Is Ekran getting RM700 million for not building the Bakun Dam?
1998-01-07
The market is abuzz with talk that Ekran Berhad would be paid RM700
million for not building the Bakun hydroelectric dam. The sum is
said to have been approved, although no confirmation of this is
possible. The high quality timber in one of Sarawak's best timber
areas which Ekran Berhad got by executive fiat -- by allowing it to
clear the area not of timber but biomass. There is pressure within
the government that this RM700 million should be offset against the
value of the timber extracted, but as matters stand that would be a
pipe dream. Whether this would prevent the wolves from gathering at
Ekran's door is, of course, another matter. It shares are suspended,
and if recent trends are any guide, the already depressed shares
should drop like a stone.
But it does emphasise one important principle dearly held in
Bolehland: for those of the courtiers and the coterie, even those no
more there, the free lunch can last awhile. In the case of Tan Sri
Datuk Dr Ting Pek Khiing, who ensured that a property company like
Ekran got Southeast Asia's biggest infrastructure project without
knowing what a diversion tunnel it, the cost of all these free
lunches have forced him into a corner; and even more interesting,
given the project management without having built anything to do with
a hydroelectric project.
News of this no doubt would gladden the hearts of Asea Brown Boveri,
in loggerheads with Ekran over the latter's unilateral cancellation
of a contract with it for building the dam. What seems to have
saved Ekran now -- which shows it still has friends in high places --
was the government's cancellation of all mega projects in the light
of the currency and fiscal debacle. ABB could now sue Ekran, and the
promoters of other mega projects could well be demanding their own
pound of flesh. Both ABB and the others would however be barking up
the wrong tree. The compulsions over Bakun is different. How
different? Well, if you must ask, you need not know.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my
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M.G.G. Pillai
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