The age of destruction is nigh?

In antiquated times, plunderers used swords and battle axes. But now, there is a new form of plundering, and it is done by the federal government.

COMMENT

In the barbaric age, the Vikings and the Huns used to invade and plunder the villages using the sword and battle-axe. The people then lived in fear of such a foreign invasion. That age is now lost in the sands of time.

Now a new age has begun, a new age which heralds a new form of plundering – done without swords and battle-axes but just as deadly.

Enter the world of scams and plunderers where one can fall prey to a wide variety of scams including the black money scam, scratch and win scam and the magic stone scam where people are easily cheated of their hard-earned money.

Con-men and confidence tricksters abound in Malaysia so much so that it is not unusual to hear of Malaysians falling prey to such scams. We hear of Malaysian women being conned into becoming drug mules besides “travel agencies” and “job agencies” cheating people out of their money.

Still, the biggest scammer-cum-plunderer award goes to none other than the Barisan Nasional federal government who indulge in big-time scamming to dupe the rakyat.

The biggest plundering scam so far is the PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) scam which has swallowed up the rakyat’s money amounting to RM12.5 billion and counting. The question being asked is this: Was the federal government cheated by certain parties or is the federal government that stupid or both? The outcome of the ongoing trial pertaining to this issue is anyone’s guess.

Another big plundering scam is the awarding of tender projects. There is certainly some hanky-panky going on as there are cases where the one who gets the tender is the company submitting the eighth lowest and the 23rd lowest bid.

This scam was exposed by DAP’s Beruas MP Ngeh Koo Ham in a press conference in the Parliament lobby recently. A project named the Sarawak Rural Water Supply worth RM638,910,000 was given through direct negotiation.

Other projects given through direct negotiation were the Sarawak Rural Water Supply Reticulation System worth RM83,860,000 and the Sarawak Special Rural Water Supply project worth RM555,050,000. All these humongous sums given through direct negotiation to cronies?

The taxpayers have been ripped-off due to the government’s failure to award tenders according to proper professional standards and ethical procedures. The above three projects and many

more exposed by Ngeh involved a sum amounting to nearly RM404 million and these are only those that have been detected. What about those undetected? It is enough to give you the shivers!

Of trains and cows

Another big-time rip-off which has been highlighted, this time by PAS MP Dzulkefly Ahmad is the purchase of 38 electric multiple units (EMU train sets) at a price of more than RM500 million more than it was supposed to be.

This is the story. Originally the three-coach train cost RM13.725 million each. But this purchase was cancelled as the NKRA requires it to be a six-coach train. Be that as it may, logically the six-coach train should cost only RM26 to RM28 million (the original price x 2) more.

But this has ballooned up to RM48 million per train which is thre times more than the original price and worse still the purchase does not include the MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) package which is said to be negotiated separately.

The only changes, if it can be called “changes” to the specifications is the addition of CCTV and slide-presentation panel which can only be considered as minor additions to the specifications.

The National Feedlot Corporation is also a recent plunder – a crony project as it was awarded to Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (minister for women, family and community development) by Muhyiddin Yassin when he was the minister of agriculture.

If a project awarded by one Umno minister to another Umno minister is not called cronyism, then what is it called? The accounts of NFC should be frozen and an independent third party auditors should come in to do forensic auditing.

Still on the subject of agriculture and farming, a total of RM110.67 million in farming aid has yet to be paid to a total of 73,291 farmers by the Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ministry.

Another nefarious plunder is the RM1.8 million used for creating Facebook pages by the Tourism Ministry. All it takes is just a few staff members to reply and update the Facebook site. They must have been paid horrendous salaries!

Another government agency called Giatmara which runs development programmes for the poor has also wasted money by purchasing ovens, blenders, double-bunk beds and other equipment at hugely inflated prices. This was also highlighted in the Auditor-General’s 2010 Report and all in all the purchases came to RM900,000 plus.

‘Scorched-field strategy’

All these plunderings only point to one thing – that the federal government is employing the “scorched-field strategy” because they think they may lose in the coming 13th general election and thus they employ this strategy to plunder the wealth of the nation so that if Pakatan Rakyat takes over as the federal government, there is nothing left.

If the rakyat cause chaos due to the economic meltdown, BN will use this excuse to re-grab Putrajaya in the ensuing turmoil by saying that Pakatan is incompetent.

The nation is at a dangerous point now. National debt is said to be at 53% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the past few years already. Is this the correct figure?

Who knows what is the actual percentage of the national debt? Or the actual percentage of the inflation rate? What happens when the economy implodes is that inflation will hit sky-high as Bank Negara needs to print more money. This means that the Ringgit will become valueless and then even a loaf of bread may cost RM10.

In the meantime, the rakyat continue to be in a comatose state as the Pakatan lawmakers keep exposing one rip-off scandal after another. Will it be too late when the 13th general election comes? Will the Age Of Plunderers lead to the Age Of Destruction and finally Ragnarok (end of the world in Norse mythology)?

Selena Tay believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s policies. She is a FMT columnist.