Stop blame game, just fix lopsided concessions, Ku Li tells Putrajaya

Veteran Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah says Putrajaya is still responsible for solving problems caused by previous administrations. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 29, 2015.

Putrajaya should stop blaming previous administrations for lopsided concessions and instead take responsibility for the matter, said veteran Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

He said there was no sense pointing fingers at anyone because the current administration had received a mandate from the people to resolve all problems, including those caused by past contracts.

"Deals are deals. You cannot blame anyone. Even the deal made during Prophet Adam's time, we have to be responsible for that.

"We cannot blame others. We have been entrusted with the responsibility to solve problems, so we must try to solve them," Tengku Razaleigh told a press conference today.

But he added that the government must still abide by what was agreed upon in the contract.

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi admitted that the privatisation contracts were lopsided, but he urged the public not to blame the government as they were signed by the previous administration.

Zahid conceded that highway and independent power plant contracts, as well as the Express Rail Link (ERL) and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), were lopsided, which the current government was compelled to comply and follow.

"I don't want to name anyone. I don't want to lay blame on anyone. Don't blame us and compliment only the previous one (administration)," he was quoted as saying in reports.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak similarly blamed the controversial ERL train price hike on a lopsided agreement signed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration in 1997.

Najib said it was a long-term concession and he accepted the "legacy problem", but stressed that he was against the ERL price hike.  

- TMI