The UMNO Water Torture: weapon of the Oppressor( 2/2)

The UMNO water torture: weapon of the oppressor.

The days of giving a free lunch is over. Syabas wants to raise tariffs; it must earn and qualify itself for the right to. It must show its track record to have improved on NRW losses. Otherwise, if you pay them without having them to show some improvements then you are condoning legalized plundering by Syabas- the use of government to secure benefits while impoverishing others.

Now if the federal government controlled by UMNO agrees and support the legalized plunder by Syabas on the Selangor people, it stands on the side of the oppressor. UMNO sudah menjadi parti penindas.

The Selangor government has done the right thing to refuse approval to Syabas to increase the water tariffs. Why should the people pay more? Why should the government agree to increased tariffs when Syabas has not shown any efforts to improve its services? What are we rewarding Syabas for? It hasn’t shown any intrinsic improvement meriting any raise. Syabas must earn the right to increase tariffs by showing corresponding improvement in quality of services and products. After years of milking money, if it still wants to be treated as an infant, it should be replaced. Let the Selangor government de-privatize Syabas.

It’s not an infirmed Bumiputera company that requires constant watching over. If it requires perpetual help, it’s better to replace it with another Bumiputera company which may be able to do a better job. Syabas under the leadership of Razali Ismaill It has shown nothing to this effect and that is evidenced by the extraordinary large losses in the form of NRW.

The problem with this company as with the UMNO leaders, they think they are the only people with brains and are capable of managing the country. With the quality people leaving UMNO and what’s left are the riff raffs, half past six quality, why should we entrust the management of this nation to UMNO and its satellite business arms?

The issue of improving competence is not addressed. Why isn’t this issue addressed by the DPM who has shown to be a quick draw McGraw in wasting no time to call for tenders to build a new water treatment plant in Langat costing RM8.65 billion. You mau kasi siapa Din? 

He should be directing his mind to measures to ensure a sufficient water supply for the Klang Valley by way of drastically reducing the amount of NRW. For that, we don’t need a RM8.65 billion water treatment plant, or to throw money at the problem – we just need managers with integrity at the helm.

Is the water crisis created to justify the construction of the RM8.65 billion water treatment plant? The water treatment plant project will of course make a few selected people extremely rich, while impoverishing the rest of the nation.  And as the plot meanders as planned, we are treated to a pandikutty standard of a statement from Syabas Technical Services Executive Director V Subramaniam, who issued a statement saying:

“The water crisis at present is the result of a shortfall in treated water for distribution caused by the refusal of the state government to issue the development order for construction of the Langat 2 treatment plant.”

Pandikutty!

You know its all politics. The UMNO/BN government is supporting an idea to hold the people of Selangor at ransom. Because Selangor is under Pakatan, it has shamelessly adopted this heinous strategy of using a biological weapon to subjugate the Selangor people. Why isn’t the Water Services Industry Act (WSIA), which was passed by the BN-dominated Parliament in 2006 applied in Selangor?

This law provided for the de-privatization of the water industry and its return to the respective state governments, where privatization had clearly proven to be a disastrous failure across the board. If it has done so in Malacca and Johor, why can’t it do so in Selangor? What are the outstanding substantive and procedural matters alluded to by the DPM that can be resolved in Johor and Melaka that can’t be sorted out by a much abler leadership in Selangor?

When the facts show that the federal government has allowed de-privatization in BN-held states while preventing it in Selangor, the hidden agenda becomes clear to all.

Will people support the plan by Syabas to increase water tariffs by up to 75 percent or will they support a government that has pledged to cap any tariff increases to 12 percent? Who is looking out for the rakyat, and who is looking out for themselves? Plus, we must support the Selangor government to slash the monthly salary of the Syabas chairman by 90 percent.

Let’s raise the stakes a little more. Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is the man keenest on the de-privatization of the Selangor water industry and the takeover of Syabas by the state government. How is his track record since Najib has repeatedly asked people to judge him on his track record? Khalid Ibrahim is the man who increased the cash reserves of the Selangor government five-fold from RM400 million in 2008 to RM2.1 billion in 2012.

The achievements by the man are treated with the usual elegant silence from the mainstream media. Yet we are treated with daily doses of wisdom and advises from imbecilic and corrupted UMNO politicians.

What has Najib achieved thus far other than bewildering people with a potpourri of acronyms? Rebranding and renaming give you the illusion of doing something? Under UMNO and Najib, the federal debt – a debt our children and grandchildren will have to pay – has since the year 2007 nearly doubled to RM456 billion this year.

Who do you think is better suited to run our water industry? Are we going to allow people who are bringing the nation to the edge of a real – not manufactured – economic crisis to bully us into footing the bill for a RM8.65 billion megaproject that nobody needs?

This is just another of those crony-enriching projects along with FGV, George Kent and the innumerable new spending initiatives the Prime Minister has recently announced  which will bleed the nation’s coffers completely dry. Its plunder while you still can before the lights go out!