It looks like MCA president Chua Soi Lek has decided to play the role of the contrarian. Amid growing calls for Prime Minister Najib Razak to slash the subsidies granted to huge power producer firms controlled by tycoons such Francis Yeoh, Ananda Krishnan and Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, he has opted to stand on their side.
“The government is tied up in a lot of agreements, this cannot just be abolished like DAP says or Anwar says,” Soi Lek told reporters on Wednesday. “Then Malaysia will be seen by the world as a government that does not honour its agreements. That’s wrong.”
Chua was immediately crucified by Pakatan Rakyat leaders who lambasted his “shallow excuses” and slammed him for his uncaring attitude towards the man in the street.
“The agreements that Chua is referring to were very lopsided. But I don’t hear any mention of that. We don’t hear him talk about the cost burden to the rakyat (populace)) at all,” PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli told Malaysia Chronicle. “
“Neither has he given any suggestion of how to revamp the agreements or offer a solution. Or is it Chua Soi Lek’s intention that Malaysians pay through their noses for the next 10 or 20 years? Is he a leader for the people or is he the self-appointed spokesman for the IPPs?”
Subsidy or profit “foregone” by Petronas
Rafizi may have hit the nail on the head. Most of the agreements were negotiated during the time of former premier Mahathir Mohamad and contain complex price transfer mechanisms with national oil firm Petronas.
According to Chua, the Malaysian government should only step in when the agreements expire.
“Some are signed 15 years ago, some are 20 years ago,” he said. “So when the time comes for the agreement to lapse, that’s when the government starts negotiating,” he said.
But to be fair with Chua, he is not the only BN minister on the defensive.
Energy minister Peter Chin Fah Kui even tried to deflect public anger by insisting that the RM19 billion subsidy bill came about because national oil firm Petronas had agreed to ‘forego’ its own profit and pass on the ‘savings’ to the Independent Power Producers and Tenaga Nasional Bhd.
“Peter Chin said the RM19 billion is profit forgone by Petronas annually for selling gas at RM10.70 per MMBtu, one quarter of the market price RM40 per MMBtu,” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng scolded in a statement released earlier in the day.
“BN’s denial that the RM19 billion profits foregone by Petronas by selling gas below market price to IPPs and TNB is not a form of subsidy is another classic exercise of BN’s self-delusion and mass deception.”
Losing Malaysians’ respect
Chua and MCA were recently in the spotlight over another scandal. Under pressure to stand up for the Chinese community, they had blamed the Public Services Department for not awarding government scholarships to topscorers based on results, but according to race.
Straightaway, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz defended the PSD as “excellent” and accused the MCA leaders of trying to be heroes to their community at the BN’s expense.
As usual, after hurling a barrage of counter- accusations against Nazri, Soi Lek and his team faded into silence. This style of politicking has lost the MCA massive credibility with the Chinese, who now doubt party leaders have the political courage to stand up for the community.
Soi Lek’s latest defence of the IPP tycoons and attempts to close any eye to the skewed agreements is likely to lose him even greater respect.
Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Najib Razak deferred a slew of subsidy cuts that would have led to a rise in the prices of petrol, diesel and liquified natural gas. The move has bolstered speculation that he plans to call for snap general election within the next few months.
All Women’s Action Society (Awam) notes with concern The Malay Mail’s front page story yesterday on the alarming rate of sex crimes statistic saying that 10 women become victims of rape every day and that on average in every two-and-a-half-hours one woman gets raped, according to latest statistics released by Bukit Aman.readmore and see more of MCA president Chua Soi Lek’ girlfriends http://chuliastreettulukan.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-are-todays-men-like-mca-president.html
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