Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Najib Defends Syabas Despite Incompetence


Even in the light of sheer incompetence, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Dato’ Sri Peter Chin continues to defend Syabas and blame the Selangor state government, placing the interest of cronies ahead that of the rakyat

It was the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government which started the privatisation of the water industry in Selangor in 1996.  It was the BN Government which signed the concession agreement to allow Syabas to increase tariffs by 37% in 2009, a further 25% in 2012, 15% in 2015 and further increases every 3 years subsequently.

However, when Syabas failed to deliver its services to the residents of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor over the past month, the BN government has chosen to lay blame on the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor state government for failing to “approve” the construction of the Langat 2 Multi-billion ringgit water treatment plant. How is it Langat 2 which is only scheduled to be completed in 2014 at the very earliest, could have prevent the current water crisis in KL and Selangor is beyond our comprehension.

Despite the above, both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water have chosen to defend and deflect criticisms laid on Syabas, clearly indicating that profit for BN cronies is more important than the sufferings of the man-on-the-street.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak has the cheek to say that he is “saddened to see people living in flats having to lift buckets of water to the upper floors.”  However in the same breath, Najib claims BN is unable to resolve the crisis because the Selangor government “won’t give the development order” for Langat 2.  As highlighted above, the current water crisis in Gombak, Ampang and Kuala Lumpur has nothing to do with Langat 2 and everything to do with Syabas’ inability to maintain its existing water supply services.

Similarly when Selangor Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim once again suggested to the Federal Government that the Syabas concession be terminated for poor performance so that the state government can step into the management to rectify the shortcomings, the proposal was rejected outright by Peter Chin.

Peter Chin gave the ridiculous excuse that “the Selangor government cannot take over Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) for it violates the conditions stipulated in the water concession agreement.  He said the water concession company was appointed to manage and administer water supply in Selangor in 2004 and the state government would liable if it were to terminate the contract.

The excuse by the Minister demonstrates the extent to which the BN Government is willing to tolerate transgressions by its cronies, even if the rakyat is suffering from extended water services disruption.  It appears that even if Syabas was to default on all the terms of its concession agreement, the concession agreement cannot be terminated.

The Selangor state government wants to terminate the Syabas concession agreement to ensure that the quality of water services can be improved and the state will not suffer from such disruptions as a result of poor maintenance of its water treatment facilities.  However, based on the concession agreement, the termination can only be carried out with the consent of the Federal Government.

Hence, the Syabas concession agreement can be terminated if Syabas failed to fulfil it’s part of the bargain.  The only reason why the termination cannot proceed is because the BN government is dead against it and will protect Syabas at all cost.

It is clear that the BN Government is beyond redemption and is unable to change itself to prioritise the interest of the rakyat.  While Najib espoused “transformation” in his speeches over the past 4 years, no “transformation” could be seen as BN’s privatisation cronies are not only fully protected by his administration, they have continued to prosper at the expense of the people.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know the worst thing is he said this on the same day he claim credit for transformation to enable KL112 peaceful assembly...

If he can pull of the miracle of transformation for KL112, Syabas should be a piece of cake for him..

When PR fix it, he is going to claim credit too?

Nicholas said...

It is always BN's policy to privatise the profits and public share the problems. They will make any excuse and any excuse if they think they can get away with it. It is just that of late there are a lot of ordinary people with different expertise have now come forward to debunk all their nonsensical excuses that is making them look like a bunch of fools.

Anonymous said...

I understand that the Selangor State Government indirectly owns 30% in SYABAS via KDEB and KPS.

To me, I feel that the current problems we are facing are mainly due to poor maintenance.

With the 30% shares, is it not possible for the Selangor State Government to exercise some control over the operations of SYABAS?

Would appreciate if you can shed some light. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Privatisation = Privatise the profits and socialise the losses. This is a win - win peoject.

Victor Ong said...

My sentiments exactly. Coicindetally, I also blogged about the water issue in Selangor. Check it out at this link http://helpvictor.blogspot.com/2013/01/water-woes-in-selangor.html

Anonymous said...

When we look at a business prespective, 30% share does not amount to much say in terms of the company operations. It would make it a non executive majority stake holder in the company. The only way that the Selangor state gov can have a say is when it has ownership of 51% of the shares in SYABAS and hence would be the main stake which would have command of SYABAS.

Anonymous said...

Syabas is just a private company. I wonder if there is a clause in the contract which stipulates that if the services provided by Syabas is not satisfactory, such as failure to maintain water pumps, the contract can be terminated by the Selangor state government. If there is, just terminate the contract and appoint other maintenance companies to do the job.

Anonymous said...

The water pump failure has nothing to do with insufficient water supply in the future with the building of Sg Langat WTP2.

If water is a national issue, it should be placed under the Government and not piratised. If there is a drought period, can Sybas disseminate the info as to save water? Will Sybas put up advertisment or educate people to use water saving devices like Sinkapore PUB or HK Water Board or even Brisbane Council were doing? Water saving just like safe driving should be under the hands of Government.

Another thing is why sewerage is not put under the same organisation so that they are totally responsible to have reasonably raw water and spend less on treating the teh tarik raw water?

Now the UMNO government is paying to treat sewerage but piratised companies are harvesting the profits.

lokgp said...

Best is just to replace Syabas. And restructure.

Anonymous said...

Funny ppl always do not see where the problem is. Langat is to be completed 2014. The problem is 2013. Even is approve and we still have to face the current issue at hand. Do we look forward to solving issue when when it surface. The trend of problem with the filter center should have be well aware by the Sybass management months ago. What we can see all these days is the blaming game for the incompetence of poor Management which cost pain and money for the ppl. Lets us move to a new Malaysia.

Anonymous said...

Please share this to all friends and family, Rakyat please WAKE UP

https://www.facebook.com/xiaotong.chai.9/posts/103744489823711

Anonymous said...

REBOOT MALAYSIA #1

BN has released its Manifesto and wants the RAKYAT to believe that they can deliver on their promises… LOL !

In 56 years BN has been in government, why until today BN are not able to resolve the simplest task of all i.e. issuing taxi permits directly to taxi drivers without any conditions whatsoever.

Even Najib with his PEMANDU, NKRA, GTP, ETP and etc has not been able to resolve during his term in office.

Vote wisely………………

Poh Soon said...

It seems to me that the PR pact had resolved to make some unrealistic promised that cannot be achieved in GE13.

For e.g., achieving income of RM4000 for EVERYONE in Perak after given 2 term mandate.

A more realistic promise should be achieving AVERAGE income of x RM / achieving income of x RM for y percentile. Isn't it?

Can please make sense to those who gave promised for not given unrealistic and un-achievable promised?