Tuesday, April 22, 2008

CAN OR NOT, YOU ALL MIX AND MATCH, OKAY?

Friday last I had arranged to do happy hours with Citizen Nades. We had agreed on this whilst he was hospitalized some weeks back. It seemed ages since we knocked glass, and I was eagerly awaiting a date that had so many times been ON, then OFF, then ON, then OFF again for various reasons. So on Friday 1800hrs I called to confirm. "Cannot lah Bernard....Monday dateline, got a story but my juices ain't flowing" he said sounding disappointed, "Then top up and we'll get your juices come out in a deluge," I tempted. I failed. But I can understand. When Nades has got a story, nothing, repeat, NOTHING can get him away from his job. He belongs to that rare breed that, without batting an eye, he would take on the Almighty, if the Omnipotent challenged him on an issue. So I let him be and this is what he gave us yesterday:

I found this little gem in Google when I was doing some research into the bullet train project which I wrote about last week. Former colleague P. Gunasegaram had this to say when he argued why we don’t need the 90-minute KL-Singapore service: Despite what has been reported, there is a taxpayer subsidy to the current express rail link operated by the YTL group between Kuala Lumpur and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. This is in the form of a charge imposed on every passenger who takes a flight out of KLIA. Effectively, all flyers subsidise the rail link, whether they take it to go to KLIA or not.

On Thursday, I started checking on what Guna had said. Seasoned journalists and those who have been on the beat, so to speak, had no knowledge of such an arrangement.

I decided to make a few calls, and hey presto! Yes, this was all part of the deal and how else could visitors and Malaysians have been suckered (albeit legally) into paying RM6 for this every time they left the KLIA for a foreign destination.

you are a sucker if you play with the big boys

Working on an average of RM5 per passenger, taking into account that domestic flights passengers had to cough up only RM2 while those bound for international destinations contribute RM6, and I used the low side – at 15 million departing passengers annually. It worked out to RM75 million and you don’t need a calculator to tote up the total over the past six years. Of course, there’ll be the usual defence to such lopsided deals and the familiar clichés will appear – it’s keeping cars off the road, it’s environment- friendly, people need a mass transporter, blah blah blah ...


THIS IS THE MIX

NOW MATCH IT ANYWAY YOU WANT

THESE EXTRACTS from the YTL Community site:

'The worst thing to do is to treat the consumer like a commodity or a sales target'
YTL Community, 30 August 2006
"These are the little joys of human service which we humbly hope can enrich our experiences of life with a legacy that affirms 'service is not an action performed, but a passion expressed' with YTL Platinum Plus for World Class Service Performance At Your Command," said YTL Group managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh.


AHEMMMMMMM

The Star, Saturday, May 11, 2002

YTL Corp Bhd expects 40%-owned Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL) to start making profits faster than earlier targeted as the number of passengers taking the rail link to the KL International Airport (KLIA) is said to be healthy.

“Judging from the response, we are optimistic that we will turn around faster than what people think,’’ said YTL Corp managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh. “We will have to see whether (the high numbers of passengers taking the rail service) is sustainable.’’

ERL was initially expected to post profits after seven years of operations.

Within 18 days of its operations, the rail link has chalked up more than 50,000 passengers.

In an earlier report, ERL executive chairman Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh had said the rail link was getting about 1,800 passengers a day in the beginning, but the number had increased to an average of 3,000 a day now. The target is 6,000 passengers a day in the first year of operations.


AHEMMMM AHEMMMMM


Kuala Lumpur, 13 October 2004

Datuk Seri Abdullah’s first year in office exceeded all expectations. He lost no time in putting his individual and impressive stamp on the leadership. The country and the business community were soon made aware of and under the influence of what I call the Badawi Factor.

First there was clear evidence of continuity. This was no regime change but a leadership change and with it a new Administration. The baton had been passed to a safe pair of hands justifying the trust and confidence in Tun Dr Mahathir placed in his choice.

At the same time there was equally a sense of the winds of change blowing, of them blowing – strongly – almost enough to knock us off our feet. Datuk Seri Abdullah hit the ground running with his vigorous housecleaning efforts and his bold, stringent reform initiatives.

And we liked what we saw – outright war on corruption, on patronage and the abuse of power. Not just rhetoric but an actual crackdown. There was a corresponding drive to improve the delivery system of the public service. This was to receive an outstanding endorsement in March with those stunning election results, the best ever in all our 47 years of Independence

AHEMMM AHEMMMMM AHEMMMMMMMMMM


ERL turns profitable in 2003

ERL runs a high-speed, non-stop rail service, KLIA Ekspress, from Kuala Lumpur Sentral to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang. It also operates KLIA Transit, a rapid transit service that makes three quick stops at key townships along its route. Despite challenging market conditions, led by the SARS outbreak and war in Iraq, ERL turned profitable in 2003. To boost profitability, it targets to raise its daily traffic from 3,000 to 4,000 in 2003, to 6000 by end-2005.


CLAP CLAP

Speaking to the graduates at the Faculty of Technology graduation ceremony, he (the deeply religious YTL head honcho) advises them: “We must not only harness the mind, we must also harness our hearts to re-engineer the world of man and bring it back to sanity and productive endeavour. Let us not suffer from spiritual amnesia. Let us build together a lasting world full of goodness, an everlasting Empire of the Minds with Heart.” He received a rousing ovation at the end of his speech.

CLAP CLAP CLAP




AT THE END OF THE DAY, YOU AND I, THE COMMON MAN GET ALL OUR JUICES SQUEEZED AND WRINGED DRY.......BY.....AH, NEVER MIND.

NOT SO DIFFICULT HUH, THIS MIX AND MATCH EXERCISE.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

This should have been exposed before the elections. And the tsunami could have been even more effective.

There are businessmen who hide under a facade of false ethics and corporate responsibility when they are stealing you blind right under your nose! And they do so without even blinking their eyes...

Ughhhhh...!!!

Anonymous said...

zorro,

now you know why jeff ooi puke after hearing him last time in a conference.
not only this erl scam, he has been screwing the rakyat with the most expensive IPP in town as far as charges to TNB are concerned. no wonder, he can speak about wonders of his christian god. close your eyes and pray and when we open our eyes we see a large eletricity bill. courtesy of YTL and supported by the corrupt regime of mahatir.

GobloKing said...

aisay bernard! dun be shy lah!
u mean to say we got f**ked again didn't u?

nowadays I ain't nevah sure if:

1. I am angry cause I didn't get a cut in all (or any) of these easy money scams or

2. I am angry because not only are we raped, we seem to be paying to be raped further

Let me get the scam right
Project A
100% Financing by private company for monopoly biz
taxpayer pays tolls or fares for 20years

Project B
Gomen finances 70% of monopoly biz(dun ask where the $$ is coming from lah!)
private company 30%
taxpayer pays tolls or fares for 20years

Commonality
1. monopoly
2. taxpayers pay
3. low risk
4. Gomen backed

WAH!!! Like that - next time got such deals plse you tell aunty hah? I will sell my 1st and only born to get in on these scams - I mean - Projects!

aawilliam said...

Sigh!!!no brain or they done it on purpose??
p/s God please have mercy on us Malaysian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

ERL, PLUS, IWK … are just a few of the legalized highway robbers made known so far. Is there any way of finding out which other legal robbers are hiding comfortably under the shelter of OSA? I think we should thank the EPU and the then PM for creating such contracts benefiting the connected and making us taxpayers the suckers.

Incidentally, in an unrelated case, Siemens who is YTL’s partner in ERL is currently under probe in their home country for multi-billion graft. See
http://203.115.192.117/tuesday/tue_page11.html

Daphne Ling said...

Hi Uncle B,

Sorry, my comment no kaitan with your posting, ya?

Just wanted to drop you a line to say it was nice meeting up with you again after almost a year.

Catch you around...Regards to Aunty Karen =)

lanaibeach said...

OSA opens it
Then we will know

One sided contracts
The people raped so many times over
Holes and hearts already chucked away
Yet the rapists still haven’t been caught

Hiding behind the umbrella of legality
The legit companies harvest the wealth
The taxpayers keep dishing out their money
And it never ends in the long tunnel

The BN leaders brewing grandeur projects
Catering to their cronies stealing the peoples’ wealth
Telling all kind of deceptions hiding behind facades
Of glittering old and legal laws

The frogs better croak into PR net
Let the game begin for the peoples’ sake
They have gone into many rapes
They can’t stomach the filth and laughter
Of the BN leaders arrogant and selfish administration

Malaccan view said...

Zorro bro,
Understand government cancelled bullet train project initiated by YTL.Was it due to AirAsia protest thru PM's SIL?

Bergen said...

Every day, more and more dirty stories are coming out of the hole. Keep 'em coming.

Anonymous said...

Dear Bernard

I am still eagerly waiting fr Citizen Nades to write something on the RM300 million Monsoon Cup, he went for Azalina on the RM17 million CYC tournament - not that she doesnt deserve it - but why didn't he go for patrick lim and co for the monsoon cup, got no balls ah. Everyone got agendas la bernard, and citizen nades is no different, he is doing a good job, but he should not stop at only those who are easy to bang, go for the big ones too lah. I don't see him screwing khairy, khir toyo can lah, i will be impressed if he can take on the big boys, i am sure he knows what shit these big buggers are doing and if he doesnt write about it then he shouldnt be portrayed as a crusader.Think about it my friend, anyone can go for the kuchi rats, but only those with balls will take on the big boys. i dare him to expose khairy.

zorro said...

Mr. Objective: Nades is his own man and we need not egg him on to do stories we would like to hear. He is no story-teller. We may like sensationalism, but that is not Nades cup of tea. However,if you are privy to things Nades is not privy to, why dont you make comments about the characters you want exposed. It is not fair to call him a crusader. The crusaders were mercernaries who were told go kill all Sacarens and Moslems. I object to your dare "only those with balls will take on the big boys. i dare him to expose khairy."
If you have, why dont you do so in thios comment box. I dont know nothing at this point in time to do an expose on Khairy or any big boy, but you can't accuse me of not having it down there, can you? Leave him be mr. objective....Nades will stay the course. But he has no masters. Peace brother.

Anonymous said...

Zorro,

Peace be unto you too brother. I don't believe Nades is not privy to the things I am talking about, you should listen to him hold court at the Selangor Club. And by the way sensationalism used to be his first name when he wasin the Malay Mail. There used to be a standing joke at that time about how NST had to operate a petty cash box just to make out-of-court settlements of the numerous cases brought against him and the paper for his sensational stories. But he seems to have mellowed in that sense, he seems to have stoped shooting from his hips. But i am still waiting for him to write on the RM300m Monsoon Cup, everyone knows what a scam that was, the blogs exposed it, but Mr Expose' Citizen Nades has been reduced to a mere reader in this instance.
Peace brother.