RM3 million road projects awarded without Parliamentary approval

["M.G.G. Pillai" <pillai@mgg.pc.my>]

The finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, in his second formal Budget
presentation for the current financial year, was cock-a-hoop over the
country's economic and fiscal performance.  But he spoke as a bankrupt
building a business empire in his dreams.  He did not addresss
Malaysia's indepbtedness, nor of his frantic efforts to raise overseas
funds to repay its foreign debts.  He has not admitted the US$1.7
billion it got from selling half its gold reserves when its price at its
lowest, nor of Malaysia's negotiations with the World Bank for a US$4
billion World Bank loan, nor of a consortium of European banks raising 8
billion Euro to settle a US$3 billion loan in Japanese yen, which more
than doubled when the yen strengthened against the US dollar since.  Nor
does he mention the massive construction contracts awarded without
Parliamentary approval, nor the huge payable-when-able loans to
privatisation concessionaires as seed money, the latest the RM1 billion
to MRCB Bhd, which now controls the NST and TV3, for the privatised
Iskandar highway along the West coast.  So, when the works minister,
Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, proudly announces two road projects worth RM3
billion, it brings the country a step nearer bankruptcy.  However good
and careful the Budget proposals, it comes to nought if the works and
finance ministers dole out, like drunks in a bar, privatisation
contracts and interest-free payable-when-able seed money worth billions
of ringgit.

     The second Penang underwater link and the elevated highway over the
Federal Highway, worth RM3 billion, are two road building projects from
the large list mothballed after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.  Many
more such projects would be announced in the coming months.  Dato' Seri
Samy Vellu says construction would begin once Japanese financial
institutions provide the loans.  These projects, you understand, cannot
wait -- we have had to wait for three years because the jealous
foreigners caused the Asian financial crisis to destroy Malaysia, as the
Prime Minister would remind you at the drop of a hat -- "because the
traffic volume on both the Penang Bridge and the Federal Highway has
reached maximum capacity."  Both, you see, "cannot sustain the traffic
flow in three years," he said.  He does not explain why, since the road
is privatised, the concessionaire takes no effort to expand capacity.
Why is the government involved in it, taking large foreign loans so that
the concessionaire can make money?  As usual, he does not announce this
in Parliament, now sitting, but at a function he presides.  He does not
tell the whole truth.  Parliament must force him to make a full
statement on highway privatisation and what it cost, and the billions of
ringgit in seed money given with no expectation of repayment. Especially
when the RM6.4 billion Indah Water Konsortium is now taken back by the
government, the first sign that all others are in jeopardy. It would
cost the government at least RM1 billion ringgit to do so:  in
Bolehland, failure is more profitable than success, especially in
privatised projects.  Look at the RM1 billion ringgit Ekran Berhad and
its illustrious no-dam builder got for not building the Bakun
Hydroelectric Dam in Sarawak.

     A company called Intria, with a British firm in which it holds a
major stake, Costains, worked on the Penang underwater link for the past
two years.  In other words, Intria worked on it even before a decision
was made to build it.  No other company knew anything about it.  But
Intria was sure it had the project even before Dato' Seri Samy Vellu
announced it.  That cannot be difficult. Intria is an important link in
Tun Daim's financial empire;  others are Renong, UEM, MRCB, at least six
of the mega banks, and sundry business conglomerates.  He operates
through nominees, his name absent from key records.  But just ask around
in the business community, and his name figures prominently when these
companies are mentioned. Many business men and corporate chieftains who
sprung from nowhere to control billions of ringgit in assets owe their
future to the finance minister.  That he is both finance minister and
financial adviser to the government, and a crony of the Prime Minister,
gives him a role none in the country has.  What brought He Who Must Be
Destroyed At All Cost down was his attempt to cut him down to size. 

     That these privatisation contracts are handed without parliamentary
oversight is a major scandal.  The opposition MPs must impress upon the
government that public finances are not to benefit a few favoured
individuals.  They should demand the finance minister swear an affidavit
eschewing his interest in all companies linked to him, which he must
then lay it for inspection in the House, that he did not abuse his
position when privatisation concessions were given to companies he once
controlled, that he has no links with them in office.  As it is, his
business tentacles, and especially how he, as UMNO treasurer, lost
control of the UMNO business empire it had created before the events of
1987, and how some of them came under his control, still rankles the
UMNO rank-and-file.  And Dato' Seri Samy Vellu must inform the House how
Intria came to be selected as the contractor for the underground tunnel,
why it does not undertake the project itself, especially since it now
controls the Penang bridge.  And if the new underwater link between
Penang and the mainland in Kedah would lead to the downgrading of Penang
and the building of yet another multibillion ringgit airport in the
Prime Minister's, and finance minister's, home state.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my