Asas Serba: DON’T play it again, Sam!
Asas Serba – a company spearheaded by Tan Sri Halim Saad and strongly believed to have Tun Daim Zainuddin behind it – made a proposal to the Government to buy the 25 toll operators at a cost of RM50 billion.
Part of their sales pitch is that road users will get a discount of 20% and no further toll hike. There is the promise of savings for the Government to the tune of RM114 billion in compensation payment till 2038 (read BT May 4th here). Butcher from Shell must be having premature ejaculation in his pants now!
In a press conference on May 3rd (see The Star report here), Asas Serba Director, Dato Syed Amin El Jefri gave the assurance that no single individual shareholders will control the company and it is institutional shareholders and bondholders that will dictate how the company is run.
Basically there is no issue of cronyism, if the name and temperament of Halim Saad brings up bad memories to many. That should be temporary political relief for Barisan Nasional (BN) knowing Barry Wain’s book is selling fast and Edmond Gomez recently help promote the book to University Malaya students.
But politics is about perception. Thus, for the reason this proposal will attract negative perception towards Government, Asas Serba’s proposal have to be rejected in the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
There is no short of other options to explore to achieve the desired slogan of rakyat diutamakan by lessening the toll burden on the voters, particularly urban voters.
Despite what the untold stories and intentions in the past are, having Tun Daim and Halim Saad back as major players in the privatised project segment will not auger well for the political perception and prospect of BN.
True that Tun Daim and his “students from the Peremba School of Management” delivered. There were unlike Anwar Ibrahim and his cronies that build war chest but do not deliver. The more democratic PNB model of generating corporate Malays failed too with the likes of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Dato Anuar Mohd Nor, etc showing their true colours as traitors of the Malay struggle. However, this is not the time to see things in isolation.
Tun Daim may have his frustration and would have liked to do things differently then. It is heard on the grapevine that he has expressed it in a book but will only come out in the absence of a certain person.
