Water deal: Good news for warga Selangor?

Will all warga Selangor be part of the new state-owned water company, just as promised by Khalid before the GE?

COMMENT

Speculations and negative talks over the RM96.5 billion water deal between the federal government and the Selangor state government is now being circulated in the market place and even coffee shops like wild fire.

Until further details are revealed, I for one would not say if it is a good deal.

I would not also jump to conclusion that the deal was done in a hurry without transparency and therefore not a good deal for the rakyat.

Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim may have very good reasons to cut a deal with the federal government without involving too many others in the state exco and the Pakatan Rakyat leadership. But he owes all of us an explanation now.

Khalid by now must have been aware of the negative talks and speculations on the water deal. Some have gone to the extent of linking the water deal to his earlier personal out-of-court settlement with Bank Islam over the Guthrie shares debt.

I suggest we wait for his explanation and not to jump to any conclusion. We must be fair to Khalid and to ourselves.

Many may not know that Khalid need not pay a single state sen in cash to cut the deal. The RM2 billion in cash to be paid to Syabas would be paid out by the federal government via SPAN (Suruhanjaya Pengurusan Air Negara).

In fact, Khalid is using the value of the assets related to the water industry in the state to exchange for the control of the entire water industry via a special purpose vehicle formed under KDEB, a fully owned state GLC. All these assets will be transferred to SPAN under the arrangement.

In that sense, Khalid has very good reasons to smile heartily upon signing the MOU.

I believe Khalid’s only concession made in the water deal is none other than the RM10 billion Langat 2 water treatment outfit, and Pahang to Selangor water transfer tunnel.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin too smiled widely at the signing ceremony because they also have gotten what they wanted. I suspect Khalid did not touch the cost of the Langat 2 project which was in a big question all this while.

Without Langat 2, the billions spent on the 44.6km water tunnel all the way from Kelau Dam to Sungai Langat becomes meaningless.

Trump card

I must admit that I was one of those who insisted that the Langat 2 project must not be approved by the state and the local government without packaging it together with the entire water restructuring exercise.

You see, Langat 2 is our only trump card in hand. Otherwise the federal government would have no respect at all to the Selangor state government.

I would not say the price tag was too high or unfair to any party. If everything was in favour of the state and nothing for the federal government and the water tycoon, then there would be no deal until today.

Khalid should tell us whether he will honour what we have openly declared before the last general election, that every warga Selangor would be entitled to some 2,000 shares in the new state-owned water company.

Khalid and the exco have agreed that upon the successful takeover, the RM10 billion water company will be owned by all the five million plus Selangor citizens, free-of-charge!

If you ask me, I would say “Khalid will do it”. That’s a legacy Khalid wishes to leave as the Selangor Menteri Besar.

Meanwhile please stop all speculations on Khalid. Wait for his explanation and remember that the MOU is not binding however Muhyiddin wants to put it.

What we need is a solid agreement, signed and sealed.

Ronnie Liu is Selangor DAP publicity secretary and a former Selangor state exco.