Following is an editorial adapted from NST Online complete with responses by TTF (in blue):
RANTAU: Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng has dropped a hint that Negri Sembilan will benefit from the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project once it is concluded.
He said, the line for the 688km rail link that would connect Port Klang in Selangor with Pengkalan Kubor in Kelantan would be changed if the project continues with its cost reduced.
TTF: Yes, there is always more than one way to get from point A to point B.
Coming from a man who dished out an undersea tunnel project to cronies despite knowing that the project was not feasible and would never take off, perhaps Lim plans to reroute the southern phase of the ECRL by building an underground tunnel through Negri
Incidentally, while we’re on the topic, the fact that the undersea tunnel project is not feasible explains why Lim can’t produce the results of feasibility studies despite having spent millions above the market rate to pay consultants for mere pieces of paper.
Yes, the project was a smokescreen to facilitate the “parcelling out of land for free” to his cronies for a fact buck.
NST Online continued…
“The cost for the ECRL project could be lowered by RM10 billion and if it is realised, then this will be a good news not only for the country, but also for the people in Negri Sembilan.
“I mention Negri Sembilan because if the project is continued, the rail line will be changed.
TTF: Oh yes, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you guys can bring costs ‘down’.
I’m made to understand that parts of the project will quietly be bundled into a new contract.
The contract will then be handed over to cronies, who will see to it that the cost of the original project is brought ‘down’ by about RM25 billion.
Months after the original project is relaunched, a new “non-ECRL” project will quietly be announced on the pretext of it being needed to compliment the ECRL.
The compounded cost of the two projects – the ‘scaled-down’ version and the “non-ECRL” version – is anticipated to be worth RM80 billion, 20 billion upstream of the initial RM55 billion cost. But the rakyat will be told that PH succeeded in bringing the ECRL cost down through prudence in management and administration.
NST Online continued…
“To the members of the press, please don’t ask me further, I can’t say much. But this is good news to Negri Sembilan,” he said during a ceramah program for the Rantau state seat by-election held in Kuala Sawah here, tonight.
TTF: Oh yes, we all know you can’t say much because you don’t know much.
Or else, you would have presented the nation with a detailed breakdown of the fictitious 80 per cent Debt-to-GDP ratio and the reason 1MDB is “to blame for the country’s ‘intolerable’ debt.”
Adapted from:
