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TJ MT MGG: Gajah Putih Saman Lim Kit Siang By M.G.G. Pillai 9/4/2001 7:58 am Mon |
MGG 8301 [Lembaga Pelabuhan Miri (MPA) mahu menyaman Lim Kit Siang kerana
menggelar pelabuhannya gajah putih dengan alasan kata-kata itu akan
menyebabkan kerugiannya. Tetapi ia mengaku projek itu belum mampu
berfungsi sepenuhnya kerana Sungai Baram perlu didalamkan lagi.
Malah MPA tidak mendedahkan kepada akhbar kos sebenar yang diperlukan
nanti ataupun lapuran kewangannya sebagai bukti.
Nampaknya pakar bahasa perlu menjadi saksi dalam kes ini. Menurut
Kamus Dewan 'gajah putih' adalah sesuatu yang mahal tetapi tidak berguna...
MPA perlu berfikir mengapa pelabuhan lain lebih banyak berguna walaupun
dibina dengan kos yang tidak seberapa. Lagipun gajah menjadi putih kerana
ia tidak bangun-bangun walaupun gajah lain sudah lama berdiri tanpa perlu
berbelanja melangit tinggi untuk membelanya. Malah gajah yang dilahirkan
oleh Ting banyak yang putih-putih belaka. Jangan itu MPA berpura lupa pula.
Rujuk: Star 4/8/2001
- Editor ] (White Elephant Port To Sue Lim Kit Siang For Saying So)
Lembaga Pelabuhan Miri yang berharga RM350 juta sudah naik berang.
Pelabuhan yang kini dianggap sebagai satu gajah putih itu, seperti
banyak projek lain juga, dibina hanya untuk memberitahu dunia bahawa
ia memang sudah pun terbina. Itulah juga yang berlaku kepada
Pelabuhan Kuantan, sebuah projek gajah putih lagi yang diwujudkan
sekitar 1970-an untuk membolehkan beberapa orang kroni menjadi kaya
raya. Kalau pun ia berguna dan dapat berurusan, bererti ia hanya
satu kebetulan. Kita sedar apa yng berlaku kepada projek Ampangan
Haidro Bakun, yang menjadi lambang kegagalan Tan Sri Dato' Paduka Dr.
Ting Pek Khiing dan syarikat hartanahnya, Ekran Berhad yang meraih
RM800 juta. Kini dia diberikan kontrak lagi bernilai sekitar RM 150
juta untuk kerja-kerja tambahan markas tentera laut di Sabah. Ekran
menyatakan kontrak itu adalah untuk kerja utama pengkalan laut itu;
tetapi ia berbohong sebenarnya. Lagipun kalaulah pengkalan lautan
Sepangar itu yang lengkap dengan kemudahan untuk kapalselam yang
tercanggih boleh dibina dengan harga yang kurang dari kos membina
pelabuhan Miri, tentu sekali ia memberi petanda bahawa sampan pun tidak
akan mampu mendarat di pengkalan itu dengan selamat. Pengkalan laut
itu sebenarnya akan berharga lebih daripada RM1 bilion. Itu pun merupakan
satu perkiraan yang masih belum lengkap lagi.
** Catatan Penterjemah:
Saya pernah menyoal berapa banyakkah saham kepunyaan kroni ulung
perdana menteri ini yang dibeli oleh Tabung Haji, Tabung Angkatan
Tentera, KWSP, KWAP dan beberapa lagi institusi dana yang menggunakan
dan mengumpulkan wang orang Melayu dan rakyat marhaen yang lain untuk
membeli saham Ting Tauke Batang Penyapu ini dengan harga tinggi dulu?
Itukah sebabnya Tabung Haji tidak pernah mengumumkan pegangan saham
dengan harga beliannya selama ini? -MT-
Rencana Asal: The RM350 million Miri Port Authority is incensed. The
while elephant is built, like so many projects, for no
reason than to tell the world it has one. Like the Kuantan
Port, a white elephant the moment it opened its doors in the
1970s, it is built for some crony to make money. If it
works, it is an incidental benefit. We know what happened
to the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam project, for the failure of
which one Tan Sri Dato' Paduka Dr Ting Pek Khiing and his
property company, Ekran Berhad, got RM800 million; and is
now given a contract worth about RM150 million for the
anciliary works for the naval base in Sabah. Ekran say it
is for the naval base itself; it lied. Besides, if the
Sepanga naval base, with the most modern submarine
facilities, can be built for far less than it cost to build
Miri Port, then even sampans could not land in there safely.
The naval base will in fact cost more than RM1 billion.
Even that could be an underestimate. This is not all. Contracts like these are awarded to
the cronies of the establishment, usually without tenders
and due diligence. If the Miri Port had been built by
contractors chosen competitively and not inhouse, there
would have been no need for Mr Lim Kit Siang to allege it is
a white elephant. The Sarawak deputy chief minister says
the port would work if the siltation is removed and there is
enough water. He thinks, as the Miri Port Authority, that a
port is a port, and that there ships cannot wharf there is a
minor impediment. The Miri Port Authority threatens to sue Mr Lim for
libel. He had called it a white elephant. Even if the port
is now unusable, it is not a white elephant. Mr Lim should
know that white elephants exist only in Thailand. So, Mr
Lim has libelled it, presumed the MPA. Its chairman, Mr
Edwin Dundang says that Mr Lim, by describing it a white
elephant, "has caused irreparable damage to the port's
reputation and caused us to suffer huge losses in business."
Interesting. I would have thought it suffers huge losses
precisely because it is unusable. If it is unusable it is a
white elephant. The MPA should forthwith file action for defamation
against Mr Lim, as well as the newspaper which published an
unsigned statement called the port a white elephant.
Especially when Mr Dundang says Mr Lim's statement is
"misleading, inaccurate, and malicious ... baseless lies
and unsustained exaggerations." Besides it cost RM250
million, not RM350 million. "It is not completed yet," he
added, "we still need to dredge and deepen the (Baram)
river." That is why, he insists, "we have not reached our
targetted business". The Sarawak deputy chief minister, Tan Sri Dato' George
Chan, says it cost only RM149, but the need to deepen the
river cost another RM100 million. But Mr Lim says, the
state government website said it cost RM287 million. If the
river had to be deepened, siltation would make it unviable
even when the port is opened. Why was not a deep water area
chosen for the port? Besides, if the port is not ready, it
is not ready. How does the MPA get more business from
shipping companies when their ships cannot land there? As
far as I can see, the port is not functioning as it should.
How is that defamation? When I made some innocuous remark about the great
no-dam builder, Tan Sri Dato' Paduka Dr Ting Pek Khiing, had
no money to build the Bakun dam, he sued me for RM100
million, midway through the action the project collapsed
because it turned out that almost every aspect of its
construction, including project management, was farmed out
to listem companies he controlled. It collapsed
spectacularly. The naval base he is asked to build would
face the same fate. I would be the most surprised man in
the world if he does a superlative job. Obviously, the
stock market is, too. Look at his projects in Langkawai. The Mahsuri
exhibition centre has had annual repairs which now cost more
than to build it in the 1980s. And that is not the only
one. His Ekran shares, once as high as RM85 on the Kuala
Lumpur Stock Exchange, now trade at 53 sen. Even the
promise of the naval base and Bakun sub-contracts did not
help it from declining. The MPA inveighs against Mr Lim to
frighten others who may question it. With the Sarawak state
assembly elections around the corner, one in which the Suqui
affairs and the disappearance of Chinese-owned banks in the
state are major issues, the Miri Port affair becomes yet
another to put the state National Front on the defensive.
A defamation suit would prevent it from public discussion.
But it would fail. M.G.G. Pillai |