{"id":3424,"date":"2013-01-14T18:33:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T10:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=3424"},"modified":"2013-01-14T18:33:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-14T10:33:27","slug":"tony-pua-syabas-saga-for-bn-it-is-the-cronies-first-rakyat-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/tony-pua-syabas-saga-for-bn-it-is-the-cronies-first-rakyat-last\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Pua: Syabas saga \u2014 for BN, it is the cronies first, rakyat last"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>KUALA LUMPUR, 14 Jan \u2013 The Barisan Nasional administration is once again putting the interests of the rakyat last, as Prime Minister Najib Razak and Peter Chin continue to defend their crony Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor, Syabas, while blaming the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government for the endless water woes in the state.<\/p>\n

Syabas, the water concessionaire in charge of water distribution to Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, has failed miserably in doing its job, causing hundreds and thousands caught in constant and rampant water shortages, likely to last until Chinese New Year.<\/p>\n

DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua said this clearly shows that profit for BN cronies is more important than the sufferings of the man-on-the-street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Najib espoused \u2018transformation\u2019 in his speeches over the past four years, no transformation could be seen as BN\u2019s privatisation cronies are not only fully protected by his administration, they have continued to prosper at the expense of the people,\u201d Pua said.<\/p>\n

According to PKR Strategic Director, Rafizi Ramli, the smearing stint by BN is a \u201cpolitically-motivated sabotage\u201d of Selangor’s water supply system, aimed to incite hatred against Pakatan Rakyat which currently is in power in Selangor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to play political games, game on. They have been holding the public ransom on the water issue,\u201d said Rafizi.<\/p>\n

Najib\u2019s drama<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last weekend, Najib unabashedly took the Selangor government to task, warning the state government to \u201cstop blaming the woes on others.\u201d The Prime Minister further fuelled the drama by saying that he is \u201csaddened to see people living in flats having to lift buckets of water to the upper floors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strangely, Najib\u2019s smear campaign conveniently ignores that fact that it was the previous BN-led state government that holds the responsibility of privatizing Selangor\u2019s water industry back in 1996.<\/p>\n

Najib claimed that BN is not playing politics, despite guaranteeing that the water problem will be solved as soon as possible only if the people give the mandate to BN in the upcoming general election.<\/p>\n

Najib said so in his speech during an event at Tesco Semenyih, held on the same day with the mammoth Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat rally at Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.<\/p>\n

In the same breath, Najib stated that BN is unable to resolve the crisis because the Selangor PR government \u201cwon\u2019t give the development order\u201d for the multi-billion ringgit Langat 2 treatment plant.<\/p>\n

Syabas termination is the solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tony Pua reiterated that the water problem in Selangor has nothing to do with the construction of any dam, and cannot be solved by constructing one.<\/p>\n

Pua said, \u201cThe current water crisis in Gombak, Ampang and Kuala Lumpur has nothing to do with Langat 2 and has everything to do with Syabas\u2019 inability to maintain its existing water supply services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is it [that] Langat 2, which is only scheduled to be completed in 2014 at the very earliest, could prevent the current water crisis in KL and Selangor… it is beyond our comprehension,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Selangor Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, responded by suggesting to terminate the Syabas concession, due to their extremely poor performance \u2014 a move the state government believes will \u201crectify the shortcomings\u201d in the state\u2019s water distribution management.<\/p>\n

Peter Chin, Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water in Najib\u2019s government, unsurprisingly, rejected the proposal outright, choosing to defend and deflect criticisms laid on Syabas instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Selangor government cannot take over Syabas for it violates the conditions stipulated in the water concession agreement,\u201d said Chin, claiming that the state government would be \u201cliable\u201d if it terminates the contract.<\/p>\n

Pua called Chin\u2019s excuse \u201cridiculous\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pua, also the Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, added, \u201cThe excuse by the minister demonstrates the extent to which the BN Government is willing to tolerate transgressions by its cronies, even if the people are suffering from extended water services disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that even if Syabas was to default on all the terms of its concession agreement, the concession agreement cannot be terminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Rakyat first\u2019, BN?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The previous Selangor BN government signed a concession agreement that allowed Syabas to increase tariffs by 37% in 2009. The tariffs were increased by 25% in 2012, and are scheduled to undergo an additional increase of 15% in 2015. The tariffs are to undergo further increase every three years.<\/p>\n

The evidently poor maintenance of its water treatment facilities by Syabas, notably in the recent months, prompted the current Selangor state government to propose the termination of the Syabas concession agreement.<\/p>\n

According the concession agreement, however, such termination can only be carried out with the consent of the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Syabas concession agreement can be terminated if Syabas failed to fulfil its part of the bargain,\u201d Pua commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason why the termination cannot proceed is because the BN government is dead against it and will protect Syabas at all costs. It is clear that the BN Government is beyond redemption and is unable to change itself to prioritise the interest of the rakyat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The water supply failures in Selangor and KL are expected to continue to as late as early February, coinciding with the Chinese New Year celebrations, one of Malaysia\u2019s biggest holiday periods.<\/p>\n

Areas in Selangor and KL currently plagued by the water supply crisis are Gombak, Wangsa Maju, Pandan, and Ampang. \u2013 The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, 14 Jan \u2013 The Barisan Nasional administration is once again putting the interests of the rakyat last, as Prime Minister Najib Razak and Peter Chin continue to defend their crony Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor, Syabas, while blaming the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government for the endless water woes in the state. Syabas, the water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}