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Maybe Primary Industry Minister Lim Keng Yaik should enlighten Malaysians on the latest double-tracking railway fiasco   Press Statement by Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew (Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): It is learnt that it was the Primary Industry Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik who made the initiative to invite both Indian and Chinese governments to build the double tracking railway project in exchange for palm oil. Subsequently, the Indian and Chinese governments appointed Ircon and CREC respectively to be the contractors for the project with the knowledge of Malaysian government. Ircon has since set up its team to operate from the Sentral, and the CREC has set up its office at the Faber. But the project is now given to MMC-Gamuda, which were controlled by tycoons Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary and Lin Yun Ling respectively. May be Keng Yaik should now enlighten Malaysians on why this barter trade arrangement had failed. As the minister who initiated the deal, he is also duty-bound to prevent the fiasco from severing the ties between Malaysia and these two countries. According to a NST business Times report on Oct 24,2003, the Indian High Commissioner Veena Sikri has conveyed her country's concern over Ircon's failure to be appointed the main contractor of the double-tracking project to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The press conference called by MMC-Gamuda has raised the question of Malaysia breaching international tender codes of conduct with MoF's LA relegating Ircon and China Railway to a lesser role than main contractors. Gamuda was threatened with legal action by Keretapi Trans-Asia Bhd (KTAB) which claimed Gamuda has got engaged to a maiden but married another wife. It is learnt that neither Ircon / CREC consortium nor the Indian/ Chinese embassies were officially informed that the 2001 MoU signed on a Government to Government (G2G) level has been declared null and void. After getting the news through the mass media that second finance minister Jamaluddin Jarjis has issued the letter of award (LA) to Gamuda-MMC on the night of October 21, the Ircon/CREC consortium re-submitted a joint proposal to the government on October 22 to bid for the project at a lower price - based on the "Toyota specs", an industry lingo used to denote the revised Statement of Needs (SoN) issued by the Malaysian government. The specifications were termed as the "Rolls Royce specs" before the SoN was changed to accommodate Gamuda-MMC's late entry in May, after the bidding process was closed in March this year. It is learnt that Ircon/CREC's new quotation could be as low as RM14.3 billion if the number of stopover railway stations is realigned with the intended train speed between 120kph to 160kph. Now that the Ircon/ CREC consortium has matched the price quoted by MMC-Gamuda( RM14.66billion) based on the new Statement of Needs, the Malaysian government would have no excuse to tear the MoUs apart. (When the G2G MoUs were signed in 2001, palm oil was hovering around RM700 per tonne. It now has gone up to almost RM1, 700 per tonne). While one may argue that MoU may not necessary be followed through, but one must also remember that these MoUs were signed at G2G level and certainly should be honoured and not to be taken lightly. Both China and India were Malaysian's very important partners, not just in trade but also in politics, culture and education. We urge the Cabinet to review the entire deal to ensure fairplay and act in the best interest of the country. (29/10/2003) * Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew, DAP national publicity secretary