Not worth the paper it is written on
Raja Petra Kamarudin
They say in legal circles that a verbal agreement is not worth the paper
it is written on. Islam says, if a man breaks his word up to three
times, then do not take him as a friend or comrade. Islamic scholar or
ulamak Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, also currently Prime Minister of Malaysia,
gave his word and he broke it more than three times. Abdullah,
therefore, cannot be taken as a friend either in the western or Islamic
perspective.
And who did Abdullah give his word to? He gave it to previous Prime
Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad -- and of course to all Malaysians in
his 2004 Election Manifesto, which he has also broken. And what did he
promise Dr Mahathir? Many things, amongst which are that the Scenic or
'Crooked' Bridge would not be abandoned, the double tracking railway
line would be pursued, and the national car, Proton, would be supported
-- just to mention but three.
After Dr Mahathir announced his resignation to a shocked Umno General
Assembly in mid-2002, Abdullah and Dr Mahathir spent 15 months in
countless conferences to discuss what the former should and would do
when he finally takes over as Prime Minister in November 2003. Dr
Mahathir went into great detail and explained at length why he did what
he did in his 22 years as Malaysia's Prime Minister. Dr Mahathir had a
reason for his many perceived lunatic moves. Even Abdullah, who was his
deputy soon after Anwar Ibrahim's exit in September 1998, could not
understand everything that Dr Mahathir did. Now he does.
Abdullah sat there taking pages after pages of notes as Dr Mahathir gave
him a 15-month crash course in Mahanomics (synonymous with Reaganomics).
By the end of the 15-month training and orientation programme, Abdullah
understood fully what was in the head of that strange animal called
Mahathir. More importantly, Abdullah now saw the logic in Dr Mahathir's
every move and agreed that, though sometimes somewhat devious, many of
these moves were actually quite necessary in the pursuit of the bigger
objective.
Many of Dr Mahathir's moves would certainly appear loony to the
uninitiated. They would appear even stranger when viewed in the backdrop
of what was perceived as a failed plan. Dr Mahathir was a blunderer and
the many disasters he left as a legacy to Abdullah in November 2003 laid
testimony to this. But Abdullah knew they were no disasters. He did not
know earlier of course. But 15 months of sitting in front of Dr Mahathir
and taking notes as the Prime Minister imparted his innermost thoughts
left Abdullah with no doubts that this old man knew what he was up to
and these moves could only be labelled as brilliant.
Take the Scenic or 'Crooked' Bridge as one example. No one would
disagree if we were to say that this is the most stupid idea yet to come
out of Dr Mahathir's mind. Why build half a bridge? Why build such a
silly looking bridge that would wind its way around because it had to
join the Causeway halfway across the Straits of Johor or Tebrau Straits?
If they built a full bridge, then the bridge could be built straight,
lower and shorter at maybe almost the same cost as half a bridge. But
now they are building half a bridge, so it has to be crooked and higher
-- and the cost for half a bridge is not half the cost of a full,
straight bridge. But they can't build a straight or full bridge because
Singapore will not allow their half of the Causeway to be demolished and
they are not interested in building the other half of the bridge on
their side or within their territorial waters.
Singapore could of course agree to join Malaysia in this bridge project
and agree to the Causeway being demolished and a full, straight bridge
be built to replace the Causeway. But Singapore wanted the bridge to be
packaged with a lot of other goodies, all in Singapore's favour. These
goodies would be like throwing in the supply of sand, allowing Singapore
Air Force planes more flights over Malaysian air space, plus a re-look
at the water agreement.
Dr Mahathir did not agree to this. He would not package the bridge with
all these other issues and he wanted each issue to be an issue by itself
and to be negotiated separately and on its own merits. Dr Mahathir was
no fool. He knew if he rejected Singapore's demand for a packaged deal,
then Singapore would not agree to the bridge. Malaysia could go on with
the bridge if it wanted, but it can only build a bridge on Malaysia's
side, not on Singapore's side. Therefore it would have to be a
silly-looking half-bridge that would need to be highly elevated and
winding.
That was exactly what Dr Mahathir wanted. He wanted Singapore to reject
the full, straight bridge idea and stipulate that Malaysia can only
build half a bridge if it still insisted on proceeding with the plan. Dr
Mahathir did not want a full bridge. He wanted a half-bridge. A full
bridge would mean it would have to be straight and therefore low. A
half-bridge would force the bridge to curve and therefore it would have
to be built highly elevated.
What Dr Mahathir really wanted is the space beneath the bridge which a
full bridge would not offer while a half-bridge would. And why did he
want this space? He wanted it because he wanted large container ships
and oil tankers to be able to sail under the bridge.
The Straits of Melaka is one of the busiest sea lanes in the world. But
ships plying the Straits cannot reach Johor Port unless they sail around
Singapore. So they would rather stop at the Port of Singapore instead of
coming to Johor. Even ships carrying goods bound for Malaysia would
rather stop at Singapore for transhipment to Malaysia rather than sail
to Malaysia. Once there is a highly elevated bridge, then the ships can
bypass Singapore and come straight to Malaysia.
In short, a highly elevated 'crooked' bridge would boost the viability
of Johor Port and pose a serious threat to the Port of Singapore. To be
more dramatic, the bridge could actually kill the Port of Singapore and
make Johor Port the new centre for imports to and exports from Malaysia
-- plus for those Indonesian importers and exporters as well who
currently would rather use Singapore than sail the extra distance around
Singapore to come to Johor.
That was what Dr Mahathir really wanted. He was not actually interested
in the bridge. He was more interested in Malaysia overtaking Singapore
in the port business. And the crooked, high, half-bridge would be able
to achieve this. A straight, low, full bridge would not. Dr Mahathir
very cleverly manoeuvred so that Singapore would disagree with the full
bridge and would instead ask Malaysia to proceed with half a bridge.
Once they said that, Dr Mahathir got them exactly where he wanted them.
The half-bridge is Singapore's idea, not Dr Mahathir's, so Singapore
cannot now turn around and say that they had been tricked and the bridge
was merely a Red Herring and that the real motive was to outdo the Port
of Singapore.
Somehow, along the way, Malaysia's Foreign Minister packaged the supply
of sand and more SAF flights over Malaysian air space in the bridge
deal. Dr Mahathir never agreed to this. But Abdullah did for reasons
known only to himself and his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin. The sand
would of course come from Johor and those individuals who will be
awarded the contract to supply sand to Singapore are family members of
those involved in the decision-making process at the very top echelons
of power -- those walking in the corridors of power. The supply of sand
is not a government effort but a private arrangement. What is even more
perturbing to Dr Mahathir is that Singapore did not demand that the
supply of sand be included in the deal. This idea came from Malaysia. It
was Malaysia that proposed it, not Singapore that demanded it.
When the Johor Menteri Besar found out about the supply of sand
arrangement he was outraged. Dr Mahathir had banned the export of sand
back in 1997 and Johor was quite happy with this as the sand was coming
from Johor and it is the politicians and their cronies who are making
hundreds of millions out of it. For the first time in his life this very
polished man who always has a sweet smile for anyone he encounters lost
his cool. He never raises his voice, especially to the Prime Minister.
But that day he did and he told the Prime Minister that Umno Johor will
strongly oppose any Johor sand being sold to Singapore. Even the palace
got into the act and there was a danger of another Constitutional Crisis
erupting.
In short, there was a mutiny and Johor was in revolt. A crisis never
before seen in Malaysian history was about to explode. This was a
state-federal conflict in the making. Abdullah had blundered big time.
He had agreed that the bridge would include the supply of sand to
Singapore. Now Johor, the source of the sand, put its foot down and
threatened to resist at whatever cost, and Johor can be as independent
as Kelantan if it so wishes. They would also reveal the names of all
those who stand to benefit from this supply of sand; family members of
those at the very top of the Abdullah administration. If you think the
Mahathir-Anwar crisis was exciting, the supply of sand to Singapore
would dwarf this by far.
Two days later, Abdullah announced that the bridge project would be
aborted, after starting work on it (and incurring a liability of RM100
million). Three weeks before that, Parliament had reiterated the bridge
project would go on and the Minister of Works himself assured Parliament
that this would be so. But now it was off. They would not be proceeding
with the bridge. They could not proceed with it. To proceed with it
would mean they have to supply sand to Singapore. And this would create
a massive crisis between the federal government and the Johor state
government. The only way out of the supply of sand commitment would be
to abort the bridge project. No bridge, no sand, and no federal
government-Johor state government crisis, plain and simple.
But it is out of the frying pan, into the fire. Without the bridge,
there would be no way ships could sail to Johor Port through the Straits
and the Port of Singapore would continue to dominate this region. Dr
Mahathir's plan to build up Johor Port and challenge Singapore's
dominance was thwarted. And it was thwarted by no other than his
successor who had promised him that the bridge would go on. And it was
thwarted because some greedy people in the decision-making team had
tried to get rich quick through selling sand to Singapore by packaging
the sand supply deal in the bridge proposal.
Dr Mahathir was hopping mad. Abdullah had made a big booboo, and to get
out of this booboo he cancelled the bridge project. Abdullah was trying
to save his arse. But in doing so he sacrificed Malaysia. Johor Port
would now have to remain as pathetic as it has always been. And the Port
of Singapore would remain the big wheel of this region. Flushed down the
toilet is Dr Mahathir's plan for overtaking Singapore. And, to make it
worse, Abdullah had promised Dr Mahathir the bridge would go on. And he
understood fully well why it must. And he realised that the bridge was
for the good of Malaysia's commerce. But saving his arse was his first
priority. Saving Johor Port has to come second.
That is the story of the 'Crooked' Bridge. There are many other stories
such as about the double tracking railway line, the national car, and
more. Suffice to say, the double tracking railway line had the same
objective as the 'Crooked' Bridge; in that Malaysia's commerce would
improve and Singapore's dominance in the region would be given a serious
challenge. But Abdullah aborted this as well.
The double tracking railway line was actually the first move. Once the
double tracking was done, then the high speed train was supposed to
follow. Imagine the day when one could live in a cheaper town like Ipoh
where property prices are half those in the big city, yet work in Kuala
Lumpur -- and the time it takes to get to work from Ipoh would be faster
than driving from Subang Jaya to Kuala Lumpur today. The small towns
would boom and development would be spread out throughout the country
instead of concentrated in a few key areas like it is today. But that
too now remains just a dream.
The MV Agusta matter is another issue. Dr Mahathir was going to use MV
Agusta to develop a peoples' car (volks wagen) that could be marketed
for as low as RM10,000, or less. MV Agusta had the technology to do this
and the cost to buy MV Agusta, in spite of it debts, was still lower
than embarking on this project doing your own R&D from scratch. R&D
costs billions of Ringgit and to develop a car from scratch would not
only cost more but would be time consuming as well. Even if you are
prepared to pay the higher cost, the time would take too long. MV Agusta
was a short cut and at a cheaper price on top of that.
But MV Agusta was sold off for RM4 and Dr Mahathir's RM10,000 peoples'
car went down the toilet, just like all the others. In fact, the sale of
MV Agusta itself raises other questions. How did they decide who to sell
it to and do those in the decision-making process have an interest in
the company that bought MV Agusta? (Which raises the issue of conflict
of interest.) Dr Mahathir knows the real story, as he does about who
those sand suppliers are, but he is not revealing all, at least not just
yet.
It is not that Abdullah is ignorant about all this. He knows the agenda
behind the 'Crooked' Bridge, double tracking railway line, MV Agusta,
and much more. He knows that all these are mere catalysts for bigger
things. And he agreed that these are necessary for the future of the
country. Yet he dismantled them one by one just to make it appear like
Dr Mahathir is stupid and that all his ideas are stupid. It is all about
politics and of trying to undermine Dr Mahathir. And what better way to
do this than to dismantle what Dr Mahathir started and give the
impression that the previous Prime Minister was a nut case. So the
country suffers. So what? That is the small picture. The big picture is:
Dr Mahathir is embarrassed.
The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is another thing that Dr Mahathir was and
still is against. All those years he was prime minister he resisted the
FTA. Then, late last year, Abdullah secretly signed the FTA with Japan
whereby Japanese automobiles would have free access to the Malaysian
market while Malaysian vegetables would have free access to the Japanese
market. Malaysian vegetables? What vegetables do we have that we can
export to Japan? We do not even grow enough for our own consumption and
almost everything we eat needs to be supplemented with imports. Anyway,
do the Japanese eat our vegetables? Abdullah might as well have signed
an FTA with Canada whereby we export ice cubes to the Eskimos.
The FTA Abdullah signed with Japan was so confidential that even the
Cabinet did not know about it until Abdullah informed its members later,
after it had been signed. The Cabinet members were shocked, but by then
it was too late to do anything about it. And how is Proton going to
survive once Japanese cars get free access to the Malaysian market when
even Europe and the United States can't compete with them?
Proton is a dead man walking. Its days are numbered and it will be just
a matter of time when the national car folds. As the Malays would say:
siap kain kapan (prepare the funeral shroud).
Now the United States also wants the FTA with Malaysia signed and the
US-Malaysia FTA would open all government contracts and procurement to
US companies. That is the end of the New Economic Policy. The days of
the Bumiputera businessmen are numbered. Malays will have to revert to
becoming clerks and drivers again.
Dr Mahathir is beginning to doubt whether Abdullah knows what he is
doing. As far as Dr Mahathir is concerned, whatever he did, he did with
the interest of the nation at heart. But Abdullah's moves, the way Dr
Mahathir sees it, are moves of a traitor who does not care about the
country's interest. Dr Mahathir is quite prepared to allow Abdullah to
run this country the way he, as Prime Minister, sees fit. But Dr
Mahathir will not remain silent and allow this state of affairs to
continue if, as he put it, Malaysia's sovereignty is jeopardised. Dr
Mahathir would rather take on Abdullah than allow the man to destroy
this country. Not just Dr Mahathir, but many Umno veterans as well
believe that power in the hands of Abdullah is like giving a flower to a
monkey. Monkeys do not appreciate the beauty of flowers.
