Quote of the week

"The government is careful in spending money because it has very little money. It(the plane) was not bought by the government, it was bought by somebody else. That somebody else is 100 percent owned by the government," he added.

Tun Dr.Mahathir, in his usual sarcastic views, was replying a comment made by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi when he denied the government bought the RM200 million jet.

"Why do we (the government) have to buy aircraft? If we buy, we have to undertake repairs and expend on many other things. "If is preferable to lease, and when there are repairs to be made, the lessor has to provide a replacement aircraft for our use," he told reporters on Monday. Abdullah had pointed out that Penerbangan Malaysia stood to gain from the lease, just as it earned from the lease of aircraft to MAS.

Let's have a look at Dato' Kadir Jasin's analysis on this issues. Read up his blog for more details.

1. PM kata kerajaan tak beli tapi sewa;
2. Yang beli adalah Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad (PMB);
3. PMB adalah anak syarikat milik penuh Khazanah Nasional Berhad (KNB);
4. KNB dimiliki kerajaan melalui Menteri Kewangan Diperbadankan (MKDp - Minister of Finance Incorporated);
5. Pengerusi KNB adalah PM;
6. Menteri Kewangan adalah PM;

The interesting thing about this issue is that, it was first brought up in the internet by bloggers, not from the mainstream medias. And I think that shows how greatly the influence of blogs in Malaysia. This is the second time in which the government replies from an issue that came up from blogs. The previous was the controversial RM3 million Turkish yacht. One issue after another, Pak Lah's credibility as Prime Minister is slowly crumbling.