[Star dan Putra tidak akan mampu hidup kerana pendapatan yang diperolehi tidak mencukupi. Mereka membinanya dahulu kerana ada jaminan dari kerajaan sendiri. Sekarang ia seperti sudah tiada lagi kerana pelabur dan rakyat sudah cukup marah dan kecewa dengan penyelamatan kroni yang telah menghanguskan wang rakyat sendiri.

Sekarang timbul persoalan mengapa kerajaan tidak sahaja membinanya sendiri dari awal-awal lagi? Sudah tentu kosnya akan lebih murah lagi dan segala perbelanjaan dapat dikawal agar tidak melebihi had yang boleh mendatangkan mudarat.

Keengganan kerajaan untuk membayar kepada syarikat LRT ini mungkin akan menyebabkan satu peperangan sengit di kamar undang-undang nanti. Malah semua perjanjian konsesi perlu ditinjau kembali kerana ia lebih menguntungkan pihak konsesi yang dibayangi oleh kaki Umno sendiri. Soalnya apakah Umno akan memotong kaki sendiri kerana mencemarkan nama sendiri? Biarlah Mahathir pening sendiri kerana dialah yang mengizinkannya selama ini.

'Bila dana sudah tidak mencukupi - tergaru kepala tentunya pasti.' - KB - Editor]

The Asian Wall Street Journal
2nd July 2001

Malaysia Won't Pay Rail Operators
For Surrendering Their Concessions
Government Will Take Over $1.45 Billion In Debt From Pair of Struggling Companies

By LESLIE LOPEZ

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- The Malaysian government has decided that it won't compensate owners of the country's two debt-choked light-rail operators, a move some bankers say could trigger a messy legal dispute between Kuala Lumpur and the promoters of the privatized transport systems.

Under a revised rescue plan of the light-rail networks, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's administration will assume total liabilities of 5.5 billion ringgit ($1.45 billion) owed by the projects' two promoters to the government and local financial institutions. But Kuala Lumpur won't compensate operators of the two unprofitable projects for surrendering their concessions, as proposed under an earlier rescue plan announced by the government in December, said officials familiar with the plan. These officials said Dr. Mahathir, who currently doubles as finance minister after the recent resignation of Daim Zainuddin, is expected to make the announcement in coming days.

In December, Dr. Mahathir's administration had proposed to take over the light-rail ventures with a six billion ringgit bond issue. Under that proposal, the government would assume all the debts owed by the light-rail operators. In addition, the current concessionaires would receive compensation from the state and retain management rights of the transportation networks with a government-guaranteed rate of return. But that plan came under review three weeks ago because of fears that it could hurt investor sentiment.

The government's decision is surely to be welcomed by foreign investors who have been disappointed by Kuala Lumpur's penchant in recent years to bail out politically connected business groups with public funds.

But the decision also has its downside. That is because the concession agreements that Dr. Mahathir's administration signed with the two light-rail companies in the mid-1990s stipulate that the government will guarantee in full all liabilities of the projects should Kuala Lumpur take control of the transportation networks. The agreements also state that Dr. Mahathir's administration must compensate the operators for the equity the operators have put into the project as well as costs incurred in construction and running of the transportation networks.

One of the key concessionaires is a unit of heavily indebted conglomerate Renong Bhd., the former business arm of Dr. Mahathir's United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, Malaysia's dominant political party. In the case of Renong, government officials said, the compensation bill under the original rescue plan would amount to just over one billion ringgit. That amount would be in addition to the roughly 4.5 billion ringgit of liabilities owed by Renong's light-rail unit that the government must assume under the plan.

Renong officials didn't respond to requests for comment on whether the company was in negotiations with the government on the new rescue proposal. Officials from the other network, Sistem Transit Aliran Ringan Sdn. Bhd., or STAR, also weren't available for comment.

Government officials and financial executives familiar with the new rescue plan acknowledged that the new proposal could trigger legal battles. But these officials noted that the concession agreements with the light-rail operators, which Kuala Lumpur now says overtly favor the concessionaires, are now being reviewed by government lawyers. These officials also said the revised rescue plan is likely to lead to a review of dozens of concession agreements between the government and other private groups under Malaysia's privatization program, which began in the mid-1980s.

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