China is no ordinary investor, says Zaid

Former Umno minister says he fears for Malaysia's future and sovereignty with superpower's involvement in many infrastructure projects.

PETALING JAYA: Zaid Ibrahim believes the government is giving too much away by allowing China’s involvement in many infrastructure projects in Malaysia.

The former Umno minister said China is “aggressively taking over all the ports in the country and building massive infrastructure” for reasons other than just a plain business investment.

“This is not a normal business investment plan, it looks to me to be something more.

“They are building universities, railways and power plants in Malaysia for their people to take over 20 years from now,” Zaid said in a speech entitled “GE:14 Don’t play with fire”, which he delivered at the Ponderosa Golf and Country Resort, in Johor Bahru last Friday.

“China is no ordinary investor, make no mistake about that.”

Zaid, who joined DAP earlier this year, said while investments are always welcome, however, the country needs leaders who are able to tell the difference between foreign investment and foreign acquisition of national strategic assets.

“We also need leaders who can strike the right balance between giving too much and too little to a foreign superpower.

“The leaders we need to deal with superpowers such as China are those who are not financially stricken or dependent, and who think first and foremost of the country’s future,” Zaid said before reiterating the topic of the talk, giving it as a reason why voters should reject Prime Minister Najib Razak and the Barisan Nasional in the next general election (GE14).

He added that the government allowing China to build so many infrastructure projects in the country, on the basis of build now pay later, could result in “China owning these strategic assets when the debts become so huge, that we are unable to pay them”.

Zaid also brought up the issue of how China’s investment in some of the infrastructure was more than “just to bring in tourists”.

“When you invest more than RM30 billion in Malacca and insist that an airport be constructed to service direct flights from Guangdong, it’s not just tourists you plan to bring in.

“When major infrastructures are owned by a superpower, it’s in their interest to have security for those assets. I believe their security personnel will eventually be stationed there too,” he said, suggesting that calling it a “maritime project” was also intended to mislead Malaysians.

“The Malacca chief minister may not even know the details of the plan China has in mind, but he has agreed to give freehold status to almost 700 acres of land for China. China will not just build supermarkets there, I can assure you.”

Zaid was referring to Melaka Gateway, the RM43 billion harbour project in Malacca to be developed under a Malaysia-China joint venture.

Zaid feared for the fate of Malaysia by being aligned with a superpower. He believes it could open our country to the threat of attack by another superpower, saying: “Superpowers don’t kill each other, they destroy their proxies.”

“They make deals among themselves at the expense of the smaller countries that are weak and stupid enough to fall under their control,” Zaid added. -FMT