This issue is fully explained in a book titled "Marc Rich and the Billion Dollars

Scam". It is a black cover book, banned in M'sia but is available off the shelf in
S'pore.

The last time I met a friend who was born after the Tin-bust, I asked him in jest,
“Do you know what Ipoh's famous for?”

He gave me a blank look. Anyway, not wasting any time, I told him, “Tin-lah.” “If
there is no tin, Ipoh wouldn’t be here. It would be just another Orang Asli
settlement. He squinted his eyes and responded, “Are you sure? I thought it was
Ngar-Choy-Kai.”

Thanks to Barisan Nasional for single-handedly transforming Ipoh from a rich and
bustling Tin-City to a Ngar-Choy-Kai (Bean-Sprout with Chicken) industry. Ipoh
never recovered from this fatal stroke of incompetence and greed to corner the
World Tin Market. As a result of this, the once vibrant Tin Industry was totally
wiped out.

It all started with a shady Egyptian tin trader by the name of David Zaidner. He
worked for the commodities firm Marc Rich & Co in Switzerland. ( I'll ask my
children to remember their names!)

Actually, he first approached the Indonesian government thinking that they were
stupid enough to buy his idea of cornering the tin market. But the Indonesians
smelled a con job and had him kicked out of the country.

Next, he couldn't believe his lucky stars when his idea was accepted with
enthusiasm by our then brand-new Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir. A plan was
quickly hatched to corner the World Tin market.

In December 1980, the state-owned Malaysian Mining Corp. Bhd(MMC). named Marc Rich
as its trading agent in a move that would shock the world commodities industry.

Secret large tin purchases were made on the London Metal Exchange and went
unabated throughout 1981, inducing a worldwide price increase. The strategy was
cheap and simple. Malaysia had to only pay a 10 percent deposit against three-
month's forward purchase contracts.

When the price of tin shot up in the world market, the Malaysian government
thought it had scored a huge victory. But unexpectedly, the price increase
attracted many world producers to increase tin production and even the United
States began selling from its strategic stockpiles to take advantage of the
Malaysian-induced price rises.

Subsequently, Malaysia amassed about 50,000 tons of tin and had no other choice
but to keep buying just to keep prices up ( being "shot-squeezed" ). Production
continued to soar and even unheard-of suppliers started to turn up to cash in on
the high tin price. The world tin market went berserk and it crashed. (the Palm
Oil market could face the same faith! - oh, maybe not, because FELDA/FELCRA are
involved.)

Malaysia lost an estimated US$250 million on its failure to honour forward

contracts, and another local bank lost another US$1 billion in separate losses on
loans it had made covertly out of its Hong Kong subsidiary.

For five years Mahathir categorically denied that Malaysia had anything to do with
the plan but as outside pressure mounted, Mahathir finally revealed the details in
1986.
Marc Rich was finally indicted and arrested then extradited to the United States
and convicted of massive tax fraud.

Think of the billions of ringgit taken out of our economy in Perak when the tin
price went bust. Had Mahathir not meddled with the tin price, we wouldn't have
lost 30 years of Tin export income. Perak wouldn't have been relegated from one of
the richest states to a poor one like today.

Another good example akin to the Perak demise is Terengganu. If all the oil
royalties go to the people of Terengganu, Terengganu would be an advanced state at
par with Selangor. But unfortunately, these royalties go to the pockets of BN
politicians and cronies in the form of “Duit Esan”.
"To all our children,... you must all remember them by their names ! "

This material was lifted from:

A Billion Ringgit Tin Mining Industry to Nga-Choy-Kai Industry - By Choo Sing Chye
.
Researched from Steven Schlossstein's book, Asia's New Little Dragons.