Chua Soi Lek – Vincent Lee sell heritage asset for obscene profit

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Oct 17, 2013

My previous posting has created such a stir in The Star. At the coffee machine to canteen to printer room, people are talking about it in hushed tones. They know it is the truth. When staff morale is low, this is what happens.

The Star Insider

But I will continue to expose all the wrong doings. As I said, I know a lot of things happening due to having served about 20 years in Star. As a PLC, we have a lot of property. One of them was a property with 3 detached houses sitting on a 2.2 acre land in the elite Bukit Tunku area (people from my era call it Kenny Hills).

The house was used by first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. He was the chairman of The Star at one point and the place hold historical and heritage value. The Star has owned the place for quite a long time. In fact, for many years, it was the playground for the top bosses. Other people cannot get in, even if you are senior management in Star including Linda Ngiam who was barred from using the place.

And because the land is at a prime or elite area, it fetches very good prices. In 2005, a valuation was done and the property was valued at RM20 million. For many years, The Star has turned down offers to buy the land. Because although we are corporate, we had a sense of social responsibility. We cannot allow a place with heritage and historical value be turned into a commercial enterprise.

In fact, Star directors had agreed to turn the place into a public gallery to showcase Tunku Abdul Rahman’s contributions to this country. It was supposed to be a Corporate Social Responsibility on the part of The Star.

But when Chua Soi Lek and Vincent Lee took over The Star, one of the first things they did was to sell off the property! They don’t care about historical value or sentimental aspect of the building which was once owned and occupied by our father of Independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman.

To add insult, the place was sold at a loss!!! It was sold to Vincent Lee’s friend for only RM15.8 million although easily can sell for RM43 million. Everything was hush hush. So, why did we sell the place below market value? Vincent Lee must answer who pocket the extra. Did CSL ask him to do it? Why do we have to sell the property which got high historical value to a developer which will turn it into a development project? Are we so hard up for money??

CSL got to answer all these queries. Please stop treating Star like your grandfather’s company where you can plunder as you please. You and Vincent do this at the expense of Star workers’ welfare and morale.