Mayday for Port Klang (contd.)

My ancestors were Bugis pirates who terrorised the seas of the Malay Archipelago many years ago, but even they cannot match the modern day pirates now robbing this country blind. These bastards now hide behind the Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act, the Sedition Act etc., and even vague assurances like, "Dont worry lah, the PM says its OK" ... knowing jolly well that not many of us can simply pick up the phone and ask the old man, "Betul ke?"


PKFZ Customs Gate

Not surprisingly, none of the mainstream English news media has mentioned a word about this latest PKFZ fiasco. However, yesterday's The Sun newspaper followed my earlier blog with this banner headline: "A RM4.6B LANDMARK FLOP". Columnist R. Nadeswaran has also listed a few juicy details I have only read about in a few surat layang or anonymous "flying letters" in the past:

> The land was first acquired by Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd. in 1999 from a cooperative society of poor Malay fishermen in Pulau Indah for about RM96 million or about RM3 per sq. ft.

> About 3 years later, Klang Port Authority bought the land from Kuala Dimensi at RM25 per sq.ft. (or RM1.46 million per acre) totaling RM1.09 billion although the Securities Commission had earlier disagreed with the valuation.

(In other words, the poor fishermen of Pulau Indah have been had!).

> In 2005, Wijaya Baru Sdn. Bhd., a Kuala Dimensi related company, bought an adjacent piece of land of 381 acres for only RM130 million or about RM341,299 per acre. Compared to what the port paid them earlier, this is peanuts.

> The government could have easily acquired the land under the National Land Code for less than RM10 per sq, ft. as per government valuers which somehow the port authority chose to ignore.

> Originally, the whole project which was somehow awarded to Kuala Dimensi without a tender exercise, was estimated to cost only RM1.82 billion but the port has entered into supplementary agreements which have ballooned the costs to a staggering RM4.63 billion!

> It is quite apparent now that standard procedures have not been followed and approvals have not been sought at the highest levels.

As a former port employee who has spent his entire working life in the port, I am now sufficiently pissed off to want to strangle somebody. The ISA and the OSA does not scare me now that Port Klang's good name and sterling reputation in international shipping I had helped built painstakingly over the years have been severely compromised. Dammit sirs, someone has got some explaining to do.