Reveal all concessions approved by Najib administration, Rafizi dares Zahid

(Malay Mail Online) – Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should disclose all privatisation contracts signed by Putrajaya to back his claim that the Mahathir administration was responsible for many lopsided deals, PKR’s Rafizi Ramli said in a challenge today.

Responding to Zahid’s remarks from yesterday, the PKR secretary-general pointed out that he has revealed multiple cases of questionable privatisation projects undertaken by the Najib administration.

Among these are the private contracts for Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) campuses in Kota Samarahan (Sarawak), Pasir Gudang (Johor), Selandar (Malacca), Seremban III (Negeri Sembilan), Puncak Alam (Selangor) and Tapah (Perak) that last for over two decades.

He also pointed out that concession agreements for new highways such as the East Klang Valley Expressway (EKVE), Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Highway (SUKE), West Coast Expressway (WCE) and more came during the current administration.

“I urge Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi reveal all privatisation projects approved since Datuk Seri Najib Razak became prime minister and start taking action on these agreements to ensure the people will not be burdened with compensation that are too high to the concessionaires who overall are cronies.

“If he doesn’t dare to reveal these agreements and to take action to stop this government project privatisation craze via concessions, he should not talk about other concessions that were approved by the Umno/Barisan Nasional administration (regardless of who the prime minister was at the time),” he said in a statement.

Rafizi, who is also the Pandan MP, also said that the Mahathir administration’s approval of many highway concession agreements and independent power production (IPP) contracts did not render the current government incapable of revisiting such deals.

He then repeated PKR’s previous suggestion for Public Agreements Commission to be formed to review all agreements with the private sector that involve public interest.

Based on that, agreements that are more fair to the people can be negotiated, especially when a big part of the shareholders in those private companies are fully owned by government-linked companies.

When announcing a high-level committee to study complaints on rising prices yesterday, Ahmad Zahid acknowledged the issue but remarked that some stemmed from “one-sided” agreements signed by previous administrations.