Rant & Raves

How many of you sometimes think twice about a person? Like sometimes you think that some people are dumb, but later you will discover that they are smarter than you thought, or vice versa.

Every country in the world needs a smart leader to guide the country to a higher level and every leader requires smart assistants to help him or her to get things done and to form a think-tank in order to form strategies, domestic or foreign. The leader and assistants cannot live without each others and if something goes wrong, both the leader and assistants will be responsible for the consequences.

So I would say all the leaders in the world must be someone smart and with wisdom (maybe except George W. Bush).

You must be thinking that I have gone nuts and you are not sure what the crap I am talking about. Fear not, I am still insane, at least I think I am. It is just that sometimes I puzzle about the things that is happening around me.

I cannot say that I am a genius, and I certainly cannot say that I am smart (I still remember vividly that someone told me that self praise is not praise). But one thing I do know is that when I am in negotiation for a deal and if I were to sign a contract, I will not agree upon some muddy situation where I have no chance of winning. I will try to negotiate what is fair to me, or take advantage of certain things, and if the terms and conditions are not favorable to me at all, I will not sign it. Smart? I don’t think so. This is more or less a common sense.

The reason why I am writing this is because of the articles on the blogsphere (here, here and here) and that got me questioning myself if I was wrong about my common sense, and if I was wrong about getting a win-win situation in an agreement.

I won’t dig into the previous events, but will only comment about the recent outcry in 20% to 60% toll hikes. It seemed to me that our government, leader (current or previous) and assistants did not do their job in negotiating the best terms in the negotiation. I don’t see why the need for formula, period of toll collection and even a formula for price increase. Litak (the Government linked company, GLC) has an upper hand in everything. I mean, who negotiated the agreement and guaranteed themselves a concession of 30 years with guarantee price increase? If I were to get that kind of agreement, hell, I will build highways around the country, regardless if the highways are needed or not.

The purpose of a toll is for the Government, or GLCs, to recoup on the investment made to build the highways, bridges, or any public facilities. When the investment has been returned, the toll should be demolished and those public facilities shall be free for use to the public. So the question is this; why is there a formula for price increase and the 30 years fixed period for toll collection? Just fixed the god-damn toll price to an amount and let Litak collects toll until the investment they made were returned. Simple as that.

Those GLCs said “we are just honoring the agreement”, and our minister said, “we have tried to negotiate”. Okay, we may be as stupid as they had though, but why are we having this kind of agreement where the government is in a loosing end? Who was the person in charge of negotiation? Why the terms were favoring the GLCs? Isn’t our government should represent the people and negotiate what is in the best interest of the people? It seems to me that the agreement is for the best interest for the GLCs, 100%.

What strike me as funny, or ironic, is the fact that the GLCs are using the Government’s money (or the people’s money, if I may) and yet the Government has to pay subsidies for the toll.

At the end of the day, the public suffer the most. We pay for the road construction (in forms of income tax, and other taxes), and then we pay the toll. That is fair, but why do we have to pay for it for 30 years or more when in fact the investment could be recouped in less than that? The GLCs are guaranteed with shitload of profit and yet we are still paying our income taxes? What pissed me off more is the condition of our highways. The highways are uneven, bumpy, and the drainage system is very bad. Hell, I am not even sure if those roads can be called highways.

I read on some news and blogs whom reported about the recent protest in front of Litrak office (here and here), but why waste the time in protesting? That won’t get you anywhere, and that certainly won’t get anything done, and those representatives from GLC and government will point to the agreement and say, “Oh we try, but its all in the agreement.”

So, in my opinion, the smartest thing to do now is to question why such agreement was signed and agreed upon. And then someone has to dig out the detailed financial reports of these GLCs (including PLUS and the Penang Bridge) and we can calculate if the investment to build those highways were recouped. Those GLCs are public companies (I am not using the word “Public Listed Companies” here because they belong to the people of the country) so they should make the financial report available (to anyone who is interested, that is) and as transparent as possible.

On the other hand, is there a reason for those agreements to favor the GLCs to such extend? I don’t know.

So now back to the opening statement. Are the leader (current or previous) and the assistants smart enough to lead the country to a new high and be competitive in global market? My answer is that they got me fooled.

Or maybe not.