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I refer to the malaysiakini report Me ga pipeline under 'loss-making company' . So a company with a paid up capital at RM150,000 and with reported accumulated losses of RM155, 376 as at June 30 last year is being awarded the RM23.9 billion northern oil pipeline project?

What is so strange about this? It has happened in the past, is happening today and will continue to happen in the future. This is how business is done in Malaysia and a practice that we want the world to follow!

In fact, some of our leaders are very proud of this trend and convention which sees the divides between corporate, political and executive worlds narrow and eventually disappear.

So what do we know about this project? Simply nothing. We are told that the pipeline will transport Middle East oil across the north of the peninsula to East Asian countries.

So have the laws of the land been followed or to put it mildly 'bent without breaking'? Or simply broken in the name of political expediency allowing a relaxed approach to the provisions of the Environmental Quality Act 1974?

Are we not concerned that this massive project will pass through fishing ports, padi fields, forest reserves, the Temenggor Lake, areas with tourist attractions and along densely populated areas? Not forgetting that this construction will involve a distance of 312km where a crude-oil pipeline will traverse three northern states - Kedah, Perak and Kelantan.

Educated and politically-conscious Malaysians are unable to respond to this project since the provisions in the EQA 1974 have yet to be followed. And how was the project given an approval when the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report is not available?

These are strange dealings by an administration that boasts at home and abroad of transparency, accountability and good governance but frowns on those who dare question the anomalies that are repeatedly apparent in government decisions and behavioral patterns.

So we should not be shocked when Mother Nature, in turn, turns her wrath on us when we tamper with the fine ecological and environmental balance in our obsession to serve corporate greed.

This will only hurt the little people among us with the loss of a lake and parks, devastating floods, landslides causing loss of life and the displacement of communities all in the name of financially questionable business ventures undertaken by individuals, and this case a company, whose track record is at best questionable.

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