SHAH ALAM, 2 Apr: The Managing Director of Kumpulan Gamuda Berhad, Datuk Lin Yun Ling, is in no way qualified to talk about the purity of the water concession contract in Selangor when he only wants unreasonable profit for the company’s shareholders.
In a joint statement, the PKR Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli; the Central PAS Committee Member, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and the Selangor DAP Chairman, Tony Pua, said that Yun Ling is also hypocritical when questioning the appropriateness of the Federal Government in using Section 114 of the Water Services Industry Act 200 (WSIA).
They said that Yun Ling should be clear on the terms contained in the agreement that there is a clause to terminate the concession holdings and repurchase by the Federal Government or State Government with fair conditions.
“Therefore, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) fully supports efforts by the Chief Minister of Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and the state government in asking the Federal Government to use WSIA 114 to solve issues in the water restructuring.
“This is to enable the State Government to focus on investment and improve the quality an quantity of water supply channelled to consumers,” they said.
Last Friday, through The Edge, Yun Ling claimed that he doubted the sincerity of the contract signed by the Gamuda subsidiary company, Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Holdings (Splash) in the water industry in Selangor.
He also questioned why the concept of ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ was not used to a point of needing to activate the WSIA 114.
However, the PR leaders said that Yun Ling actually did not want business to be conducted through mutual consent of the buyer and seller; instead he wanted the deal to be done via the ‘delirious seller, extorted buyer’ deal.
“In fact, the policy of ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ was also used by the State Government to take over the water concessions in Selangor for six years without success.
“Gamuda actually wants to oppress the people when they did not accept the high offer from the State Government previously, causing the people to face water crisis and this should be resolved soon,” they said.
By activating the WSIA, the compensation received by each concessionaire is expected to be RM2 billion lower than the price offered by the State Government.
Previously, the State Government offered a compensation of RM9.65 billion to the concessionaires, but only Abbas received the offer while the three others; Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), Puncak Niaga including Splash, did not agree.
