Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Truth Hurts

Fellow mariner Capt Karim Stuart Russell e-mailed me yesterday a copy of an interesting article by Michael Backman, a columnist from the Age of Australia - a favourite holiday destination for our jetsetting politicians, lawyers and judges. Thanks Stu. Read the full article here. (Fellow blogger Jeff Ooi of Screenshots also has the story, here.)

Here are excerpts from the article which caught my eye:

"The third incident relates to an ongoing scandal at the Port Klang Free Trade Zone - Port Klang is Malaysia's main shipping port. Essentially, the port authority was forced by well-connected individuals to buy far more land than planned for the free trade zone and at highly inflated prices, even though it could have compulsorily acquired the land, literally saving billions. This and development costs, and "professional fees", blew out the total cost for the zone from 1.845 billion ringgit to 4.2 billion ringgit. It is a scam of outrageous proportions and is just the sort of thing that is turning foreign investors off Malaysia in their droves."

"Malaysia is truly at a cross-road. It has many good people with great potential but it is slipping beneath the waves of mediocrity, weighed down by officials intent on an orgy of plunder while the ship's captain stands idly by."

Who made this bum captain?

Unless Pak Lah is fast asleep, I believe he cannot afford to ignore damning reports like these by foreign correspondents or else we can kiss foreign direct investments (FDI) goodbye, and thats fair dinkum*, mate.

* Aussie slang for 'the real truth'. I used to think this means 'nice kangaroo' or something ...

3 comments:

  1. Captain,
    They dont care what happens to the country or what others think of Malaysia as long as their crony make it big in plundering the wealth of the nation. That is why one by one we hear of unnecessary mega projects with bloated expenditure. Its all part of the design.

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  2. the truth hurts? who is hurt in this case? must be the rakyat. the perpetrators continue to have a field day with new contracts awarded by the government.
    meantime, after throwing away billions, the government is telling the rakyat to brace for higher fuel cost. they are exhorting us to change our lifestyle ( another way of saying downgrade yourselves) but they continue to plunder the country's resources. thats BN for you.

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  3. capt, I think the International Court of Justice should add to its preview the crime of plundering national wealth.A twisted mind that directly kill a few thousands is good enough to be charged, likewise a criminal mind that plan to bring millions of a nation's population to their knees deserves no less a treatment of similiar act. The only difference is the killing is instant whereas the 2nd act takes longer time. The aim is the same.

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