This is the big one, folks. Tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary is reportedly proposing a merger of the national sewerage and water businesses in a joint venture with the national water assets management corporation.
The joint venture known as the National Water and Sewerage Operating Company proposes to take over ailing Indah Water Konsortium (once privatised to another crony) from the Finance Ministry. Syed Mokthar’s MMC also proposes that the joint venture vehicle should hold strategic stakes (about 40 per cent) in the water assets of the various states in the peninsula. The plan was presented to the government three weeks ago, reports The Edge (30 July), which broke the story.
The government had earlier set up the water asset management corporation, Pengurusan Aset Air Bhd, to acquire water assets from the states and handle future procurement using cheap funds based on the government’s credit rating. The assets would then be leased to water operators in the various states.
Back then, I had suspected that this water ‘restructuring’ was just a stepping stone to full-blown privatisation, if past ‘restructuring’ or ‘corporatisation’ exercises were any indication. Remember the ‘restructuring/corporatisation’ of Penang Port a few years ago? Look at how they now want to privatise it to Syed Mokthar’s Sea Terminal. And recall what happened with the ‘corporatisation’ of general hospitals. That led to the lucrative privatisation of hospital support services and the centralisation of drug procurement in the hands of well connected firms.
In this case, the procurement of water assets has been centralised in PAAB – we are talking BIG MONEY here.
MMC already has a 62.8 per cent stake in Johor water concessionaire Aliran Ihsan Resources Bhd. Syed Mokthar already has interests in a host of other industries including Proton, Pos Malaysia, Proton, ports in Johor, rice (Bernas), sugar (two refining companies), DRB-Hicom and the LTE 4G spectrum. And now we hear that MMC is carrying out due diligence on KTM.
Just what is Umno-BN up to? At this rate, the whole country might as well be privatised(!) – the logical conclusion of a move that was kicked off when Mahathir launched the Malaysia Inc concept.
The general election couldn’t come sooner!
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Looks like another reason why the GE is delayed. Tie up all the national assets, privatize them with UMNO-BN cronies in charge ……. water, railways, LRT, MRT, ports, rice, flour, sugar etc etc.
So, what happens if / when BN is booted out of PutraJaya, almost al the valuable and strategic assets are in BN’s hands. So what if Pakatan is in federal government seat, Pakatan will still have to honour the previous government’s agreements.
So prices of sugar, rice, s… water, drinking water etc etc will be used to squeeze the rakyat…!!!
Despicable outdoing Daim?
Anil, this MAN is our 1Malaysia mascot lah. Water, Rice, Bread, Sugar, TNB IPP, Sea, Car, Railway, Highway, Post and now S…???? Is the air we breathe still ours?
Court fee up 100% and TNB tariff charged extra 1%
By the way… out of topic here. That 1% extra charges I found out was for the SEDA Feed In Tariff project. It is meant to be pooled together to fund the FIT tariff.
Regarding the Solar FIT scandal… That is one way of pulling money from the public. Apparently for Solar panel the incentive for FIT is slightly less than RM1 per KW/h. While we pay around $0.5 per KW/h.
I guess one can do the profitable math here… Now you know why this lady is trying to ‘sapu’ every quota available?
We could do without Gardenia (better alternative in Massimo), and MPH (try Popular bookstore instead). This is the least we could do to express our discontent.
… kalu di tak boleh berniaga di antarabangsa apa guna asset yang ada pada dia kata nak tender projek ipp kat uae yang dapat ge kalau takat nak monopoli perniagaan negeri ni bukan nya menambah baik ekonomi negara kerana yang menanggung kenaikan ialah rakyat kalau buat untung atas kesusahan orang nama menindas haram tgk ekonomi thailand dan indonesia dalam pergolakan politik tapi nilai duit lebih besar dari kita nak banding singapore podah
Why so many contradiction ??? We need to do something to ailing organization like Indah Water (this is anil own words) and resourceful tycoon like Syed Mokhtar fits the bill.
We can see the water crises looming under Pakatan Selangor admin, so it is proven that pakatan admin not capable to manage it. They only good at giving ceramah and promises !!!
Face the fact, let other capable people to run it. Water supply is important and don’t let it deteriorate under amateurish admin like Pakatan Selangor !!!
Before IWK, local authorities were managing sewerage systems. The cost was borne by buildings owners from assessment fees paid to local authorities. Though there were some problem areas, local authorities were managing well on the whole. IWK was created as a solution for no problem but to fleece building owners. Despite the new charge by IWK, local authorities didn’t reduce their assessment fees. At RM72/year, this could amount to a significant portion of the assessment fee for some homeowners. No wonder local authorities couldn’t reduce assessment fees for the same amount. When many building owners refused to pay, IWK was… Read more »
This moron GK does not seem to know anything about Indah Water. Prime Utilities an UMNO crony company listed on the KLSE was given to manage Indah Water in the late 70s & early 80 and it fail miserably which result in bankrupcy and was delisted. Another lies and stupid comment from GK ”””We can see the water crises looming under Pakatan Selangor admin, so it is proven that pakatan admin not capable to manage it. ””””””’ It again seem that GK is either stupid or blind to know that the water management in Selangor was manage by an UMNO… Read more »
Principles of piratisation: – secrecy over intentions, options, drawbacks and selection criteria – extension of bids to new parties who undercut existing bids – selection without bids – secret contracts and EIAs – ignoring conflict of interest, even contempt for the idea – sale of public assets at a loss – privatisation of well-run public services – formation of more GLCs despite poor track record – cheap loans and loan guarantees – liberal variation-order clauses including delays – unrestricted scope for subcontracting – horrendous history of cost overruns, malfeasance and waste – contracted price increases for products or services –… Read more »
They are creating monopolies that will eventually burden the citizens for very very long time..Its freaking insane..There is literally no real intellect at the top about such a bad economic policy..