Taman Industri Gas, Minyak dan Maritim Tanjung Agas, Pekan.

Over the next 10 years, the sleepy hollow of Tanjung Agas, a small fishing hamlet in Pekan Pahang will emerge as a regional player in the oil and gas industry. This is because a private company will develop a few thousand acres of land belonging to the state into a Taman Industri Gas, Minyak dan Maritime. It will be and oil and gas Industry and maritime park emerging in Pekan.

This project according to reports will create 30,000 jobs and will also create a multitude of spin off effects. We, the Pekan people must thank god and bersyukur. The JKKK and UMNO must do many thanksgiving kenduris and offer our thanks to the Lord. I am certain; the ustazs in UMNO will be going around striking the fear of god in the hearts of the Tanjung Agas people and be told to bersyukur. Yes, they will regurgitate the same verses of the Quran relating to the concept of bersyukur. Been there and done that folks.

So you have the spectacle of the MB, the TPM and the members of the Pahang Royal Family at the launching of this mega project. Anyone can be forgiven if they mistakenly think this is a project by the Pahang Royal Family. That would be something very commendable.

You can also see the photo of that chap handing a bounded document to Tengku Abdul Rahman. But where is the photograph of the PKNP people who is supposed to be 30% owner of this gargantuan project? They are nowhere to be seen. And for good reasons too if they have any sense of honour left.

Well, I will tell you the story. About 3 years ago, 2 gentlemen – one captain Zakaria and one Idrus went up to see the CEO of PKNP, Dato Lias who by the way comes from kampong Pasir Panjang, just a few kilometers fromTanjung Agas. They made a proposal to develop an oil and gas industrial complex with the works that we now see being sung by all the MSM papers.

And as usual you get the same sad story all over again. The proposal was hijacked by other people. The people then sought royal patronage by installing members of the Pahang royalty as patrons or whatever. With the imprimatur of royalty, everything becomes possible. A hijacked business proposal became a respectable business plan.

The sweet of the deal will the land. Land is obtained from the government at probably dirt cheap price. And then the promoters of this gargantuan project will resell the land plots to the investors at highly inflated prices. It's the same strategy used by the promoters of MEC city in Gambang a few years ago. They wanted to develop an electrical and electronic goods hub in Kuantan. The land was obtained at dirt cheap price and then resold with some minor improvements at ransom prices.

This is bloody looting.

Enter this Badarudin and Faisal chappies who had the cunningness of jackals and hyenas scavenging on potential projects. They must have convinced Dato Lias and Tengku Abdul Rahman about the bountiful profitability of such a project. PKNP's role is of course as a respectable rent seeker- whose contribution is in the form of land owned by the government. And probably some dumb asses will get to sit on the board of directors overseeing the whole, property development project. But that's OK, it the project fails to take off, the PM2B can always think of putting up another university there.