Samy’s legacy – the tolling of more than two generations of Malaysians

The legacy of Samy Vellu, the longest-serving Cabinet Minister of 26 years with two decades as Works Minister, is the tolling of more than two generations of Malaysians by the award of one-sided, unfair and predatory highway privatization to concessionaires.

This is what Malaysians have to thank Samy for, when he hands over the post of MIC President and the MIC Cabinet slot to his anointed heir G. Palanivel at the MIC General Assembly fixed for June 24 next year – now that he had publicly dumped his deputy S. Subramaniam yesterday.

Samy blew his top in Parliament during question-time this morning when I adverted to his dumping of Subramaniam and anointing of Palanivel.

Giving a long-winded answer about the projections for annual traffic volumes and toll collections for PLUS for the North-South Expressway from 2004 till 2038, I prefaced my supplementary with “congrats” to him for his decision to dump Subramaniam and anoint Palanivel as his successor.

I stressed that I was not concerned about the fate of his current deputy president in his party, but Parliament must be concerned about the plight of more than two generations of Malaysians who have to suffer the exorbitant tolls imposed by the highway concessionaires.

I referred to the admission by Samy last Friday that the government had paid out RM38.5 billion over the last two decades as compensation to highway concessionaires after they were not allowed to increase their toll rates – with RM1.76 billion paid in cash while the balance were for matters like exemption of interests for loans supported by the Government, tax dividends and extension of the concession period.

I said that this RM38.5 billion compensation to 20 highway concessionaires, averaging RM2 billion a year, was not because the government was kind-hearted, charitable or people-oriented, but solely because of its gross negligence and irresponsibility, with Samy bearing the chief brunt of responsibility as Works Minister for 20 of his 26 years in Cabinet, for singing such one-sided, oppressive and exploitative highway concessionaires totally inimical to the interests of more than two generations of Malaysians. The North-South Expressway concession, for instance, has become a 50-year “cash cow” for PLUS after repeated extensions when it was originally meant to be for a duration of 25 years.

I am no stranger to Samy’s volcanic eruptions in Parliament. His pyrotechnics today is very much muted as compared to his series of explosions which rocked Parliament in 1992 in the thick of the dramatic exposes of the RM120 million MAIKA Telekom shares hijacking scandal, with him as the central character, which resulted in my suspension from Parliament for more than six months that year.

But to MPs, both Barisan Nasional and Opposition, who are seeing Samy’s fireworks for the first time, it must have been quite an awesome display

Samy Vellu completely went off tangent in his outburst, launching into a tirade against me and ignoring the RM38.5 billion question. When I reminded him that I had opposing unfair highway privatization as far back as two decades ago, landing me in detention under the Internal Security Act for the second time in 1987 (together with Karpal Singh and other DAP leaders) in the infamous Operation Lallang dragnet, Samy Vellu asserted that he had intervened with Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, then Prime Minister and Home Minister, for my release.

If what Samy Vellu said was true, I thank him. The indisputable fact remains, however, that it was because of my opposition to the “piratisation” of the North-South Expressway to United Engineers Malaysia (UEM), which later passed the concession to PLUS, including a landmark public litigation, which made me a guest of His Majesty’s hospitality for the second time.