Khalid’s ‘Langat Move’ upsets Pakatan, but ‘Kajang Move’ is kosher?
Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily
In light of the super secretive and sudden “Kajang Move”, it is somewhat unreasonable that the Selangor menteri besar’s “Langat Move” is being given the pariah treatment by some in Pakatan Rakyat.
After all, to borrow a line from the English playwright Christopher Marlowe, both the Kajang Move and the Langat Move are “two gold ingots, like in each respect”.
When PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh vacated his Kajang state seat out of the blue and de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim emerged like a shooting star to be its Kajang candidate, no consultation was done and no one outside of party strategist Rafizi Ramli’s inner circle was told.
PKR leaders and their Pakatan allies were kept in the dark, supposedly because it was on a “need to know” basis.
The Kajang by-election then became a light-fed singularity or back hole that drew in the media and political players from both sides as well as the attendant parasitic organisms that gravitate around political heavyweights.
Rafizi argued that the Kajang Move was kept secret from all including state PKR and the Selangor government, as well as Anwar himself, by necessity so as not to tip their hand to BN.
Similarly, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim argued the same when he did not consult or inform PKR leaders or their Pakatan allies of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) he signed with Putrajaya on taking over water supply in Selangor.
According to the MoU, Selangor will absorb four water concessionaires into state-owned Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd at a cost of RM9.65 billion, a price once rejected by the firms involved.
On its part, the federal government will ensure the BN-linked concessionaires’ cooperation and facilitate a RM2 billion grant to the state for water management purposes.
In return, the state will expedite within 30 days all necessary clearances and approvals for the Langat 2 water treatment plant project it had once deemed unnecessary.
Khalid said all this was kept secret by necessity to prevent insider trading and to keep the water concessionaires in the dark.
Other than that, cooperation with BN as in the water deal was not a new idea of Khalid’s. Indeed Anwar himself has been going around calling for the ruling coalition to sit down with the opposition pact to discuss issues of urgent public interest.
In fact, Anwar’s persistent calls for a roundtable with Putrajaya had led to speculation that he was being offered a deal by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to cross over to the ruling coalition.
Without doubt, resolving the water crisis in Selangor is a matter of urgent public interest. This would justify Khalid’s water deal.
And to dispel talk that he had ulterior motives to seal the MOU, Khalid said the agreement contained the salient points of a briefing he had given to the Pakatan top leadership earlier.
The contents, he reportedly said, were the same although the date and time of signing had been kept under wraps.
Sources have confirmed this is true, claiming that the MOU in fact tallies with earlier Pakatan briefings.
A briefing session was held on Friday for Pakatan representatives though some claimed that a glitch seemed to have caused many PAS and DAP representatives to miss the invite, despite the time being plastered on social media by some.
However, many Pakatan leaders are demanding more explanations on the MOU.
Some Pakatan leaders lamented the lack of transparency, saying Khalid should have consulted PKR and Pakatan before making such a big billion ringgit play.
Some were also unhappy with the lack of documentation and are concerned over the possibility of arbitration raising the cost of the takeover and causing water tariffs to rise.
Ironically, some of these people also worry that circumventing arbitration means that they are okaying BN’s strongarm nationalisation methods.
Others mull over whether the MOU will be binding or as ceremonial as the BN’s MOU with Hindraf, and point out that the timing of its signing suggested it could be a political move to unsettle Pakatan as by-elections for Kajang and Balingian draw nearer.
Whatever the case, many Pakatan representatives are still concerned over the matter, prompting a promise from Khalid to declassify the MOU so that it can be distributed to them.
Khalid’s Langat Move may be obscure, but if Pakatan is truly governed by transparency, then it should make sure that the projects to better manage Selangor water will be fully transparent, especially with regard to the utilisation of the RM2 billion grant.
