I refer to an Oct 5 Star article in its Starbiz section, 'No change seen in rail job award' written by Jagdev Singh Sidhu on the controversial double-track rail project .

As official custodian of this project, the transport ministry has gone shamelessly incommunicado and as a result, a particular private entity has taken upon itself to be Malaysia's spokesperson on the controversial award of the double tracking project, ignoring government-to-government protocol!

The above article is another classic example, where again, the transport ministry is not cited but 'sources' were. Many consider this slant reporting. I say 'slant' because from the first paragraph, one can concur the objective of the article.

The claimed that it would be "unprecedented to remove any party given a letter of award" but, those familiar with public policy know only too well that we have had 'letters of award' withdrawn from Malaysian companies in the past. Classic example, were those withdrawn between 1997-2001.

Starbiz

claimed both India and China had declined the offer made to them as subcontractors. This is certainly not true! This writer is informed that India's Ircon received a fax from Gamuda on the night of Oct 26, giving them 14 days to respond, but this offer was unilaterally withdrawn, after four days. The offer was to build 70 per cent of the stretch at RM3.63 billion. It was as if all negotiations must be decided and finalised before October 30. Why this rush?

India's Ircon International, the company that placed the bid, were in dire straits on several counts. It was Deepavali weekend, and because this project was a government-to-government initiative, they could not respond without consulting New Delhi. Finally, they also did not receive any formal correspondence from Malaysia's transport ministry, the custodian of this project and signatory to the May 2001 memorandum of understanding signed in New Delhi, witnessed by the prime ministers of both countries.

Ircon was also not able to respond to the various press statements that were spinned according to various interested parties' needs. Ircon was also not informed the results of its last joint bid with the China Railway Engineering Corp at RM14.3 for the entire stretch, allegedly made on the morning of Oct 22. It was unaware that the 'letter of award' was already issued - some speculated in a clandestine cloak and dagger manner on Oct 21.

According to industry sources I am familiar with, the pricing offered to Ircon was certainly low at RM3.63billion. and more so when compared to the other northern stretch between Rawang to Ipoh, which allegedly ran into difficulty even at RM26 million per km. And here in the Gamuda offer, Ircon was getting RM14 million per km! It is also ironic that this Gamuda offer made on Oct 26 was made without supporting documents, graphics or drawings to justify the statement of need and price. One may then concur that the objective was to force Ircon out!

I sincerely appeal for honour and dignity to be returned to the journalist profession and for common sense to prevail, in our reporting this issue. Truth should not be compromised at the altars of obese profits. Let us also be kind and generous to two nations, India and China, who have been rather supportive of us.

At the time of writing, India and China have not been informed of the status of their position formally. Whether India and China get a portion of this award or not, it does not matter now, as damage has been done. But let us not, by slant reporting, further damage strained international relationships.

Let us not forget that there are many Malaysian companies in both countries undertaking multi-million ringgit projects, that our trade with India provides us more than RM6 billion a year and we have had our landing rights increased tremendously! With tensions already prevailing between us and the US, European Union and Singapore, let not careless reporting extend this strife to both India and China as well.