Plaza Rakyat…A posh RM 1.4 billion development meant for the Commonwealth Games of 1998 should hopefully, be ready for the 2017 SEA Game; thanks but no thanks to Umno Baru’s crony capitalism Lately, there were reports that works to revive the abandoned eyesore, located smack in the heart of Kuala Lumpur – which adjoins the Puduraya Bus Terminal – was to be carried out next month, but the Datuk Bandar Ahmad Phesal admitted yesterday that the process might take some time owing to legal complications. He said that the Plaza Rakyat complex was one of the problems clogging the city in its preparation to host the 2017 SEA Games. Another abandoned mega venture legacy of Mahathir’s crony capitalism, construction works for the project by its developer Plaza Rakyat Sdn Bhd – comprising a seven-storey shopping mall and a 79-story tower housing a 290-room four-star hotel and a service apartment – came to an abrupt halt in 1998. The development company was owned by the fourth Malaysian Prime Minister then infamous Sarawak-born crony Ting Pek Khiing alias Speed of the controversial Bakun hydro-electric dam project notoriety. Efforts by the subsequent administration of Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Tun Razak to revive the mixed high-rise development project were unsuccessful mainly owing to legal implications arising out of claims by the Plaza Rakyat’s former main contractor, Daewoo of South Korea; which amounted to hundred millions of ringgit Plaza Rakyat Sdn Bhd was owned by Wembly Industries Holdings Bhd of which Ting was also the Chairman. The Sarawak tycoon is also Chairman of Ekran Bhd, which owns a 32% stake in Wembly Industries. Daewoo was not the Sarawak-born foochow’s first tussle with his influential foreign civil engineering contractors. In implementing the RM15 billion Bakun hydroelectric dam and power transmission project – which Ting snapped up from competitors with the help of Mahathir and then finance Minister Daim Zainuddin – he was also involved with a legal battle with its European main contractor Asea Brown Boveri, forcing Mahathir to shelve the mega project, leaving his Ekran business empire in ruins. When Mahathir and Daim decided to choose Ting for the Bakun Dam project, little did they mind that the local Sarawak foochow tycoon knew nothing about building dams and laying nearly 2,000 kilometers of land and sea transmission cables.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 04:48:29 +0000
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