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TNB scandals, the blackout, national security

THE ORACLE HAS SPOKEN: The Tenaga Nasional Berhad is as much in the dark as many Malaysians yesterday about the blackout which hit them. The TNB deputy CEO, Dato' Abdul Hadi Mohammad Deros, is puzzled: "It has never happened. Should not have happened. Cannot happen", nor why or how. He is in the same boat as Che Mat Endot, Kuppuswamy, and Ah Chong who does not what happened and why, and, like him equally puzzled. But Dato' Abdul Hadi should know, and if he knows, not saying. This, no doubt, is a cardinal rule in the code of transparency that the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wants. To be fair, he did say a little more, in gobbledygook, which I translate: A switching gear tripped at the Sultan Salehuddin Abdul Aziz power station in Klang, caused a shortage of 1700 MW, and loadshedding from Kuala Lumpur to Johore Bahru.

He stonewalled all queries. But what happened was when the switching gear tripped, TNB took the decision to cut off all heavy users of electricity to prevent a national shutdown of the grid, as in 1993. Which is why the blackout was limited to the southern half of the peninsula. This can happen at the best of times. But with this listed company subject to political pressures and with officials placed there, often against other members of the board or those who run it, they are panic-stricken at any movment which upsets the forced calm in which they work. They are not equipped to deal with unexpected crisis like these. So, in a panic, he promises a "thorough" investigation though a simple explanation at what happened was all he need have said.

Those in the electricity generation business knew this blackout was waiting to happen. The TNB power stations and the independent power producers are linked to the national grid. All it needs is for a major fault or an accidental trip to blanket the country in darkness. But TNB all but ignore this. Those who run it are more interested in the financial games and mythmaking than in providing what it is there for. All else takes second place, including national security. While every effort was made to trivialise what happened yesterday, it caused much panic amongst those involved in national security.

Let us take a few steps back. TNB had called in for international tenders to gut the Tuanku Jaffar Power Station in Port Dickson, and to the surprise of all in the business, awarded the contract to two companies, RP Jaya and Bukake, an Indonesian company. Work was to begin on payment of a RM3 million deposit and a RM12 million payment for the machinery in the power station said to be worth four times more. TNB, to wriggle out of its mistake, negotiated with the two companies to work together. But RP Jaya, impatient at the delay and without depositing the RM15 million with TNB and without a work order, moved in its contractors and began dismantling the power station on Wednesday night. This power station is linked to the national grid. TNB did nothing, and calls were left unanswered, and has yet to act.

But this breached national security. It could have shut down the national grid. Anyone with ill intent could now frustrate Malaysia's defences and national security with ease if top-security installations can be breached at will. TNB should have called the armed forces and the police to march in, arrest the intruders and place it under tight security. Since deputy CEO is puzzled, he should be dismissed, along with its CEO, Dato' Che Khalib Mohammad Noh. They take responsibility for what happens in their watch. The breach is so serious that even their detention under the Internal Security Act would not be too severe. (The ISA is for such breaches of national security, not to harass political opponents as now.) TNB must come clean about why it keeps quiet at what happened at Port Dickson. The National Security Council and the Internal Security Ministry must step in. If a contractors miffed at not being given a RM15 million could do what RP Jaya did, would not others be tempted by foreign powers with ill-intent in mind?

Riding roughshod over the code of transparency, and scandals, however, are a TNB specialty. The TNB called for tenders to build a substation in Lenggeng, Negri Sembilan, costing RM300 million, and shortlisted them for detailed negotiation. A company which did not make the cut, Bras Ventures, now submits a proposal, through its newly-appointed chairman, Dato' Kamal Bilal, to build it by direct negotiation. Dato' Che Khalib ignored it, so he told the TNB tender committee, but an SMS ordered him to award the contract forthwith to Bras Ventures. Dato' Kamia is a cousin of the Prime Minister whose son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, sent the SMS. When TNB did not act fast enough, Dato' Norza Zakaria, UMNO supreme council member, UMNO youth leader, poltical secretary to the second finance minister, Dato' Nor Mohamed Yapkub called the TNB CEOs and vice-presidents to award it quickly.

Here is another. A TNB subsidiary, the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, called for tenders to supply 2 x 20 MW gas turbines on 31 December 2004, which closed 19 days later. The Economic Planning Unit in the prime minister's department, who should know of this, is like the TNB deputy CEO, in the dark. Nor has it acted when told of it. The speed with which tenders open and close is a record. There was only one tenderer: General Electric. The SESB general manager had decided on GE before the tenders were called, and only one company could provide the gas turbines as specified. The other manufacturers did not see the point of bidding for it.

But what happens in TNB is what happens elsewhere in the country. When the cabinet sets itself up as paragons of the country's virtues, and break it as a matter of course, telling the people to follow as they say, not as they do means nothing. Cabinet ministers routinely turn up for functions an hour or more late, often not turning up at all, keeping people waiting and cursing, is so routine that it does not seem strange any more. They promise to officiate at functions, then send their political secretaries or other flunkies to read it on their behalf. They have utter contempt for those they deal with who are not the movers and shakers.

When they are treated with utter contempt by the people, they invent slogans to make the people change. If I were to collect a ringgit for every such attempt, I would be a rich man indeed today! The habitual late comers are the BN leaders, and ambitious politicians. I would not, and have not, for years attended a function were the MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu threatens to attend. At one of the last I attended, after waiting for a few hours, we were blithely told, he was away in India. He is not typical. Every cabinet minister is guilty of it. If they can be as arrogant in their public face, why should one expect them to rigorous in their official duties? When state titles are given out so the state's chief minister can be elected a party vice-president, what moral right does he have to tell us to be righteous and moral? Others follow their habits, and soon we are a dysfunctional Malaysian society. The signs of that are everywhere. Those politicians who wail about it in public now are who allowed the rot in. The TNB scandals are but one small example of it.

M.G.G. Pillai

pillai@streamyx.com