Tee Yong: Turn land into fishpond to make money

The Selangor government should look into making money from 438-acre underwater land it purchased from Talam Corporation in Bestari Jaya by turning it into a fishpond.

MCA's young professionals bureau chairperson Chua Tee Yong, who is also the agriculture and agro-based industry deputy minister, made this suggestion after a visit to the site today.

Chua told the journalists who accompanied him that he has seen no major developments in the surrounding area.

As such, Chua said sarcastically: "In order to generate some returns, I propose to the Pakatan state government that it should contact the Ministry of Agriculture to see if the of mining ponds is suitable for aquaculture."

Chua and Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan arrived at the site in the morning, where the group of 20 held two giant posters with the words "RM181 million - Total underwater land over 438 acres."

The poster was a reference to Chua's recent claim that the state government overpaid by RM42 million for the purchase of 2,263 acres of land under a debt restructuring deal with Talam Corporation Bhd in 2010, of which 438 acres were under water.

Chua further revealed today that the state company Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor Bhd (KHSB) had valued the property in Bestari Jaya in 2009 at RM 36,000 an acre.

The state government, he said, needed only pay RM81 million for the land if it had followed the KHSB valuation and not RM181 million or RM80,000 per acre.

Chua questioned the reason for the huge difference of RM100million in the valuation and the amount the state paid for the land.

Asked if MCA will lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the land deal, Chua said "not at the moment" and he was "now concentrating on discovering more information" .

Chua said he was aware that some NGOs had announced their plans to lodge reports with the MACC and that MCA would furnish these NGOs with the relevant documents if they needed them.

Despite Selangor Mentri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim has denied the state government has took over the underwater land, Chua said, he still stick to his original information.

He said, he will respond if has seen the Khaled's statement, only then would be fair for both of them.