{"id":3852,"date":"2013-02-18T10:52:19","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T02:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=3852"},"modified":"2013-02-20T17:12:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T09:12:18","slug":"sapu-malaysia-last-minute-contract-awards-hint-at-bns-fear-of-losing-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/sapu-malaysia-last-minute-contract-awards-hint-at-bns-fear-of-losing-power\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sapu Malaysia\u2019 – Last minute contract awards hint at BN\u2019s fear of losing power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Feb \u2013 The latest addition to the series of last minute contract handouts by the Barisan Nasional government prior to the 13th<\/sup>\u00a0General Election has irked many, further giving credence to the \u2018open secret\u2019 that the Prime Minister, Najib Razak is indeed postponing the polling date out of fear of losing power to Pakatan Rakyat.<\/p>\n

The recent lucrative privatizations and procurements awarded to \u2018favoured parties\u2019 seemed to be hastily done while Najib keeps on delaying the polls.\u00a0DAP National Publicity Secretary, Tony Pua said this revealed attempts by the current BN-led government to take a firm grip on any incoming government post GE-13, forcibly tying any future governance to a commitment with these eleventh hour contracts.<\/p>\n

Pua highlighted the latest decision by the Prime Minister\u2019s Department to award the new East Klang Valley Expressway (EKVE) concession \u2014 deemed as a \u2018privatisation contract\u2019 \u2014 to Gombak-based Ahmad Zaki Resources Bhd (AZRB). The contract was awarded direct negotiation on 6 February, something Pua has remarked as coming \u2018with little surprise\u2019.<\/p>\n

Pua has called the RM1.55 billion deal into question, as AZRB is to build the 35.5km highway with a government soft loan worth RM635 million despite the concession period of 50 years \u2014 described by Pua as \u2018the second longest concession awarded in Malaysia\u2019s history\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe obvious question is, if the government is already able to fork out nearly half of the required investment to build the highway, why is there a need to privatise it in the first place?\u201d Pua said, in a statement released on 15 February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it so that certain companies can bleed the\u00a0rakyat<\/em>\u00a0for multi-billion ringgit profits in the future?\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the rush, BN?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pua, who is also the Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, however pointed out the \u2018greater concern\u2019 in this latest contract-giving saga \u2014 the urgency of the rate the deals are being \u2018dished out\u2019 by the Prime Minister\u2019s Department itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly, there is a never seen before urgency to award large contracts before the general elections, clearly out of fear that there is a real likelihood that Barisan Nasional will lose power, hence the \u2018Sapu Malaysia<\/em>\u2019 (Sweep Malaysia) mentality,\u201d he pointed out, coining a wordplay at Najib Razak\u2019s government oft-repeated propaganda slogan, 1Malaysia.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, in dishing out these lucrative contracts, it is certain that BN is also desperately raising funds from their cronies in return, to fight their \u2018life and death\u2019 mother-of-all-elections to ensure its survival,\u201d Pua continued.<\/p>\n

The persistent DAP parliamentarian further cited the example of the finalisation of the RM5.2 billion West Coast Expressway (WCE) last month, allowing its concessionaire, Kumpulan Europlus Berhad to collect profits for a period of 60 years \u2014 all of this, Pua said, despite the the government provision of RM2.24 billion in soft loan to the company, in addition to a land acquisition cost also borne by taxpayer\u2019s funds, worth RM980 million.<\/p>\n

According to Pua, another highway project worth RM2.2 billion, the Kinrara Damansara Expressway (KIDEX) has also been awarded to UMNO-linked companies earlier last year, this time involving UMNO lawyer Hafarizam Harun and the recently retired Chief Judge Zaki Azmi, who also once chaired UMNO Disciplinary Committee.<\/p>\n

Pua also reiterated facts on the deals surrounding the construction of the 51km Sungai Buloh \u2013 Kajang line of the massive RM35 billion Klang Valley MRT project, overseen by the MRT Corp, a government linked company set up for the purpose of implementing Malaysia’s first ‘integrated and sustainable mass rapid transit railway’.<\/p>\n

\u201cMRT Corp which oversees Malaysia\u2019s largest infrastructure project in history, announced in November last year that RM19.8 billion of contract works have been awarded, with 45% or RM8.82 billion going to Bumiputera companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pua added that another RM322 million worth of tenders for the MRT project have been handed out, shortly before the long weekend break for the Chinese New Year celebrations earlier in February.<\/p>\n

Adding to the projects involving companies receiving preferential treatments from the government, Pua mentioned the RM1.2 billion tender bid of the Ampang Line expansion contract \u2014 part of the on-going RM7 billion LRT Line Expansion Project (LEP) \u2014 which was controversially interrupted by Najib in order to have it awarded to George Kent Berhad, allegedly a water meter manufacturer.<\/p>\n

According to a report by\u00a0The Malaysian Insider<\/em>, George Kent stated it the company\u2019s annual report that \u2018it was looking to expand into rail and green technology sectors in line with the Najib administration\u2019s Economic Transformation Programme\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite having no experience in the rail industry, the local company with known links to the prime minister beat other experienced global players, including Balfour Beatty which submitted its tender at a significantly lower price,\u201d Pua argued.<\/p>\n

Pua continued to note that Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) \u2014 owning the assets of the expansive LRT LEP \u2014 later awarded a contract worth another RM1.33 billion to property and infrastructure developer, MRCB for other works in completing the planned 17.7km extension of the LRT line, merely a month after the earlier agreement of similar amount was inked between Prasarana and George Kent Bhd.<\/p>\n

Stay alert on vote buying<\/strong><\/div>\n

Pua later stressed that the aforementioned contracts and privatization agreements, inked by the ruling federal government in the last twelve months alone, are \u2018just a shortlist\u2019.<\/p>\n

Adamant that change is on its way this general election, Pua said, \u201cThe possibility of a new Pakatan Rakyat federal government is very real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we will have to first overcome the dirtiest of all elections as BN will spare no expenses to \u2018buy\u2019 victory in the polls with the massive war chest it would have raised,\u201d said Pua.<\/p>\n

Now in his final weeks of his term, Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected to announce the date of the 13th<\/sup>\u00a0General Election anytime this month, while facing a struggle to balance his party\u2019s shakiest ever performance with the rising level of dissatisfaction by many Malaysians towards BN-UMNO\u2019s half a century long rule. \u2013 The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Feb \u2013 The latest addition to the series of last minute contract handouts by the Barisan Nasional government prior to the 13th\u00a0General Election has irked many, further giving credence to the \u2018open secret\u2019 that the Prime Minister, Najib Razak is indeed postponing the polling date out of fear of losing power to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852","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=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}