Selangor, the richest state in Malaysia, has amassed a lot of “underwater land” and now it seems to be under the charge of DAP’s publicity secretary Tony Pua.
It is rather preposterous that the Selangor government is not taking the RM1 billion questionable deal with Talam seriously, leaving it to this inconspicuous person to talk on the fiasco of such magnitude.
How can a failed economist be allowed to take on the role of the Mentri Besar of Selangor to speak on behalf of the state government.
The questionable deals include a RM392 million grant obtained by the Selangor government to facilitate the debt recovery exercise and the acquisition of assets worth RM676 million from Talam.
Tony can’t even take care of his own business which has failed and yet ironically given the role as official spokesman.
The company – Cyber Village Sdn Bhd – which he headed was a flop, incurring a huge losses and debts and now he has the audacity to speak on behalf of the state.
Why is Tony doing all the talking? What has happened to the rest of the Pakatan Rakyat fellows. They were perhaps mere rubber stamps in approving the debt recovery exercise without deliberation.
Tony’s statements on the RM1 billion questionable Talam deals with the Selangor government greatly undermines the capability of the State administration in handling its day to day operations.
His statements are merely to run down MCA’s Chua Tee Yong who had exposed the RM1 billion scandal accusing him of making a mega blunder but stop short of answering where has the money gone to.
Tony should provide the paper trail on where the money has gone to, instead of beating around the bush. If he can’t even provide answers to this, he should shut up.
Perhaps this reflects the flimsy way the Selangor government is handling its state of affairs and administration of the state, not taking into consideration proper governance and procedures.
Perhaps any Tom, Dick and Harry can now proclaim themselves as official spokesman for Selangor.
It is a scandal of huge magnitude involving abuse of public funds, cheating minority investors, concealing vital information, manipulating the state budget, short changing the state government linked companies (GLCs) and buying over-valued land.
Many of the land parcels are over-priced and over-paid by the Selangor government but worse, they included worthless land, one submerged in water and another classified as forest reserves and ecological zone.
Tony should ask himself if the acquisition of those land parcels were a good buy for the state instead of trying to distract the issue by saying that is what “land banking” is all about.
He claimed that the acquisition of the land for future potential development is the normal course of business for a property development company like PNSB”, a Selangor government linked company.
He is absolutely right that acquisition of land for future development is good business practice but this is provided the land is in a good location and are not problematic in nature.
But he is DEAD WRONG, when Selangor acquires land which is underwater and some more overpriced. More so those lands that were acquired were undulating, and even gazetted for ecology and forest reserves.
This is definitely NOT a good buy at all.
There are several questions that Selangor has yet to explain. In line with the State’s agenda of being Competent, Accountable and Transparent (CAT), the Pakatan Rakyat government should come clean with good answers.
It should not threaten to sue to silence critics but provide answers and also to table the White Paper as promised two years ago.
The question now arises as to why the state had initiated a debt recovery exercise which ended up with the State owing banks hundreds of millions of ringgit.
The way the debt settlement exercise was carried out does not make economic sense nor is in line with logical business transaction in recovering debts.
To put it bluntly, it would be brainless to allow the exercise to clear the debts of Talam and creating or shifting financial strain to Selangor which is now heavily in debt.
It is even more silly when the end result is this – Selangor ends up with land that are overpriced, underwater and requires millions more to rehabilitate before any development can take place.
Take the four plots of land in Danau Putra as an example. It was purchased at RM87.7 million and 80 per cent of the land is submerged in water.
One of the four plots of 66.35 acres are totally under water. For that piece the Selangor government paid RM43 million (at RM15 per sq ft).
But what is astounding and shocking is that some five months later, a bank auctioned off the land. The same piece of land however fetched only RM15 million (which works out to only RM5.20 per sq ft).
WHY is the difference so huge – Selangor government bought the land at RM15 per sq ft. The auction price was at only RM5.20 per sq ft.
Based on the RM5.20 per sq ft auction price which reflected the current market value, the Selangor government would have overpaid by RM57 million for the 134 acres of land in Danau Putra.
And yet we have the self proclaimed economic man Tony Pua saying this is what “land banking” is all about. Perhaps he should reword it to “land scheming” or “land cheating”.
The past week, the newspapers have been featuring reports on the scandal. But one obvious person who has been clearly silent is Selangor’s Economic Adviser Anwar Ibrahim.
He has not uttered a word so far. Perhaps he is too busy keeping check of his 20 foreign master accounts involving assets, shares and money with a combined worth of RM3 billion. - Stop the Lies
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