WHAT ANWAR DOES NOT SEEM TO KNOW

Anyway, that is what happened which Anwar, as the then Selangor Economic Adviser, should be very well aware of. And if he is not aware of this then what has he been doing all this while? And if he is aware of this then what is he trying to do by insinuating that there is something wrong?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim announced that he wants the new Selangor Menteri Besar, Azmin Ali, to review the water agreement that the Selangor state government signed with the Federal government recently.

Anwar said there is something not kosher in the way Khalid Ibrahim “rushed” to sign the agreement just before he left office on Monday last week, suggesting that there is some wrongdoing on the part of Khalid.

First of all, it was not Khalid but the Selangor State Secretary who signed the agreement.

Secondly, what the State Secretary signed was what the Selangor State EXCO approved in February 2013.

At that time, amongst the ten State EXCO Members were Ronnie Liu, Teresa Kok, and Dr Xavier Jayakumar. In that meeting that approved the State’s takeover of the four water concessionaires at a price of RM9.65 billion were also the State Secretary, the State Legal Adviser, and the State Financial Officer.

Hence this was not Khalid’s decision or his sole decision. It was a unanimous decision of 14 people in that committee and, in February 2013, no one had any objections to the takeover.

Although the State Secretary, the State Legal Adviser, and the State Financial Officer have no voting powers, they ultimately went through the legal documents and, in September 2014, advised the EXCO whether the agreement is in order and whether, therefore, Selangor should sign it.

The deal is for the State government to take over the four water concessionaire companies (ABAS, SPLASH, SYABAS and PNSB) for a price of RM9.65 billion. RM2 billion is to buy up the equity in the four companies while RM7.65 billion is to buy over the debts of the four companies.

On its part, Selangor State would have to transfer RM2 billion worth of water assets to the Federal government for a period of 45 years, after which the assets would revert to the state.

KDEB, a Selangor state agency, will be the operator of all the treatment plants, including the yet to be built Langat 2 plant, plus the distribution of water, also for 45 years, after which the arrangement would be reviewed.

Just like in the water agreement between Johor state and Singapore, once the 45-year concession period ends they would have to sit down and negotiate a new arrangement.

Of course, by 2060, we will not even know who is the Federal government and who will be running Selangor. Both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat may not even exist by then. Hell, Malaysia, as we know it, may also not even exist as well.

Anyway, that is what happened which Anwar, as the then Selangor Economic Adviser, should be very well aware of. And if he is not aware of this then what has he been doing all this while? And if he is aware of this then what is he trying to do by insinuating that there is something wrong?