PANDAN INDAH, 22 FEB: The Chief Minister’s Political Secretary, Faekah Husin informed that Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s move to defend the water services acquisition although the effort has been disputed by several Umno-BN leaders, is characterised as a Waterloo clash.
Faekah further explained that the Chief Minister informed her that the move to takeover the water industry is not a political gimmick but it is larger than the acquisition of Guthrie shares in 1981.
Therefore, to resolve this problem, the people have to ensure Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) victory in the upcoming elections and to govern Putrajaya to facilitate the acquisition of water from the concessionaires who are still stubbornly refusing the offer submitted.
“This is because, the Central Government’s golden share amounting to one percent can be used in absolution to order the Selangor Water Supply Company (Syabas – Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor) to accept the offer submitted by the Selangor Government to enable the acquisition of water management operations in the Klang Valley and Selangor to be carried out,” she said at the Selangor Water Forum in Pandan Indah.
She added that is the concessionaires reject the offer, it is no longer classified as a business transaction but it is politicised, therefore the Selangor Government will react politically.
According to Faekah, the Selangor Government will offer only 50 percent off the current price for the acquisition should the concessionaires continue to be adamant and refuse the offer price given.
“Dissolve the Assembly (Selangor State Assembly), dissolve the Parliament, water belongs to you (the people) and we will take it (back for you).
“And if they (the concessionaires) refuse, we are now offering RM9.65 billion. If we (continue to) govern Selangor, we takeover Putrajaya, we will offer no more than RM5 billion. That’s our plan,” she said
She explained that the offer price of RM9.65 billion which was announced by Abdul Khalid in the middle of this week, the concessionaires cannot refuse the price offered unless they bring up objections to the offer price for an arbitration process as stipulated in the 2004 privatisation agreement.
The offer will give a return of 12 percent per annum of the equity to the companies and is the latest effort by the State Government to restructure the water industry to be more efficient.
At this point, the operations of treated water is being managed by concessionaires, Puncak Niaga Sdb Bhd, Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (SPLASH) and Konsortium ABASS Sdn Bhd.