THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
(Malay Mail Online, 21 Mar 2017) – Jahabar Sadiq, the former editor of defunct news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI), has been challenged by his former financiers today to reveal the source of funds for his new outfit The Malaysian Insight.
Ho Kay Tat, the publisher of The Edge Media Group that owned TMI before shutting it down in March last year, said the revelation is needed for the sake of transparency and public interest.
“I hope Mr Jahabar has now found better financiers than us for The Malaysian Insight. He has said that his financial sources are private equity, businessmen and loans.”
“For transparency and in the public interest, Mr Jahabar should provide their names and not let the matter be shrouded in mystery,” Ho said in a letter to Singapore’s daily The Straits Times.
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Malaysia Today wrote about this matter almost two months ago on 1st, 2nd and 3rd April 2017, which you can read at the links below.
This story revolves around Jahabar Sadiq, the former editor of the now defunct news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI). After blowing around RM13 million over two years, TMI closed down because the owner did not see any future in a news portal that was swallowing RM6 million a year (which is about what it also costs to run Malaysiakini and about RM4 million a year to run Free Malaysia Today).
Now that The Malaysian Insider has been transformed into The Malaysian Insight (also TMI), Ho Kay Tat wants to know where the RM6 million a year is coming from. Jahabar says the money is coming from ‘private equity, businessmen and loans’ but Ho wants him to be more specific and transparent as to TMI’s source of funding.
When TMI was The Malaysian Insider the money came from millionaire Tong Kooi Ong. But Tong is not behind The Malaysian Insight and Ho wants to know who is. They know Jahabar does not have the money and even Jahabar himself admits that there are people behind him who are funding The Malaysian Insight. The question is who? After all we are talking about a commitment of RM40 million with no returns over these next five years.
