Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Of Najib's dreams : KL-Singapore high speed rail link...

First, we surrender our lands in the island, then we invite MRT to have a terminal in JB. It will not be far-fetched if later Malaysia "invite" our neighbour to jointly develop KL-Singapore fast rail link. In the process, we "give away" our land to others....

  1. Where do I begin? This is not 1970's Ryan ONeil's and Ali MacGraw's "Love story". Previously, it takes a lot of diplomatic effort to stem all the disgusts and frustrations, compliments from Malaysia's top political leaders. If this posting is less "diplomatic", please excuse us for being a "little bit" blunt....

    To start let's just say that with all the political machineries available, 1MPM6 is goofing. Frankly, it might not be him but his "bunk-mate" pushing him to look goofy. Why?

  2. Malaysia Insider's bye-line "Putrajaya mulls multi-billion rail deals" dated 8th June 2010 starts the ball rolling again. Muay Thai fighter Sakmongkol looks at it from a different perspective when he terms it as "The Cuckoo's nest".

    Sak is questioning the wisdom of political's SPVs'. SPVs' is not MPVs', folks. I take SPV to stands for "Special Purpose Vehicle", sort of specially created companies... This writer looks at MI's bye-line differently. How?

  3. In earlier posting titled "Of KTMB's Tg Pagar land : Going, going... gone?", certain issues has been raised with regards to KTMB's Tg Pagar land and the logic of relocating KTMB's terminal to Woodlands (Singapore) by 2011 and then further relocate it to Johor Bharu (Malaysia) by 2018.
  4. Think about those valuable land along the railway tracks and reserve that Malaysia "gave up" to jointly develop Tg Pagar with Singapore's Temasek.
  5. Think about Singapore MRT entering Johor Bharu in 2018. Now, 1MPM6 goes 1 step further....
  6. BN-led Malaysian government is thinking on a multi-billion ringgit project to connect Malaysia to Singapore by way of high speed rail links.
  7. Is that possible? On 24th May 2010, Najib aka 1MPM6 announced the deal for Singapore MRT to enter Johor Bharu by 2018 and now, on 8th June 2010 1MPM6's administration is mulling on the idea to connect Malaysia to Singapore via rail. Is Najib taking Malaysians for another ride?
  8. Just think - how is it possible for Malaysian rail to enter Singapore when we do not have anymore terminal in the island by 2018? Instead, there is an MRT terminal in Johor Bharu by 2018. Najib's administration is better off if they were to say that 1MPM6 is mulling on a KL-JB fast train deal.
  9. Now, let's go deeper into the issue. If Singapore MRT has a terminal in JB and if 1MPM6 is still adamant on a fast KL-JB rail, will it not be possible for 1MPM6 be hoodwinked, co-erced, blackmailed into agreeing to another ridiculous proposal of sharing the KL-Singapore fast train project with Temasek?

    And if that happens, do you see the sequence? First, we lost Tg Pagar and Woodlands, then we might be losing an unprecedented land banks along the KL-Singapore route which (heaven's forbid) will be owned by another country!

  10. Let's see how Major KJ is handling this. Some of you might ask - why KJ? Here are some hints....

    KJ is now an honorary Major in Territorial army. He should know by now the structure of Territorial army. Aaah...for Kampong folks - territorial army tu askar wataniah lah :)

    Is it not true that there are special divisions of territorial army who work closely with the regular army in certain strategic areas? Major KJ should know which are considered "strategic areas". If not, then he is not qualified to be a "Major".... From there on, Major KJ should be sensitive on these issues and should be taking up the matter with 1MPM6. Or are we exercising "wholesale" offer of Malaysia and our land banks?

  11. Let's add some figures in. How long is the stretch from KL to JB? It's almost 330 Km. What is the railway reserve? Let's assume it to be 40 m. The potential land bank for KL-JB fast train will be 1,320 hectares (3,300 acres). The price? It may come to RM 3 Billion.

    Imagine a land bank stretching from JB to Kuala Lumpur with land banks in Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor! Who will not salivate?

  12. Some may poof-poof this as a non-issue. Maybe not now but 20 years down the line, our children will curse us for not being sensitive to their needs.
  13. First, we surrender our lands in the island, then we invite MRT to have a terminal in JB. It will not be far-fetched if later Malaysia "invite" our neighbour to jointly develop KL-Singapore fast rail link. In the process, we "give away" our land to others....

    There is no way for Singapore to allow Malaysia to use its rail links to enter Singapore land again. Instead, Singapore will be controlling the rail link deal when the pre-condition of the trains shall suit MRT requirements. So, who is actually the bigger loser in the KL-Singapore rail link project? No need to scratch heads, the answer is already crystal clear - Malaysia is the bigger loser if we were to take up the project!

  14. As this writer said earlier, there are different perspective to an issue. Sak look at it from his political viewpoint, and I choose to look at it from our "heritage" viewpoint.

    Sak may be right, I might be wrong or Sak may be wrong and I might be right. It's certainly nice if both of us are wrong but what if? Both of us are right?

    How do we answer to our future generation? Do we pass all the blame to 1MPM6? Or should we do better ie get him out of office (along with his cronies and groupies)?

  15. The answer is certainly within you. The choice is yours. You have 1 vote as I have my 1 vote. Use it wisely, it's not for me but for our future generation....

    By the way, are you a registered voter?


Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It maybe too late by the time we oust this 1MPM6 in the Next GE. By then he will have signed off everything and they will be irrevocable by the next PM. The damage will be done by then and only by going to war (which we will definitely lose) will Malaysia will be able to get back it's land bank.
With a PM who has so much baggage, he can be held to ransom by the small dot down south to accede to any wish by them. What can he do if the small dot threaten to reveal photos of him with a Mongolian lady? A revelation of his being there at the same as the Mongolian lady is sufficient to scare the shit out of him.
Sad Old Man

nightcaller said...

Anon

It's a matter of principle. If indeed 1MPM6 has something to do with the Mongolian, then he better come out clean.

Putting the nation in the hands of a tainted person is not the way to do it. If, indeed one is tainted, then by all means he should take his leave and make way for another to take his place, regardless of what the wife may say on the matter....

tz said...

How can you simply ignore the fact that railway land owned by KTMB in S'pore only serves the purpose of a railway which does not do anything good? Please also do not ignore the fact that Malaysia has no sovereign rights on that land. your article is misleading. There are no evidents that lead us to believe that if KL-SG HSR is to be introduced, the land will be own by SG. As far as we know, if the project is to be real, the contract will surely be offered to a Malaysian company, eg. YTL Power. You have simply overlooked the positive contribution of KL-SG HSR and Johore-SG MRT to the economy of Malaysia. Please to refer to the HSR model shared between the UK island and France mainland. There is no sovereign dispute, and ofcourse, their incoming generations definitedly will not accuse their fathers for linking both sides together. A well conectivity will always a GAIN for Malaysians, it's a win win situation. If not, the landbank in M'sia will still be a land bank, even after 100 years.

tz said...

How can you simply ignore the fact that railway land owned by KTMB in S'pore only serves the purpose of a railway which does not do anything good? Please also do not ignore the fact that Malaysia has no sovereign rights on that land. your article is misleading. There are no evidents that lead us to believe that if KL-SG HSR is to be introduced, the land will be own by SG. As far as we know, if the project is to be real, the contract will surely be offered to a Malaysian company, eg. YTL Power. You have simply overlooked the positive contribution of KL-SG HSR and Johore-SG MRT to the economy of Malaysia. Please to refer to the HSR model shared between the UK island and France mainland. There is no sovereign dispute, and ofcourse, their incoming generations definitedly will not accuse their fathers for linking both sides together. A well conectivity will always a GAIN for Malaysians, it's a win win situation. If not, the landbank in M'sia will still be a land bank, even after 100 years.