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Selangor water protesters tear-gassed
The Malaysian Insider
UPDATED @ 05:17:44 PM
05-12-2010
By Boo Su-Lyn

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Riot police fired tear gas and used water cannons on at least 1,000 protesters near the KL Railway Station as they marched to the Istana Negara today to rally against a potential bailout of Selangor water utility companies.

Hundreds of protestors sought refuge at the Railway Station to avoid the police action after they started their march from the National Mosque.

Riot police later turned the water cannons on those who had gone back to the National Mosque despite organisers announcing an end to the rally shortly before 3pm.

The rally ended about 4pm when Pakatan Rakyat leaders appealed to the crowd at the National Mosque to disperse under the watch of phalanxes of fully-armed riot police.

Kuala Lumpur deputy police chief Senior Asst Commissioner Datuk Amar Singh promises to release those detained earlier to ensure a swift dispersal. It is understood that nearly 50 have been detained with
most of them held at the Police Field Force facility in Cheras.

“It is our guarantee that they will all be freed. So please disperse yourself.” he told the crowd.

Several policemen had earlier charged at more than 1,000 protesters, some of whom ran to seek sanctuary at the mosque. The crowd has so far remained at the vicinity of the National Mosque after failing to break through police barricades, water cannons and teargas.

The action at the National Mosque began after police had allowed a group of protesters through to deliver a memorandum the Yang di-Pertuan Agong seeking support for Selangor’s takeover of the
state’s water industry.

According to witnesses, police used tear gas and water cannons on the crowd after allowing Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and several state exco members to proceed to the Istana Negara.

“The MB and excos are inside the Istana gates. Submitting the memorandum. Or attempting to,” tweeted Khalid’s aide Tricia Yeoh.

In a statement issued this evening, the Selangor Mentri Besar’s office said Khalid handed the memorandum containing 250,000 signatures to Istana Negara public relations officer Khairi Abdul Rahman at 2.15pm.

The five-point memorandum asked among others that water rights to be handed back to the state.

Meanwhile, Kota Damansara assemblyman Dr Nasir Hashim was escorted by the police to Selangor’s water rally at the National Mosque, shortly after being detained earlier at the KL Sentral transport hub.

Apart from the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) chairman, two other PSM members who had been detained — Shah Alam councillor A. Sivarajan and party secretary-general S. Arulchelvam — were also escorted to the National Mosque, said Subang MP R. Sivarasa’s personal assistant, Peter Chong.

“The three were officially released and sent in a police car to the National Mosque,” Chong told The Malaysian Insider today.

The three had been held in the morning at the KL Sentral on their way to the Selangor water protest that began this morning at the National Mosque.

Witnesses said the trio were later re-arrested for being in the vicinity of the Istana Negara but police have yet to confirm.

The crowd later dispersed from the National Mosque after PAS central committee member and Kuala Selangor MP Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad pleaded with them.

“We guarantee that the last person standing will be freed. So we ask everyone to disperse,” he told the protesters, most of whom were clad in red.

More than 40 people at the rally were detained, said Chong.

“About 40 plus people were arrested. They are being taken to the Cheras police station,” Chong told The Malaysian Insider.

“Dr Nasir, Sivarajan, and Arulchelvam were rearrested, but they were just released again,” he added.

Earlier at the National Mosque at about 1.30 pm, Khalid called on the Sultan to support the Selangor government’s efforts to control the state’s water industry by upholding the Water Services Industry Act
2006.

“We humbly request the Tuanku to uphold the spirit and aim of the Water Services Industry Act 2006, which is to restructure the water services industry into one that is holistic and managed by the Selangor state government. We call upon Tuanku to remind the federal government of this,” he said in a speech at the National Mosque.

The Selangor mentri besar further accused Putrajaya of practising cronyism by backing the water concessionaires.

“It is the perception of the people that the federal government sides with the private sector, in this case a particular company, which is equivalent to cronyism,” said Khalid.

“The rakyat has to now pay high water rates and Malaysian taxpayers are forced to undertake the risk of Syabas’s business. We call upon the Tuanku to remind the federal government of their promise to end
cronyism,” he said.

Dr Dzulkefly told reporters later at the National Mosque that he would inform Parliament about the “excessive” police force used against the protestors, some of whom were women and children.

“It is excessive use of force,” said Dr Dzulkefly.

“It is unfortunate that the police used unwarranted force. We’ll raise this in Parliament,” he added.

Khalid’s administration is fighting for the rights over the water industry and promised to provide the first 20 cubic metres water for free and maintain 12 per cent increase in water tariff, compared to Syabas’ plans of a 25 per cent increase in 2012 and a 20 per cent increase in 2015.

Sources told The Malaysian Insider recently that Selangor water bondholders will urge Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to intervene directly in the state’s water restructuring deadlock in an effort to safeguard their bonds from being further downgraded.

The Malaysian Insider understands that major bondholders — including CIMB Principal Asset Management, Hong Leong Investment Bank and Great Eastern Life — have drafted a joint letter to Najib asking the federal government to bail out Syabas with a soft loan worth some RM1 billion.

In the letter, the bondholders contend that further downgrades of debt ratings will put capital markets at risk and will seriously impede the government’s effort to promote its Capital Markets Masterplan.

Putrajaya bailed out Syabas once already last year when it gave a RM320.8 million soft loan to parent company Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd (PNHB) in December to help settle its debts to water treatment
concessionaires.

Selangor’s water players — Syabas, Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB), Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash) and Konsortium ABASS — are at risk of debt payment default as water bonds
approach their maturity dates.

The debt service problem started when Syabas was barred from implementing a 37 per cent tariff hike agreed upon in January 2009, after the Selangor government claimed the sole water distributor had
not done enough to reduce leakages which cost the state millions.

This in turn led to payment problems between Syabas and water treatment concessionaires PNSB, Splash and Konsortium ABASS, who supply it with treated water.

Selangor water concessionaires are also already in technical default owing to the shortfall of money in the reserve account.

The Malaysian Insider understands that the reserve account, meant to hold at least six months’ worth of bond repayment money, is currently short by some RM50 million.

This shortfall may double in six months if the current water consolidation impasse remains unresolved.

The technical default triggered a downgrade of the debt issuances by Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) and RAM Ratings Services Bhd on September 8, who warned of further multiple-notch downgrades in this quarter.

An industry source told The Malaysian Insider that bondholders suffered RM457 million in mark-to-market losses following the downgrade.

A statement by MARC at the time urged the federal and state governments to urgently interfere in the water industry’s restructuring negotiations to prevent a free fall of ratings in following months.

Najib kicks off BN campaign, calls Pakatan ‘evil’
The Malaysian Insider
UPDATED @ 02:43:38 PM 05-12-2010
By Clara Chooi

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak appeared to kick off Barisan Nasional’s (BN) next election campaign today by delivering his hardest-hitting punches yet on his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) foes by calling them “anti-national” and “evil”, intensifying speculation that snap polls are around the corner.

While blaring the call to arms to Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties, the ruling coalition chairman thundered in a lengthy speech steeped in sarcasm that the opposition were merely “traders of dreams” while the ruling coalition were “merchants of realities”.

“Be wary all, beware all, they are very dangerous. They are willing to sell just about anything, including discrediting Malaysia’s name abroad.

“I would like to explain here that they are anti-national. We must fight them to the end and make sure that this country will not be destroyed by their evil activities,” he said in his opening speech at the BN convention in Wisma MCA here this morning.

For a good 20 minutes, the premier fired stinging attacks against the opposition pact, particularly against PKR, fully capitalising on the party’s fractious polls that were just concluded last month.

Dr Wan Azizah was mocked by Najib for calling Anwar “God-sent”.He also claimed that the party was attempting to imitate Umno, charging that this proved that they recognised the honesty of the ruling party’s struggles.

“We understand that perhaps they are following the saying in English that ‘imitation is the best form of flattery’,” he added.

The BN convention, themed “1 People, 1 Nation, 1 Vision”, the first for the ruling coalition since it suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat in Election 2008, runs from 9am to 5pm today and will feature debates on a variety of topics from 10 party component leaders.

Najib claimed that PKR’s integrity and credibility was doubted by its own members, pointing out that this was reflected in how members had rampaged to show their dissatisfaction and disappointment, rebelled, and caused commotions like throwing chairs during the party polls. He added that disgruntled members had even brought their complaints to court.

This was why, said Najib, it would be “strange” and “miraculous” if the results of the party’s direct elections had brought any “drastic changes” to the party, other than to pollute the people’s beliefs in the process.

“Additionally, as we know and as reported in the papers, many of their top party leaders themselves have abandoned PKR including their former deputy president, vice-president, secretary-general, youth chief, deputy youth chief, information chief, state chairman, division chairman, including from the Permatang Pauh division, former deputy chief minister, five assemblymen and five MPs,” he said.

He added with a smile that PKR should be more aptly described as “Parti Keluar Ramai-Ramai” (mass defection party) instead of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party).

Najib also took a direct swipe at PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail for describing her husband, the party’s de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as “God-sent” and questioned the Muslim leader on which “hadith” had she based her declaration on.

“In recent days, PKR is looking too desperate in attempting to plead for the people’s sympathy to a point that its own president claimed that the de facto leader is ‘God-sent’.

“Oh yes, we understand the loyalty and awe felt by a wife towards her husband, oh, the ‘ke… he… ba… tan’ (greatness) of her husband,” he said, dragging out the word “greatness” with a smile and inviting thunderous applause from his audience in Dewan San Choon here.

“Is this some kind of new teaching or, more accurately, is this some kind of deviant teaching? Enough of these twisted dramas. I hope the people will not be so easily swayed with this nonsense.

“It is important to remember that it is not the people’s duty to bear the burdens of its leaders but vice-versa and that is the stark difference between BN and PR,” he said.

Najib also claimed that the opposition pact was not adequately represented by all racial communities in Malaysia but was dominated by one or two races.

Party members in the other minority races, he added, were merely “tokens” or for “cosmetic” purposes.

“More accurately, they are a pact of two families, with the third one merely a follower,” he said, describing the pact as one formed by parties sleeping on the same bed but sharing different dreams.

In yet another attack against PKR, Najib slammed the multi-racial party for accusing Umno of nepotism when the leaders in its top ranks comprised of the father, mother and daughter.

He was referring to how Anwar was PKR de facto leader; his wife Dr Wan Azizah, the party’s president; and daughter Nurul Izzah, the newly-elected vice-president.

“It is hilarious when they are brave enough to accuse us of practising nepotism. I would like to ask here, who are the real [practitioners] of nepotism? In the words of legal maxim — justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. Moreover, it must not only be proper, it must also be seen to be proper,” he said.

The other PR parties of DAP and PAS also did not escape Najib’s lengthy tirade this morning and the premier poked fun at the former party for being a “two-dynasty hegemony”.

DAP’s Kit Siang and Guan Eng was described as a “dynasty” by Najib.“It is a party ‘Anak Beranak Sdn Bhd’. With a two-dynasty hegemony, one powerful family and another without power but actually, all are merely ceremonial.

“Because in this party’s system, the secretary-general is more powerful than the chairman,” he said.

Najib’s invectives were aimed at the powerful father-and-son teams of DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, his son secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, and DAP chairman Karpal Singh and his son, MP Gobind Singh.

Additionally, Najib pointed to the lack of non-Chinese representation in DAP despite the party’s continued claims of being multiracial.

“With that reasoning, they should uphold what they so sanctimoniously preach to others with righteous indignation,” he said.

As for PAS, Najib accused the Islamist party of failing its own ideologies by working closely with “big liars, forgers of documents and traitors to the country” in the other PR member parties.

“The aspiration to be a political leader is not unusual but the people should be wary of the consequences of such a struggle. The people must understand that these opposition parties are dishonest, are opportunists and full of hypocrisy.

“We know that they desperately want to take office in Putrajaya, they want to live in Seri Perdana (the prime minister’s official residence) and because of that, they are willing to do anything to grab power, and from time to time, will act barbaric and greedy. Malaysia and the world know about the September 16 incident that eventually turned into the greatest lie in the country’s political history,” he said.

Najib also cautioned BN parties against allowing certain parties to destroy what the government had so carefully built over the years, for the purpose of satisfying their personal greed and lust for power.

“For that reason, no matter what happens, we must defend Putrajaya, not because of our egos or narrow self-interests, but for the good of Malaysians on a whole,” he said.

The BN convention, themed “1 People, 1 Nation, 1 Vision”, the first for the ruling coalition since it suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat in Elections 2008, goes on from 9am to 5pm today and will feature debates on a variety of topics from party component leaders.