13/11: It’s a bird, its Ricoda, its Score. No its Breaking Wind!
Category: Letters
Posted by: raja petra
By Old Sea Dog
Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, the regional development corridors being proposed by Abdullah Badawi are just media hype prior to the next General Elections. Once the elections are over these development corridors are just not going to happen. This is becoming more obvious.
Firstly the Government cannot even agree on what to call these ‘development corridors’. In the beginning they called it the South Johor Economic Region or SJER. Then on the day of its launching in November last year the Prime Minister called it ‘Iskandar’ – in honour of the Sultan of Johor. But even the Sultan was surprised at his name being used without his prior consultation. Now the SJER is called the Iskandar Development Region or IDR.
Then the PM launched the NCER or Northern Corridor Economic Region covering Perak, Penang, Kedah and Perlis. After this the ECER or Eastern Corridor for Economic Development was launched covering Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan. There is no serious planning about any of these corridors hence even the names are just plucked out of thin air.
The Prime Minister said that he would prefer the name WEPT for the ECER. The Prime Minister dwelt at length on this subject. He said WEPT stood for ‘Wilayah Ekonomi Pantai Timur’ but someone told him ‘wept’ means ‘to cry’. Being a graduate of Islamic Studies the PM was not aware of this before. However, his wife told him that WEPT was ok because even if it meant crying it was in the past tense. The people had wept or cried, now they need not cry anymore. So WEPT was good. At the last minute someone told the Prime Minister that ‘ecer’ in the local dialect meant to divide or share. So ECER has stuck.
Melaka and Negeri Sembilan have been completely left out of the development corridors on the Peninsula. They will not get any ‘ecer’. So Melaka and Negeri Sembilan can weep. Then over in Sarawak the Prime Minister was supposed to launch the last economic corridor today, November 13, 2007. But there is some confusion about the Sarawak corridor.
According to the Borneo Times ‘Sarawak’s regional corridor of development will span from Tanjong Manis to Bintulu.’ It was known as ‘Ricoda’ which stands for ‘regional corridor of development’. Or so everyone thought. However, ‘Ricoda’ has somehow changed name to become something called ‘Score’. Here is yesterday’s Borneo Times:
Monday, November 12th, 2007 : Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is expected to officially launch the corridor, which is believed to be named the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), soon.
So now it is a 'Corridor of Renewable Energy'. But according to Bernama there is no such launching of either Score or Ricoda today. Instead the Prime Minister will be launching a ‘mega’ road junction near the Kuching airport. After that he will officiate the construction of a hotel, an Islamic Centre worth RM100.0 million and then end up having dinner with the Chief Minister before returning home to Kuala Lumpur.
Unlike Melaka and Negeri Sembilan which have decided to keep mum (they are smarter) about not being included in any of the development corridors, Sabah has kicked up a fuss and demanded their own development corridor. Not to worry. The Prime Minister said that the Sabah development corridor will take off by the end of the year. Here is The Star:
“After six months of planning, the details of Sabah’s development corridor will be finalised in a meeting in Kuala Lumpur this Friday. Speaking at the launching of the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) 22nd congress yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he was happy that there were no obstacles in finalising the corridor’s blueprint.”
As for its name the Prime Minister is pondering ‘Breaking Wind’ to tally with ‘Land Below the Wind’.
These are not real mega projects. They are only ‘mega announcements’. It is not just the confusing names which expose the fraud. The mind boggling numbers that are being thrown out are completely not feasible.
For comparison the North South Highway cost RM4.0 billion. The KLCC Twin Towers project cost about RM2.5 billion. The KLIA was initially costed at RM3.5 billion but went beyond that. Putrajaya is estimated to have cost RM8.0 billion. The Putra LRT system initially cost under RM2.0 billion. The Star LRT cost about RM1.0 billion. The first Penang Bridge was built for under RM900 million. The Sepang F1 Circuit cost under RM350 million. This only adds up to RM22.25 billion. Even allowing a RM10.0 billion margin for error, it could not exceed RM32.25 billion. These projects were built over 22 years of Dr Mahathir’s administration and have helped put our country on the world map.
Now let us look at Abdullah Bodowi’s numbers : The Northern Corridor Economic Region or NCER will require RM118.0 billion over 10 years. The ECER will require RM112.0 billion over 12 years. The first five years of the IDR will involve RM50.0 billion. This already adds up to RM280 billion. We have not heard the numbers for Ricoda (or Score) and Breaking Wind yet. If we conservatively estimate RM50 billion each for Sarawak and Sabah the total amount of investments needed in all the corridors will be RM380 billion, all within the next 12 years. This means there must be an average of RM31 billion being spent on development projects in the country every year for the next 12 years.
To put it into perspective, we must build a KLIA, a new KLCC Twin Towers, a new Putrajaya, a new N-S Highway, at least two LRT systems, a new Sepang circuit and a Penang Bride every year for the next 12 years. This is just not going to happen. The Prime Minister is lying. This is why if we visit the Iskandar Development Region website at http://www.irda.com.my there is no more mention of all these Ringgit amounts anymore. They have all been removed.
According to a senior Government official, at the recent launch of the ECER in Kota Bharu, the Menteri Besar of Kelantan Dato Nik Aziz Nik Mat reminded the Prime Minister that there are two types of development. One is ‘pembangunan yang benar’ or real development. The other one is ‘pembangunan bercakap’ or just empty talk. The Menteri Besar also made known that all the hundreds of billions of Ringgit that were being bandied about were ‘mengkagumkan’ or awesome. In other words he did not believe a word of what the Prime Minister was saying. The Tok Guru was correct on this one.
Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, the regional development corridors being proposed by Abdullah Badawi are just media hype prior to the next General Elections. Once the elections are over these development corridors are just not going to happen. This is becoming more obvious.
Firstly the Government cannot even agree on what to call these ‘development corridors’. In the beginning they called it the South Johor Economic Region or SJER. Then on the day of its launching in November last year the Prime Minister called it ‘Iskandar’ – in honour of the Sultan of Johor. But even the Sultan was surprised at his name being used without his prior consultation. Now the SJER is called the Iskandar Development Region or IDR.
Then the PM launched the NCER or Northern Corridor Economic Region covering Perak, Penang, Kedah and Perlis. After this the ECER or Eastern Corridor for Economic Development was launched covering Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan. There is no serious planning about any of these corridors hence even the names are just plucked out of thin air.
The Prime Minister said that he would prefer the name WEPT for the ECER. The Prime Minister dwelt at length on this subject. He said WEPT stood for ‘Wilayah Ekonomi Pantai Timur’ but someone told him ‘wept’ means ‘to cry’. Being a graduate of Islamic Studies the PM was not aware of this before. However, his wife told him that WEPT was ok because even if it meant crying it was in the past tense. The people had wept or cried, now they need not cry anymore. So WEPT was good. At the last minute someone told the Prime Minister that ‘ecer’ in the local dialect meant to divide or share. So ECER has stuck.
Melaka and Negeri Sembilan have been completely left out of the development corridors on the Peninsula. They will not get any ‘ecer’. So Melaka and Negeri Sembilan can weep. Then over in Sarawak the Prime Minister was supposed to launch the last economic corridor today, November 13, 2007. But there is some confusion about the Sarawak corridor.
According to the Borneo Times ‘Sarawak’s regional corridor of development will span from Tanjong Manis to Bintulu.’ It was known as ‘Ricoda’ which stands for ‘regional corridor of development’. Or so everyone thought. However, ‘Ricoda’ has somehow changed name to become something called ‘Score’. Here is yesterday’s Borneo Times:
Monday, November 12th, 2007 : Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is expected to officially launch the corridor, which is believed to be named the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), soon.
So now it is a 'Corridor of Renewable Energy'. But according to Bernama there is no such launching of either Score or Ricoda today. Instead the Prime Minister will be launching a ‘mega’ road junction near the Kuching airport. After that he will officiate the construction of a hotel, an Islamic Centre worth RM100.0 million and then end up having dinner with the Chief Minister before returning home to Kuala Lumpur.
Unlike Melaka and Negeri Sembilan which have decided to keep mum (they are smarter) about not being included in any of the development corridors, Sabah has kicked up a fuss and demanded their own development corridor. Not to worry. The Prime Minister said that the Sabah development corridor will take off by the end of the year. Here is The Star:
“After six months of planning, the details of Sabah’s development corridor will be finalised in a meeting in Kuala Lumpur this Friday. Speaking at the launching of the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) 22nd congress yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he was happy that there were no obstacles in finalising the corridor’s blueprint.”
As for its name the Prime Minister is pondering ‘Breaking Wind’ to tally with ‘Land Below the Wind’.
These are not real mega projects. They are only ‘mega announcements’. It is not just the confusing names which expose the fraud. The mind boggling numbers that are being thrown out are completely not feasible.
For comparison the North South Highway cost RM4.0 billion. The KLCC Twin Towers project cost about RM2.5 billion. The KLIA was initially costed at RM3.5 billion but went beyond that. Putrajaya is estimated to have cost RM8.0 billion. The Putra LRT system initially cost under RM2.0 billion. The Star LRT cost about RM1.0 billion. The first Penang Bridge was built for under RM900 million. The Sepang F1 Circuit cost under RM350 million. This only adds up to RM22.25 billion. Even allowing a RM10.0 billion margin for error, it could not exceed RM32.25 billion. These projects were built over 22 years of Dr Mahathir’s administration and have helped put our country on the world map.
Now let us look at Abdullah Bodowi’s numbers : The Northern Corridor Economic Region or NCER will require RM118.0 billion over 10 years. The ECER will require RM112.0 billion over 12 years. The first five years of the IDR will involve RM50.0 billion. This already adds up to RM280 billion. We have not heard the numbers for Ricoda (or Score) and Breaking Wind yet. If we conservatively estimate RM50 billion each for Sarawak and Sabah the total amount of investments needed in all the corridors will be RM380 billion, all within the next 12 years. This means there must be an average of RM31 billion being spent on development projects in the country every year for the next 12 years.
To put it into perspective, we must build a KLIA, a new KLCC Twin Towers, a new Putrajaya, a new N-S Highway, at least two LRT systems, a new Sepang circuit and a Penang Bride every year for the next 12 years. This is just not going to happen. The Prime Minister is lying. This is why if we visit the Iskandar Development Region website at http://www.irda.com.my there is no more mention of all these Ringgit amounts anymore. They have all been removed.
According to a senior Government official, at the recent launch of the ECER in Kota Bharu, the Menteri Besar of Kelantan Dato Nik Aziz Nik Mat reminded the Prime Minister that there are two types of development. One is ‘pembangunan yang benar’ or real development. The other one is ‘pembangunan bercakap’ or just empty talk. The Menteri Besar also made known that all the hundreds of billions of Ringgit that were being bandied about were ‘mengkagumkan’ or awesome. In other words he did not believe a word of what the Prime Minister was saying. The Tok Guru was correct on this one.