Your MP's Question of the Week #43

In the name of “privately funded initiative” and possibly privatizing the civil service!

Building an airport like KLIA East @ Labu, which has been given a swift “midnight approval” by the Abdullah Badawi administration to proceed, is not a development project for the timid and weak of heart.

To begin with, the said joint-venture between Sime Darby and AirAsia is slated to set both companies back a whopping RM1.6 billion which does not include land cost. And if you notice, amusingly, there’s this over-extended aggressive effort to assure the public that the project will be a “privately funded initiative” and consequently the often repeated mantra “not a Sen of the rakyat’s money will be used.” The sole spokesperson appointed to do all the talking, it seems, is none other than Dato’ Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia. In contrast, Sime Darby, the possibly bigger joint-venture partner by virtue of its large landbanks and provider of the initial 3,000 acres for the project, is oddly unbecomingly shy. There’s nary a squeak from the world’s largest plantation company so far and its silence is eerily deafening. Anyway, isn’t Sime Darby a government-linked company and therefore its money would be considered public money?

Why, this desperate attempt for continual assurance by Dato’ Tony Fernandes that public money is not involved is most unusual. Is there an underlying fear that what’s being bandied about is not the whole truth and the project is flawed and would die still-born? Or is there really something big and sinister to hide by interested parties? Time will tell.

But rather than wait for the likely rotten news to blow up in our face and land on our lap, let’s briefly consider the other vital components that will be involved in the KLIA East @ Labu project. Over and above the bricks and mortars and ancillary materials for the construction of the physical structures, runways, highways or railways one cannot do without the human resources that goes into its operations. One of the most vital of which would include personnel for air traffic control, security, customs, immigration and fire-fighting at the airport.

Bad enough that the government has already given firm approval for the privatization of an airport at Labu which has far-reaching national security implications, does this mean that in the name of “private funding initiative” a company that has so-called deep pockets would also be allowed to privatize part of the nation’s civil service?

Would Dato’ Tony Fernandes be given a free hand to pick and choose, which seems to be the case with this seeming favoured son, his privatized air traffic control, security, customs, immigration and fire-fighting staffs from Malaysia Airport Berhad, the Royal Malaysian Police, Royal Malaysian Customs, Immigration Malaysia and Bomba Malaysia, respectively? Heaven forbid! Such boldness and derring-do to pull a fast one! Such straight-faced double-speak all this while!

Fellow Malaysians, do we see what are potentially at risks if this is even considered? Can we begin to unravel the other half of the story that has not been told us thus far? What more is hidden? What more is likely to be at stake?

Then the whole Labu deal would beg the question:

In all honesty, can KLIA East @ Labu, a joint-venture project between Sime Darby and AirAsia, ever be a truly “privately funded initiative” project if the government can never allow a private entity to have its own air traffic controllers, police, customs and immigration force nor will it ever allow that section of its civil service to be privatized because of national security reasons?


Soalan Mingguan WR Anda ke-43

Laungan “usaha yang dibiayai oleh wang persendirian” dan menswastakan perkhidmatan awam!

Pembinaan KLIA East @ Labu yang telah diluluskan dengan cepat kononnya pada detik “larut malam” oleh pentadbiran Abdullah Badawi, bukanlah suatu usaha yang boleh dilaksanakan oleh pihak yang kurang berkemampuan dan ketabahan.

Pertamanya, usahasama tersebut antara Sime Darby dan AirAsia akan menelan dana kedua mereka sebanyak RM1.6 billion tidak termasuk harga tanah yang dibeli. Kelakarnya, terdapat suatu usaha yang melampau giatnya dalam menyakinkan ihak umum bahawa usaha ini adalah “dibiayai oleh dana persendirian” dan ungkapan nan sering disebut adalah “tiada satu sen pun wang rakyat akan dibelanja”. Orang tunggal yang dilantik berucap semua ini tidak lain dan tidak bukan Dato’ Tony Fernandes, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif AirAsia. Secara perbandingan, Sime Darby, yang berkemungkanan besar rakan kongsi utama dengan milikan dana tanah dan pembekal sumber tanah permulaan sebanyak 3,000 ekar, nampaknya segan membuat sebarang ulasan. Tiada sebarang bisikan daripada syarikat perldangan terbesar sejagat dan bah kata ungkapan Inggeris, “pembisuan itu laungan besar yang boleh pekakkan semua”. Bukankah Sime Darby itu syarikat lingkaran kerajaan dan dananya boleh dianggap sebagai dana rakyat jua?

Usaha yang berterusan dan bermati-matian ini oleh Dato’ Tony Fernandes bahawa untuk menyakinkan semua bahwa wang rakyat tidak terlibat adalah sangat aneh. Terdapat kepercayan umum bahawa apa yang dilaung-laungkan bukanlah kebenaran dan sebenarnya usaha ini banyak kepincangannya dan mungkinkah akan gagal sebelum bermula? Ataupun terdapat “undang amat besar” sebalik batu yang cuba diselubungkan oleh pihak yang berkepentingan? Semua hanyalah akan terbongkar pada masa hadapan.

Kita tidak perlu tunggu tercetusnya peristiwa atau berita buruk dan secara ringkasnya berfikir sejenak mengenai perkara yang terlibat dalam pembianaan projek KLIA East @ Labu. Selain daripada bahan binaan untuk bangunan, landasan pesawat, lebuhraya aau landasan keretapi, kita tidak boleh mengabaikan sumber manusia yang terlibat. Paling mustahak adalah kawalan lalu lintas penerbangan, keselamatan, cukai dan kastam, imigresen serta kawalan kebakaran.

Dah cukuppadah pihak pentadbiran meluluskan penswastaan sebuah lapangan terbang di Labu yang mempunyai banyak kaitan dengankeselamatan negara. Adakah ini bermakna oleh kerana sesuatu usaha dibiayai oleh wang persendirian, sesebuah syarikat swasta jua dibenarkan menswastakan sebahagian daripada khidmat awam pihak pentadbiran?

Patutkah Dato’ Tony Fernandes, yang nampaknya adalah budak kesayangan, diberi kebebasan memilih dan mengambil anggota daripada pihak kawalan lalulintas udara, keselamatan, kastam, imigresen dan kawalan jebakaran daripada am Malaysia Airport Berhad, Polis Diraja Malaysia, Kastam Diraja Malaysia, Imigresen Malaysia dan Bomba Malaysia? Harap jangan sekali-kali ini boleh berlaki! Beraninya dalam membuat pembohongan. Berlidah belah dua dengan air muka yang berperwatakan kebenaran.

Para rakyat Malaysia sekalian, Nampak tak apa yang kita pertaruhkan dengan usaha ini yang dicadangkan? Boleh tak kita bongkarkan rahsia yang sebelah lagi yang belum dibongkarkan hingga kini? Apakah lagi yang masih belum diketahui dan dilindungi? Apakah lagi yang boleh diancam?

Maka usaha di Labu mendatangkan persoalan:

Bolehkah, KLIA East @ Labu, suatu usaha sama antara Sime Darby dan AirAsia, dianggap sebagai “usaha yang dibiayai oleh dana persendirian” jika pihak pentadbiran tidak membenarkan sebuah syarikat swasta memiliki kawalan lalulintas udara, polis dankastam ataupun membenarkan sebahagian daripada perkhidmatan awamnya diswastakan demi keselamatan negara?



  1. bro,
    i m not sure what’s wrong with more airports. obviously the current lcct is jam packed by 5am in the morning.

    what is so bad about it? not emotional, just a question.

    zeta bar.

  2. Tony Fernandes and his cohorts must have had the benefit of taking a leaf out of what the Americans’ industry captains do best in the light of the unfolding current economic and financial fiasco.

    If you know that your business is untenable and you’re hoping for a massive bailout, you must ensure that you continue to be in a ‘business situation’ where you have swallowed more than you can chew to appear “too big to allow to fail” by the government.

    Hmm, KLIA East @ Labu looks like it has all the ingredients to get AirAsia, and by association Sime Darby, to walk away from their big time business failures unscathed and still be able to bask in the millions of bailout money!

    The unkindest cut to the rakyat would be that they would emulate paying themselves fat remunerations and throw a big party to celebrate at the first sign of bailout money being transferred into their corporate accounts.

    The rakyat is not stupid anymore and Tony Fernandes and his cronies should give us more credit.

    Tony can spin all he wants and try to sugar-coat the Labu deal but we will be watching him, Sime Darby and AirAsia like a hawk.

    KaniLabu Tony for daring to try and pull a stunt like this on the rakyat!


  3. Tony Fernandez, a trained accountant and member of ACCA, should understand very well when I talk about “payback period”, “net present value”, “opportunity cost” and “investment appraisal”.

    How can one, a CEO at that, claim that no public money is involved?

    After SD and AA incurred the capital expenses and incur daily running expenses, as profit making listed entities, where the hell/palm tree plantation land are they going to re-coup their outlay from? In fact, the profit that needs to be derived must exceed the profit from the same batch of money had it been invested elsewhere.

    The answer is charge the cost to the paying customers. We will see higher surcharge, higher flight ticket prices, more expensive food and beverages, and maybe different pay rates so the pretty air stewardess will smile more or less at you.

    AA from “everybody can fly” becomes “everything can be charged”

    Tony has done a lot for the present administration. The silence from Sime Darby suggest an element of victimization. Perhaps Tan Sri Ayob, the ex-TNB honcho, can drop by Wisma Sime Darby and share his experience and feelings in a support group session.

    Aha, now we are seeing the policies of our new Finance Minister, the respectable great new hope of UMNO, BN and Malaysia.

  4. No public fund my foot! Who is Tony Fernandes? He is just a very close friend of Kalimullah, Tan Sri Nor Yakop and one of the cronies of Pak Lah. That’s all about it. Such relationship with the Prime Minister does not give him the power and right to announce that no public money will be involved in the Labu LCCT project.

    Why is his good friends, Pak Lah and Tan Sri Nor Yakop, keeping quiet over the issue of involvement of public fund? The simple reason being that no one in the right mind dare to state that no public fund will be involved in the building and operating an airport.

    No right thinking government, except the Pak Lah government, will ever allow an airport, which is an essential service of a country, to be privatised.

    Please be prepared to face more of such nonsense from now until March 31st. We all have to be alert otherwise we will get more LCCTs and bailouts of ailing companies.

  5. Ahmad,
    Tony still thinks that Chan Kong Choy is the Minister of Transport. He also believes that he can make announcement on behalf of the government. May be Pak Lah has privatised the Minister of Transport to Tony so that he can kill MAS in the hope that AirAsia will be the national carrier.

    No wonder all big foreign shareholders in AirAsia have disposed of their respective shares last years and of course, EPF being a charity organisation or financial ambulance went into the market to buy AirAsia shares big time.

    I hope that EPF under the control of Tan Sri Nor Yakop will buy more shares in private companies to help in the bailing out exercise. After all it is the workers’ money.

    Watch out for more bailouts between now and March!

  6. Tony Fernandes just look after your AirAsia. Leave the airport to the expert – MAB. Tony you have had enough of help from your good friend Ahmad Badawi, the PM. SO don’t be so greedy.

    In all countries airports are controlled by government or government agency.

    YB Wee please make sure that you bring this nonsense KLIA East to Parliament and tell the PM to wake up and stop all the nonsense. Not everything suggested by Tony Fernandes and Kalimullah is good for the country.

    What are good for Tony and Kalimullah are not good for the country because more often than not their objectives are in conflict most of, if not all, the times with the rakyat’s.

    I am sure the KT people will vote against BN today to stop such rots in Malaysia.

  7. I heard PAS won in KT. Great news. Wan Farid is a Badawi and SIL kuncu. Glad Wan Farid lost. A slap on Badawi’s face and also a rejection of KLIA @ Labu.

    I am a Happy man tonight.

  8. No to Badawi and his cronies like Tony Fernandes and Kalimullah.

    No to KLIA – Labu.

    Padan muka Badawi for putting his boy, Wan Farid, to fight in KT. So happy that the Sleepy Head got many slaps in KT by-elections.

    As long as Badawi is leading this country, we will be in the shit! Badawi is just useless. If he is not sleeping, Airasia Tony Fernandes will be in the deep shit!

  9. To solve all the problems, Pak Lah should immediately appoint Tony Fernandes as the Minister of Transport and Kalimullah the Minister of Finance. But only for 2 1/2 months, I don’t think both of them will have enough time to complete the KLIA Labu.

    If this is the case, I don’t think 2 1/2 months will be sufficient for Pak Lah to use his power to push the KLIA Labu through.

    Datuk Zubir, the CEO of Sime, is pretending to keep quiet. Zubir please come out and support your friend Tony Fernandes. Tony is a lonely man. He just need the KLIA Labu otherwise AirAsia has no parking space for its 200 planes, 150 planes of which are still pending delivery.

    I am so happy that AirAsia has so much monies to pay for the 150 planes. But I am sad that it is still unable to pay the airport tax, which it has collected from its customers.

    What a bullshit, Tony.

  10. To stop cronyism in Pak Lah government, we have to kill that Rat! Thank God the people of Terengganu rose to the occasion to reject BN.

    Wan Farid, bye-bye to your political career based on cronyism. The people is not stupid.

    Let’s carry on to kill the Labu RATS.

  11. Agreed. Kill that Labu rat.

    AirAsia has been getting a good run for far too long at the expense of the public. With the last 2 months of Pak Lah’s administration, Tony is still trying to do a quicky.

    Why is Datuk Zubir of Sime Darby so quiet over Labu? Kalimullah is also very quiet. So is the son-in-law!

  12. Kill that rat to save the nation. AirAsia needs Labu to park its 200 planes, which it has over committed. 200 planes to fly to where? What routes? Where is the funding to take delivery of a further 150 planes – one every month.

    Going under as a matter of time unless with government help with tax payers’ monies.

    Save the country’s money by saying no to Labu and cronyism.

  13. I like the term Melayu Jati used against Tony Fernandes and it is so apt …

    K*niLabu Tony!

    Don’t even try, Tony. Kuala Terengganu says it all – Abdullah Badawi, his son, SIL, Kalimullah and yourself will be dead meat very soon.

    Now all of you can fly – and hide!

  14. Angry Malaysian

    I am with you all the way. Now Tony, SIL, Kalimullah and other cronies are running high. Not for long. When Malaysians show the Sleepy Head the door then Tony, SIL, Kalimullah and other cronies will disappearing from Malaysian map.

    No more Labu for Tony. Give him Kelabu and a blue eye instead.

  15. What Labu airport for Tony & Airasia? For Tony he would want the whole Malaysia to himself and Kalimullah.

    We must all reject Tony Fernandes’s Labu LCCT.

    Get rid of Badawi and there will be no more nonsense like Labu LCCT and privatisation of IJN.

    We need to protect this nation from these RATS.

  16. If Tony Fernandes could get his way, he would definitely privatise Malaysia under the name of making Malaysia a better place. Better place for who?

    Who else Tony Fernandes and the other cronies to rob the country of its assets. It is our national duty to protect our country money from being abused.

    No privatisation of our civil service to the cronies. We cannot afford to because of our national security.

    Tony, stop talking cock i.e. not a single Sen of public fund will be used for KLIA Labu. As far as I know that the Badawi government has used hundred of million Ringgit to help Airasia to be what it is now. For a start the existing LCCT cost the taxpayers more than RM250 million.

    AirAsia, a private company, has had enough. So stop being greedy. Don’t be a RAT!!!!

  17. We must catch that RATS after the end of Badawi era.

    We must wait at all the exit points to pick up teh RATs and send them to Sungai Buloh. That’s where they belong.

    At that time the Dreamer will not be around to protect them.

  18. Get rid of Pak Lah and there is no Labu lcct. Tony Fernandes and his Singapore operatives have been enjoying good time for too long. There must be paying back time: Tony & gang.

  19. Tony Fernandes and the other Badawi kuncu-kuncu should tell Malaysians why until today Airasia is still not paying its Airport Tax?

    Tony should not take Malaysians for a ride. We all know you people nonsense.

    YB Wee please speak up on Airasia in Parliament. Ask the Badawi government why is AirAsia giving special treatment to owe Airport Tax and given other concession.

    We must rid of cronies in the system. People like Tony and Kalimullah are top of the list of all cronies.

  20. Labu is just not on. YB Wee you better stop this Labu project for the Pak Lah cronies and SIL. No public fund will be used. What rubbish Tony was talking about. Who pay for the custom, police, bomba, aviation officers and etc?

    Perhaps Tony, Kalimullah and SIL wanted to privatise of the civil service.

    If Labu is allowed to go ahead, the country will be in the shit!

    YB Wee, you and the other MPs must stand up against another nonsense of Tony, Kalimullah and gang.

  21. Man you all sound like god damn vultures. If MAHB could support AirAsia at KLIA then why would AirAsia need to go all the way to Labu? Wouldn’t it make better business sense to have all the airlines connected at the same hub. The culprit here is MAHB not AirAsia. MAHB was holding AirAsia for ransom. It has not other choice but to find other means. You guys should at least do some research before shooting off like that. Listen to yourself, you all sound like a mob looking for blood. You want to kill AirAsia? Is there any other Malaysian company that is as successful as AirAsia? AirAsia is the reason we get such low fares now from MAS.

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