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Please Announce The Details Of The Proposed Mergers Into 10 Banking Groups Including The Time-Table Speech by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong at the Ordinary Convention of Perak DAP at the Excelsior Hotel, Ipoh,on 27 February 2000 | |||||||
| Since the general elections on 29 November 1999, Malaysians have to face challenges of the new millennium. These include the fight for democracy, justice, freedom and good governance. What we mean by democracy is government by the people, reflecting the will of the people. Whlie we need to strengthen DAP, we must continue to pay attention to various issues such as the retabling of the 2000 Budget on 25 February 2000, th proposed mergers of banks into 10 groups, the failure of the privatized sewage project, Indah Water Konsortium, and the various aspects of globalization. The central bank, Bank Negara, Governor Tan Sri Ali Abul Hassan reiterated that the end of December 2000 would the dateline for merging of banks in the country. He reminded these banks not to let mergers affect lending activities. The World Trade Organization, WTO, presses for liberalisaton of trade and finance including banking. International giants such as Bank of Tokyo are merging into bigger giants. Hence, Malaysian banks must improve their efficiency and competitiveness. If mergers mean efficiency and competitiveness, then Malaysians welcome them. But, we must eradicate irregularities such as corruption and cronyism. Initially, Bank Negara approved six anchor banks to bring about the mergers. Now, it indicates that there will be 10 anchor banks, forming 10 groups. The magic figure of 6 or 10 will not necessarily give rise to efficiency and competitiveness. We hope that the mergers are based purely on banking. We are concerned about the staff members of the banks. We propose that the Government work out a formula to deal with retrenched employees. These banks have hundreds or even thousands of branches. We must evaluate them before they can be merged. This will take | |
time. Besides announcing the dateline, Bank Negara must let us know how long it will take for mergers to be completed. Indah Water Konsortium When the Barisan Nasional, the National Front, Government tabled the bill in Parliament to approve the privatization of the national sewage system, we objected very strongly, pointing out the flaws including the refusal of the people to pay sewage charges. BN used its majority to bulldoze through the bill. In 1993, IWK began operation. It had a concession for 28 years at the cost of RM 6.2 billion. Various schemes of sewage rate were mooted such as charging between RM 2 to 10 monthly. People refused to pay. The company was restructured. Yet it still incurs a debt of about RM 700 million. Hitherto, the Government has given soft loans amounting to RM 1 billion. IWK is a dismal failure. It has cost the public hundreds of million of dollars. The Government has done an about turn; it has taken over the project, signalling the failure of some of the privatized projects. So far, over 343 projects have been privatized and the total cost is RM 66.7 billion. How many of these projects will be knocked out, KO, as IWK or IWKO? K(nowledge)-Economy What are the definition, implications and consequences of k(nowledge)-economy? We have called for comprehensive action to handle these. The Government has announced in the 2000 Budget that there will be a think tank, a steering committeeand a master plan to deal with them. The measures are late. We hope that they will be enough. Globalization, liberalisation and information technology, Internet, e-commerce and k-economy dominate the new millennium. Malaysians of all races should work hard towards the new order. As we are lagging behind, we have to catch up. Dr Tan Seng Giaw | |||||
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