DISPARATE land purchases seemed to hit the media of late. It can’t help the discerning public (read taxpayers) to feel that something really seems amiss.

Yes, transparency and accountability is much wanting in the way these land deals were transacted.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced that it had acquired 22.58ha from the government for about RM2 billion. The land is meant to relocate two Islamic finance universities and the rest to be used for an educational hub for financial services.

Granted, the deal has surely raised valid concern. Why? Because, usually the land would have been transferred to BNM, as it is a government institution.

That the transaction happened around the material time the government was struggling to pay the last tranche of RM2.4 billion to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), spoke volumes about its “coincidence”. The source of funding, nonetheless, would remain a mystery till kingdom comes.

Even more intriguing, is the fact that it is acquiring a huge landbank at a commercial price of M823 per sq foot (psf), while there are available land in Putrajaya or Cyberjaya, with infrastructure, which cost around RM200 psf.

Making it more problematic is the news that the suspected land encroaches onto the green lung, an extension of the Lake Garden, which is zoned as a “public open space”. It is extremely regrettable that many things would remain opaque and, of course, more than meet the eyes.

As if that wasn’t sufficient to raise eyebrows, another fiasco ensues. Again, involving the fiduciary responsibility of a financial institution and its minister.

Briefly put, the finance minister must come clean and tell taxpayers just what is really happening in the purchase of 51% stake in Mulia Property Development Sdn Bhd – the developer of The Exchange 106 at the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), by Minister of Finance Inc (MoF Inc).

To recap, the 28ha TRX was divided into several plots by master developer TRX City Sdn Bhd (formerly known as 1MDB Real Estate Sdn Bhd). The TRX Signature Tower is to be the iconic portion of the development.

Mulia Group bought the 1.4ha parcel and development rights to Signature Tower from TRX City SB for RM665 million in May 2015.

The MoF Inc has now acquired back the controlling stake by MKD Signature SB, a RM2 company, whose directors are senior officials from the MoF. It took a loan of RM2 billion from HSBC Bank Malaysia to execute this acquisition. So why is the second finance minister denying knowledge of this deal?

More importantly, could the taxpayers be convinced that it is a good investment decision to add an additional 2.6 million sq feet, on the back of a glut of office space in the city?

But the real bone of contention has now become this – is the government buying back the 51% stake in Mulia Property Development SB, a fulfilment of a “promise” to buy back, for the favour that Mulia Group extended in the original purchase to help 1MDB repay its IPIC debt? It is really getting very curious… “curiouser and curiouser”, to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland.

For once, be man enough to disclose transparently and allay the public anxiety (taxpayers) that these transactions are not “underhand tactics” to convert the private debt of 1MDB into government liability and then be borne by the rakyat – a bailout to the tune of RM2 billion!

The rakyat would be most delighted to be proven wrong.. In this land of kleptocracy, it is better for the rakyat to be presumptuous then to be endlessly taking the shorter end of the stick.

The latest expose of the fraudulent Felda-Kuala Lumpur Vertical City (KLVC) project similarly stinks to high heaven.

Granted the spectre of expose of late, could we afford to have another term of the kleptocratic government led by MO1, to helm the nation again? – January 18, 2018.

* Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad is Amanah strategy director.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.