1) ASW, ASM and AS1M are fixed price unit trust fund but ASN price is up and down following the market price.
2) You may lose your money in ASN if the market is not doing well but at other side, you may gain more than ASW if the market is doing well.
3) According to historical tracking, ASW managed to pay interest rate more than 6% per annum and the price is always RM1/unit. However, the interest rate range for ASN is wider and the unit price is not fixed.
4) The minimum to open an ASW account is RM100.
5) For the next offer, you should refer to the newspaper. If I am not mistaken, the ASN is not full yet and you may try to buy from time to time. For ASW, ASM and AS1M, they are closed and need to wait for other offer period.

The latest govt Sukuk 1Malaysia launched few days ago on 20 May reported only received lukewarm response from the public unlike previous bonds esp. when open to the non bumis.. (bumi will not buy Tier 2 lower grade ASM/ASW).

Has all the rakyat money available been “sapu” and ” dried up” by the
all the govt bonds issued over the years or the rakyat is now smarter
not to invest in the BN govt bonds anymore?

Subject: ASB, ASM, ASW 2020 – Are they safe investments?
If you think your money is safe with government bonds and earning good interest – then read on.

If you still cannot understand this article, then read over it again and
again until you do.

If you are one of the investors and you still cannot catch the gist of
this article then you deserve to be cheated.

QUOTE FROM A READER
‘”So, the bonds will never get to be paid from the ideal profits. New
bonds will be issued to pay off earlier bonds. And this will go on and
on and on. Over time, with larger amount of bonds raised every time to cover for additional ‘nation building and development’, government debts will only continue to rise. This is what we call a Ponzi scheme”.-

If you buy these bonds, you better pray that BN wins the next election.

It’s a clever way to use your own money to threaten you to return the BN gomen, isn’t it?

Malaysia is close to bankruptcy.

The government has no more money. 2009 must have been a horrible year with little corporate taxes collected (and expected to be collected) due to the economic slowdown. Foreign investments have also slowed to a halt.

And yet Najib’s government is trying to spend their way out of the
economy. Honestly, if carried out well, government spending is a key component in driving the economy up. But not in Malaysia . The leakages are too large. As a result, the expected multiplier effects do not maximise. The money disbursed end up in the pockets of those who least deserve it instead.

2009 must go on record as the year with the largest amount of
government bonds issued. Amanah Saham this and Amanah Saham that. I don’t have the statistics but I doubt 2009 will be too far off the numero uno spot even if it does not take the top spot. All sorts of bond were raised and for the first time, take-up quotas drawn along the usual racial lines have been removed.

What does that mean? The government is simply desperate for money. The amount that they could raise from the protected and preferred Malay race have simply maxed up. That left Najib with no choice but to loan from the desperate Chinese and Indians on the pretext of equality and sharing of wealth with all in the country. And at lower rates of returns too.

Malaysians are not well read people. And I bet you that most people do not understand what a bond is apart from it being an investment
opportunity that generates interest income higher than that offered by FDs. Bonds are actually IOUs. It is a loan. When you buy a bond, you are actually lending money to the bond issuer and you get paid back upon maturity.

Upon maturity, paying back of bond money is an issue should the bond issuer (in this case the government of Malaysia ) has no money to pay.

But as the government, this can be solved via a few simple strategies
at the expense of the rakyat.

The government may raise new bonds to pay-off the earlier bonds. And this can be done over and over again. The bet by the government is that the government’s income will improve in the future and one day, these loans from the public can be paid off.

Theoretically, this sounds ideal. But do you genuinely accept that from the government of a nation whose corruption index ranking have been consistently falling to an embarrassing 57 now? Regardless of how much of the nations resources are depleted (our oil is running out by the way; palm oil isn’t that popular in the world market unless you are a sucker who believes in Utusan Malaysia ; we do not have much rubber; we ran out of tin decades ago), the profit do not go back to the rakyat but the Swiss private bank accounts of our politicians.

So, the bonds will never get to be paid from the ideal profits. New
bonds will be issued to pay off earlier bonds. And this will go on and
on and on. Over time, with larger amount of bonds raised every time to cover for additional ‘nation building and development’, government debts will only continue to rise. This is what we call a Ponzi scheme.

Read Bernie Madoff. Read cheat. Read con.

The present government is passing it’s current problem to the future
generation. An irresponsible government indeed. In developed nations, the people are able to appreciate this problem. Parliaments debate after debate on bond issuances. In Malaysia , the Prime Minister approves new bonds while he gobbles down his nasi lemak with ayam rendang and sotong sambal. The future is not his problem anyways. He has his hot seat to protect; lose it or he will get nagged to his death by the thing who sleeps next to him.

Has anyone actually thought that Najib knows that his days are
numbered and he is maximising his personal dough collection? Think
about it. Whatever he takes from the bonds will have to be paid back
by the next government. If he is not going to be the next government, paying back will not be his problem.

But whatever he does now will still be a problem for the rakyat in the future. If BN continues, it will be BN’s repayment problem. If PR
takes over, it will be PR who is faced with the same repayment
headache. The only permanent fixture is that the rakyat is at the
losing end.

Some may argue that all the government has to do is to print more
money. Yes, that is true. A learned friend of mine once said that the
government will never run out of money because it can just print more.

That is a brilliant statement. But of course it has it consequences.
The amount of paper money in circulation must correspond to the amount of gold held in reserves. If paper money exceeds the value of gold – which is what the US is facing right now – then the said currency’s value falls. Purchasing power declines. Inflation rises. And a whole lot of other negative economic terminologies.

So you see, printing money to repay government loans solves the loan issue but it brings the country to a whole new level of economic problems.

And yes, you got the message, the rakyat loses.

If you are lucky to live short enough, the problem will not be yours.
But your kids? You better leave them enough money to buy bananas at RM1 million per comb.

Additional note by author: Najib has pledged more and more spending. But with limited funds available, other government disbursements will have to be reduced. Hence, the proposed (rumoured) removal of subsidies for petrol, sugar and flour are very real. Expect electricity tariffs to go up too. Rakyat will suffer like never before. Is he not interested in getting re-elected? Does sound like Najib is taking all he can and abandoning ship.

Some comments found in net:

By noname on Sep 3, 2009 | Reply

Most Chinese in Malaysia are knowledge ignorant. Especially financial knowledge. Did u check the annual report from the
http://www.pnb.com.my/ for all the asm(s)? Do you know how bad is the investment return they have? Who do you think is in charge of the investment?

Let me tell u, they are losing money right and left EVERY YEAR and
still give u 7% return. How they do it?

The answer – it’s your money. You give them RM100, they give u RM6
every year and conservatively they can do this for 12 to 16 years
before you know it. But then it’s too late for you, don’t believe me
check with the return on their annual reports. They are losing money in 90%+ of their ‘investments’ yet they can pay 7% – 8.5% to the shareholders? Where is the money come from? This is call Ponzi scam and hopefully you know how to google it.

Is this an investment or an entrapment?

Guaranteed 5-8% return per year? Is it writen in black and white?
It is so funny, instead of the rakyat getting financial aid from the
government, the government is getting financial aid from the rakyat.
Time will tell soon, if those invested yesterday are suckers or suckees.

As we are getting less and less from our EPF dividend, I somehow smell some very fishy stench reeking from this all so timely ASM (there are more, 2 more billion additional units of Amanah SahamWawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) go on sale from Monday).

Go buy la, go buy.