TTF: Lim Guan Eng has more or less admitted that the ruling Pakatan Harapan’s pre-electoral pledge to abolish tolls was fake and deliberately contrived to mislead voters.
On the 19th of October 2018, I wrote:
On the 25th of March 2005, Lim Kit Siang told a crowd at the Ipoh Barat Kampong Tawas Market that the North-South Expressway was a “mega-privatisation project which had been the subject of repeated public demands for a review to render it more fair to the motorists.”
Lim also referred to the review of privatization contracts by the Barisan Nasional administration as being “lop-sided against the long-term interests of consumers and the ordinary rakyat.”
He then accused the government of being “over-solicitous to defend the interests of PLUS.”
It’s been five months since Pakatan Harapan took control of government.
Kit Siang’s son, Lim Guan Eng, is now serving as Minister of Finance under the Mahathir administration, the very Mahathir whose government the senior Lim also accused of being “over-solicitous to defend the interests of PLUS,” albeit in different tones and flavours.
Question is, why has Kit Siang yet to get his son to make public terms of all concession agreements undertaken by past Barisan Nasional administrations so that the rakyat can understand reasons Pakatan is having problems fulfilling its “free toll” pledge?
Well, it looks like we got our answer.
Earlier today, his son, Lim Guan Eng, told newsmen that a decision by the Government of Malaysia (GoM) to freeze toll hikes from next year would cost the government RM700 million (see news item below).
What this means, is that the Lims are fully aware of the various terms to the concession agreements and know, that making them public would prove that Pakatan lied to the people prior to the 14th general election (GE14).
The Lims are well aware, that the agreements would never allow Pakatan to offer free tolls to motorists, as doing so would only cost the GoM billions upon billions of ringgit in compensations to PLUS and Mahathir’s cronies.
KUALA LUMPUR: Toll hikes on all highways in the city will be frozen from next year.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the decision will cost the government RM700 million.
He said the government will also abolish the motorcycle toll on both bridges connecting Penang and the mainland, as well as the Second Link Expressway in Johor.
The move will cost the government RM20 million a year.
Source: NST Online