This piece of news which appeared in the NST Business Times recently, was forwarded to me by a friend residing in Malaysia. She knows I am anti-Syed Mokhtar Al-Bulhary and she wants me to write and have it circulated among Malaysians on the Internet. You can help her and me to do that, if you don't mind.
Let us be honest, at least to our own selves, that I, Jeffrey Ong, am not the only person anti that skunk Mamak; practically all thinking Malaysians who have known the boundless greed of Syed Mokhtar seizing everything within his sight, hate him. That is, except those who have benefited financially one way or another from their association with him.
All Malaysians are suffering in silence under the economic strangulation of this man. Has anyone dared to write to the NST to voice his or her protest of Syed Mokhtar taking over the operation of KTMB? None, for fear of being investigated by this or that Ministry under this Act or that Act of our BN Government. Even if someone dared to write, it would not be published, but instead the visits by those Ministries would appear nonetheless.
What is the motive of this Mamak who is already the de facto Master and Lord of Bernas (rice our daily staple food), Tanjong Pelepas Seaport Johor, Senai Airport Johor, Tanjong Bin IPP, Proton our national car, Flour Mill and Gardenia Bread, even Book shop MPH, etc., etc. plus dozens of listed and private companies besides his flagship MMC?
Is the Big Mamak Mahathir trying to create this Mamak to be the Richest Man in the World to prove that his countrymen from Kerala also Boleh? Nobody would grudge Syed Mokhtar if he becomes the Richest Man in the World through his own hard work, foresight, good investment and efforts without smelling and scouting around for ready made publicly owned (by the Rakyat) properties, utilities, infrastructures, and using political connections to steal them under our noses at the expense of the people. Daylight robbery condoned by BN Government.
For decades the Railway has been operated by the Government, therefore if KTMB lost some money, so what? It is to be absorbed by the Government of the people for the convenience of transport for the people; an essential service for the poorer ordinary Rakyat who cannot afford tinted glass luxury limousines of the corrupted elite. Why all of a sudden, we need Syed Mokhtar to come to the rescue? How come we could absorb losses of MAS, subsidies for petrol, rice (for Mamak's benefit), etc., and we cannot sustain the relatively small amount incurred by KTMB. Our own elected Government is taking us to be bloody fools who can be cheated time and time again. You got me?
Let us put on our thinking cap, and look at where Syed Mokhtar is aiming at now. His company MMC together with another crooked Gamuda has already secured the Ipoh to Padang Besar double track line for a hefty sum of some Rm13 billion or so, and still trying to screw us for another more than one billion being VO (Variation Order). Just this sector alone is worth more than Rm15 billion, not taking into account all the other assets of KTMB. How much do you think MMC could pay to take over KTMB? He hasn't the cash, and neither can the local banks support him any further.
Syed Mokhtar must have many cards up his sleeves which we cannot see through his scheming mind, devilish plans like asset stripping, getting more loans from banks to service his huge debts., etc, not excluding doing another Ramli Tajuddin-MAS deal to suck cash from the Government at the opportune time.
Another possibility is the remaining sector of double track rail from Gemas to Johor Bahru which has not been awarded yet. He knows to get that project, he has to fight with people like Daim, Desmond Lim (and wife Cindy friend of Rosmah), George Kent's Tan Kay Hock (Najib's golfing partner) and God knows who else.
If he owns or operates KTMB, it is then up to him to award to whoever he likes, and gets the big fat inflated commission from the China contractor, again at the expense of the commuting poor Malaysians. One easy way to get a billion ringgit.
Syed Mokhtar, with his stable of so many companies and inter-connected bank accounts, borrowing and lending to and fro among associated companies, transferring and manipulating books, nobody in Malaysia save his own accountants, could say what is the nett worth of this man. All we know from the various unofficial sources, is his total debts amount to more than Rm30 billion (that is after whatever billions he had siphoned off and stashed away in foreign banks). With the global financial crisis growing in severity day by day, it is now no longer a question of "IF" Syed Mokhtar will hit the floor, but "WHEN".
So, dear Malaysians, WHEN Syed Mokhtar and his debt-ridden fragile empire collapses, the impact will be far greater and painful than what happened to this country and Malaysians when Daim's crony Halim Saad went down with Renong's demise.
You all in Malaysia must do everything within your means (which at the moment is the Internet) to warn the Government in no uncertain terms, that the Rakyat is fed up with all dirty corporate moves by Syed Mokhtar (undoubtedly with Mamakthir's backing), and if this is not stopped now, the Day of Reckoning with dire consequences for all involved will be immediately after the GE.13.
My lady friend phoned me long distance this morning, and begged me to write without delay as she heard that during Sunday Debate between MCA President Chua Soi Lek and DAP Penang CM Lim Guan Eng, our friend Syed Mokhtar is also after the privatisation of Penang Port. Syed Mokhtar's motives here are to strip assets of the expensive quayside cranes and move to his own Tanjong Pelapas Johor, and to induce the Federal Government (our money again) to spend millions to dredge the waters near Penang Port to receive ships with higher drafts (MMC will get the contract and sub it to a Dutch dredging company to do the work with big margin for Syed Mokhtar). Clever, but we are not fools, only Najib is the fool to be led by the nose by Mahathir.
**********************************
NEXT MONTH: Govt to get privatisation, operational plans
MMC Corp Bhd plans to submit next month a proposal on the privatisation of national railway company Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) to the government.
Group managing director, Datuk Hasni Harun said the proposal is subject to the result of due diligence study conducted by the company which is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
"We will also submit an operational plan together with the proposal. The operational plan will indicate how we intend to run KTMB," Hasni told Business Times in an interview recently.
KTMB suffered some RM1.45 billion in accumulative net losses up until 2008.
It is further believed that the national railway company cannot "afford" to pay back its own operational costs and loans.
The operator has been mostly bleeding red ink since it was corporatised in 1992 due to high operating costs.
KTMB did rake in a net profit of between RM9 million and RM15 million from 1993 to 1995, before falling back into the red again in the following years.
This is not the first attempt by MMC to take over KTMB's operations as MMC and Gamuda Bhd were eyeing to privatise and take over KTMB's assets in 2003.
The consortium had held preliminary discussions with the government but nothing materialised.
Business Times had previously reported that as an operator, MMC will have to invest in rolling stocks required for the operations and manage KTMB's current workforce of more than 5,000 employees.
However, MMC will not have to absorb KTMB's debt of over RM1 billion because the fixed assets comprising 11 depots, land, building and equipment will remain with the government.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.