor Abdullah Badawi in “Corridoring”. So far he has not find anything as gigantic as KLCC or Corridors but he’s learning fast and still accepting ideas.

His recent idea for Malaysia to have its own 1Malaysia F1 team in Formula One next year was indeed a very brave (and risky) and raised many eyebrows. Leveraging on Proton-owned Lotus-powered racing team the initiative would be better than sending a space tourist into space if the team could give giants like Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes a run for their monies. The team will be a partnership between the government and private sectors especially AirAsia Berhad’s (KLSE: AIRASIA, stock-code 5099) and Naza Group. Nobody can deny the fact that Formula-1 is indeed one of the greatest platforms in advertising and marketing and if this latest stunt by Najib works it would move his rating several notches up, not to mention that it would put Malaysia on the world map once again *ahem*.

Of course the joke of the town was that it would do peoples’ favor if Proton or Lotus could at least fix the legendary window-problem first before try to take on the Formula-1. Many also sarcastically hope the 1Malaysia F1 team drivers (whoever that is) could drive faster that Formula 1’s safety car *grin*. But was Najib’s plan a wise move since even giants like Honda and BMW have decided to quit due to extraordinary high cost? Honda and BMW’s F1-teams were spending US$398 million and US$367 million respectively in 2008 alone. The team that spent the least, Force India, was spending US$122 million in 2008 and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to calculate how much the 1Malaysia F1 team would be spending.

You can argue that the expenditure is the problem of the private sector, in this case AirAsia and Naza Group. But why would smart peoples like AirAsia and Naza decided to waste hundreds of millions of dollars in a project such as Formula-1? Wait a minute, AirAsia Kamaruddin mentioned the company is spending only £10 million (RM57 million) initially so it seems Proton or the government (public’s money) will be spending huge amount of monies for this project. Have they forgotten the disastrous experience and humiliation experienced by the country in 2001? It took the main sponsor Magnum three F-1 races before the lottery company threw in the towel, sending the then Malaysian F-1 driver, Alex Yoong, to drive A-1 instead.

Sure, Alex Yoong was the wrong candidate to drive in Formula-1 (is he coming back again?). He was there because of this father’s close connection with the then Mahathir’s administration. But since then do we have the local quality to drive such a powerful racing car? Will we try the same path as Alex Yoong again and in the process send Malaysia’s team to the bottom of the chart? Maybe they’ve shortlisted daredevil “Mat Rempits” as the future heroes. Otherwise it is misleading to declare that the F-1 car will be designed, manufactured, tested and basically everything is “Made-in-Malaysia”. Lotus may have the experience in the Formula-1 arena but its last F-1 face was in 1994, more than a decade ago. So was this project a genuine one or it’s another project to enable political cronies to dry up the country’s money?

As for advertising it wouldn’t do AirAsia or Naza any favor if the team continuously fails to finish the race, let alone winning. It’s a known fact that the Formula-1 via FIA is desperate for participants especially after the giants Honda and BMW decided to leave the race. Hence, it was speculated that the bar has been lowered to new participants. Nevertheless, Najib’s administration has to be transparent in disclosing the spending of public’s money in this Formula-1 project because it’s nobody will believe the government and Proton will not be spending a single cent in such a high-profile project. But one thing is for sure – if this project fails, you can be assured that some companies (or rather cronies) have made hundreds of millions in the process. One has to remember the ruling government is flush with monies because it’s holding back the money for development in developed states captured by the opposition especially Selangor and Penang.

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