Word: mokhtar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...handlers munching a sandwich sets him thinking about his mother, and how he has forgotten to give her some last-minute household instructions. "Mom, before I forget," he says, veering from the script, clutching a Kalashnikov rifle, "I saw some good water filters at Al Mokhtar ... buy them there next time." In a film packed with wrenching moments, this one remains one of the most shocking, even for the filmmaker who crafted it. Abu-Assad, 43, an Arab-Israeli who emigrated to Amsterdam in the early 1980s to be an airplane engineer, co-scripted and directed the film, based...
...then leader's pet projects, the Perwaja Steel Works. Abdullah also indefinitely postponed what would have been the country's biggest infrastructure project, a $3.8 billion replacement for the dilapidated railway system awarded by Mahathir in his final days in office to a consortium led by businessman Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary. "It's really been a shocker how far and how fast Abdullah has gone," comments a senior Western diplomat in Kuala Lumpur. "I think he's really changing the way people look at the country...
Three weeks after taking over as Malaysia's Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is revealing that beneath his smooth exterior is a shrewd politician who just might play rough. Last week, Abdullah told reporters that two costly infrastructure projects awarded to businessman Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, one of the favorite industrialists of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, might be renegotiated. In the case of the Bakun dam, a huge hydroelectric project on Borneo, Abdullah said he was "not sure" whether the government would resort to privatization. (Syed Mokhtar's GIIG Capital signed an agreement last August...
...warning signs are already there. One of Mokhtar's companies is now completing the takeover of Malaysia Electric Corp., a Mahathir-initiated venture that aims to manufacture electrical goods such as air conditioners and stereos in Malaysia for sale domestically and overseas. It has struggled since its inception four years ago. Mokhtar may also be taking over another pair of gasping Mahathir favorites: the Entertainment-Village, through which local multimedia and film industries would "leapfrog into the digital age"; and Bio-valley, a still vague attempt to spark off a Malaysian biotechnology industry. Both E-village and Bio-valley...
...Mokhtar associates acknowledge that he has been given some "sick babies," as one puts it. "But when you are a businessman you have to grab all the opportunities that come your way," explains another. Mokhtar has certainly done that. But will he be able to prevent the less desirable opportunities from turning into a new generation of debt-ridden corporations that may someday require costly bailouts? "All the talk of transparency and governance has raised expectations very high," says the CEO of a listed corporation. If the specter of cronyism appears to be returning, he warns,"it would have...