Talam’s Debt Recovery Exercise Revisited
Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, MP of Kuala Selangor (Siri – Apakah anda masih ingat?)
Granted, the decision of the Selangor state government to recover the debts owed by Talam Corp Bhd to state subsidiaries of Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor Berhad (KHSB), Universiti Industri Selangor (PIYSB) and Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad (PNSB), has led to a hue and cry by the public. Not quite appreciative of the actual mechanics, the anxiety by lay public was quite understandable.
Arguably, reasonable and innocent questions were rife, like why borrow RM391 millions to recover a debt of RM391 and could it not be better spent in other things for the people than to save Talam.
Little wonder why the State Government of Selangor was accused of bailing out Talam, a private township developer, of a crime and an abominable ‘sin’, all Pakatan parties pledged and waged war against, in the last General Election.
In consonant with Pakatan open government policy of accountability and transparency, this semi-popular article attempts at revisiting and explaining the rationale while hopefully simplifying the entire mechanics of this debt-recovery exercise.Unlike typical bail-outs conducted by the BN government where money were actually injected or handed out to ailing private or privatized companies, like RM1.6 billions to IWK of Berjaya Group, RM10.3billion to MAS of Naluri Bhd or RM6billions to Putra/Star LRT, this debt-restructuring exercise conducted by the state government of Pakatan in Selangor didn’t handout any money to Talam Corporation Berhad.
A more recent example (December 2009) smacked of a downright bail-out is exemplified by the RM320m interest free, unsecured, back-loaded 20-year loan facility that was given to SYABAS, the concessionaire in water distribution in the state of Selangor, now in great financial stress.
In contrast, let it be again stressed that Talam Corp Bhd didn’t receive a single cent out of this debt-recovery exercise. Besides, neither did the state government use the tax-payers’ money as alluded by many nor did the state subsidiaries to whom Talam originally owed, received any cash injections as a result of this exercise. Umno and the BN have a penchant for that i.e. failures are nationalized and profits privatized, but the Pakatan’s states have to, not only do it better but differently. Simply put, all these presumptions were unfounded and the allegations made, including by academics, extremely unfortunate.
