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Since 1983, the Malaysian Government has privatized 203 companies. It stresses the benefits such as between 1996 and 2000 17,442 civil servants going to the private sector and savings amounting to RM49.3 billion.

Facilities such as highways have improved and the earnings of Tenaga Nasional Berhad are in the hundreds of millions because of captive market. But, are these privatized projects value for money?

No doubt, a well-run company is good. How many of the 203 companies are run well?

Yesterday, Dr Mahathir said," Privatized companies like other companies can fail and a number of the privatized companies in Malaysia had failed due to the economic turmoil of 1997/1998."

"We have learnt a lot about the pitfalls and we are now more careful," he added.

BAILOUT CRITERIA

Let us know about the pitfalls and the criteria for the rescue of failed companies to prevent social problems such as unemployment. What Malaysians don’t want to see is the bailout for certain privileged individuals, not for the public.

U.S.A. and UK have bailed out certain companies before. What criteria have they used?

The failure of certain companies such as Indah Water Konsortium, IWK, for sewerage and Malaysian Airlines System, MAS, are not all due to the economic crisis. For example, people especially those with individual septic tanks refuse to pay IWK that promises better and centralized sewerage system.

The Government pays RM8 per share for MAS equity whereas the market price is over RM3. Whatever the excuses of the Government, the people cannot accept this. Then, there are many things in MAS that cause public unhappiness. For instance, the domestic routes lose about RM1 million a day. There are over 40 Boeing 737 aircrafts plying the routes some of which are not popular. The size of 737 fleet is supposed to be the largest outside U.S.A.

Why does MAS purchase Boeing 777 passenger liners when there are not enough routes for them? There were over ten Airbus A330 flying certain international routes and only one for 777, from Dubai to New York. After the company bought over ten 777, B330 were laid idle, so that 777 could be flown to justify the purchase. The Government should investigate these so that the public would know the truth.

Each new passenger liner can cost up to US$164 million. The deal is usually done through an agent. Each agent collects 5 to 7% commission. If we take 5% for ten aircrafts of US$165 million each, the commission comes up to US$82.50 million or RM313.5 million.

We maintain that there is a need for a public inquiry on MAS including the details of the Government purchase and Petronas involvement in the MAS saga.

 Dr Tan Seng Giaw