Declassify The Agreements If Not Siding IPP Cronies, Pakatan Tells Najib

Written by  Wong Choon Mei

Pakatan Rakyat leaders scoffed at Prime Minister Najib Razak for alluding that his government was on the side of the people and not the immensely wealthy independent power producers, saying that "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".

They also slammed the PM for hypocisy for "sneaking in" two more new deals with tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary's Malakoff and the Singapore unit of Francis Yeoh's YTL Power during the past couple of weeks.

Quietly, the deals were slipped despite red-hot public anger at the huge amount of subsidy granted to the IPPs and the Najib administration's refusal to acknowledge there was any imbalance at all.

"Declassify the power purchase agreements if Najib is sincere. Why wait until Pakatan has exposed everything and his back is to the wall, then only say, BN is negotiating with the IPPs. Tell us, exactly what are you negotiating," PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli told Malaysia Chronicle.

Rafizi confirmed that PKR would proceed to sue the BN government for the agreements, said to be lopsided, to be made public.

So far, Najib has refused to lay bare the agreements, which forces Tenaga to buy power from the IPPs even though Malaysia was running at an excess capacity of more than 50 percent.

Not Lopsided

On Sunday, a defensive-sounding Najib told reporters his government was siding with the rakyat (or populace) and not the power barons as the opposition politicians have accused his administration of doing.

Yet, in the same breath, he insisted the IPP contracts are fair.

“The IPPs now, most of their formulas are no longer one-sided,” Najib said after the UMNO Ampang division meeting.

“We are negotiating with IPPS but it is not accurate to say we are on IPPs’ side. We are fighting for the people. The government will explain further on the IPPs because we are still negotiating.”

In a further sign that his administration was feeling the pressure from the Pakatan, Second Finance minister Ahmad Husni announced the Cabinwt would form a Committee to study the IPP issue. Pakatan leaders have mounted a fierce campaign against subsidy cuts without revieweing the IPP contracts first.

"The committee will study various aspects of power supply and not just the IPP problem - among them production costs and requirements for the future because there are IPPs whose concession is due to end in 2014 and 2015," Husni told reporters.

Anwar Reiterates Will Drop Petrol Prices Within 24 Hours

Meanwhile, at the other end of town, his arch rival Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim promised to cut fuel prices within 24 hours if the Pakatan won the 13th general election, widely expected to take place within the next few months.

Anwar also slammed Najib for punishing the man on the street for sky-rocketing world oil prices, and chopping off subsidies from a slew of consumer essentials but leaving untouched the RM19 billion-odd gas subsidy to the IPPs.

“When the rich get it, it’s incentives. When the poor fishermen get it, it’s subsidies,” Anwar said at a political lecture in Brickfields.

- Malaysia Chronicle