YOURSAY | ‘You can either wait to be indebted to the ‘investors’ or stop the rot at GE14.’

Prudent: All of the projects mentioned in this article may well be necessary considering Malaysia's need for connectivity to participate in China's One Belt, One Road (Obor) initiative to develop the whole of Eurasia and Africa.

During Admiral Zheng He's time in 1401, Malacca, then virtually a hide-out for twice-fugitive Parameswara, was transformed by the China connection into the premier Southeast Asian trading hub and centre for East-West trade between China and India.

It was the British who returned Malacca to the backwaters by developing Penang and later Singapore.

Malaysia stands to become the premier international trading hub in the Obor region and beyond with sufficient infrastructure for connectivity. The projects stated by writer P Gunasegaram will prepare Malaysia for this in the 21st century.

The only worry is that the sums mentioned may have been hugely inflated by corruption and rent payment. That's the real problem.

Abasir: The Ah Long posters brazenly slapped on almost all concrete pillars in suburban Malaysia eerily foretell what's in store for the country.

While those who turn to loan sharks have either lived beyond their means or gambled their incomes away, Malaysia turning to the alleged great Chinese loan shark in Beijing is only because it is headed by a seemingly hardened and unrepentant ‘kleptocrat’ addicted to high living.

But then if this is the will of Allah, what can anyone do?

Dont Just Talk: The senior, literate Malaysians dread to even think of the future of Malaysia for their children and grandchildren under the allegedly corrupt leadership of Malaysian Official 1 (MO1).

From 1MDB to FGV (Felda Global Ventures), there is nothing positive on the business news coming out from these companies.

At the rate, MO1 is digging up one bigger hole to cover the first hole, the end result will be nothing but a bottomless pit for future Malaysians.

By then, MO1 will not be around to face the music, but the future generations of Malaysian will carry the burden of this allegedly kleptomaniac regime.

Ex-wfw: Now that Indian interests are taking over Pulau Carey development, this should suit many concerned Malaysians.

But I would like to bet that China will then get Thailand to build the Pak Bara Port on the northern end of the Strait of Malacca, northwest of Hatyai.

The question is, where would all the containers come from, which are essentially import/export boxes?

As for the transhipment boxes, we hope that the new terminal will venture into terminal automation. Otherwise, it could hardly compete for those boxes which shipping lines are trying to cut down to the barest minimum.

Experts have indicated that automation can reduce handling cost as against the manually-operated terminals by some 30 percent.

Of course, you can hardly begin to automate once the wharves are already built (though at much higher cost if indeed it is to be done), but you also fear to automate the system unless you are sure of the volume. So you have a Catch-22 situation here.

No doubt China is still working on an alternate outlet to the Indian Ocean notwithstanding Grawdar Port in Pakistan.

China-African trade has been projected to hit US$350 billion; a rule of the thumb means some 15 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods can be generated. It has been its policy to allow of the regions to share the cake.

Broadly, if the cake is divided into five sectors, of which the southwest with Chongqing as the centre, will be importing/exporting some three million TEUs.

It is a lot nearer to send those boxes via rail to either Thailand or Malaysia than to pass through Shanghai or any ports facing the Pacific.

The distance of 2,500km would have reached Pak Bara Port. In such scenario, we will have to wait and see the outcome.

Spinnot: I love this Sunday Times (UK) report ‘Rifkind a stooge in secret PR war on China’ (Jan 29, 2017):

"A British think tank is being paid about £10,000 a month by Japan to wage a propaganda campaign against China. The Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a registered charity, has encouraged politicians, including the former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and journalists, to voice opposition to Chinese foreign policy.

“The HJS deal with the Japanese embassy in London was reached in response to growing co-operation between Britain and China, advocated by George Osborne when he was chancellor of the exchequer." [...]

"The Sunday Times has seen a proposal by MIP and the HJS to deliver a “communications strategy” for the embassy for £15,000 a month. The proposal, written in early 2016, aimed to put Japan’s issues “on the radar of mainstream UK journalists and politicians”, including reporters on The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Economist.

“It also aimed to ‘create an engaged and interested cadre of high-level politicians’, including members of the Commons foreign affairs select committee. The proposal says the strategy would focus on “the threat to western strategic interests posed by Chinese expansionism.”

RM2.6 Billion Turkey Haram: Guna, a very timely article. China is like a vulture circling in search of weak prey, especially one that is corrupt and mired in huge debts.

She does not mind giving loans lavishly at low interest rates. But once the country could not pay the loan, that would be the best time for them to make demands.

She might demand rights to natural resources or control over strategic assets like ports or allowing her to bring in of their workers, which are more important than the repayment of the loans.

Anonymous_1390303981: There's no free breakfast, you can either wait to be indebted to the financiers aka ‘investors’, or stop the rot starting at the forthcoming GE14.

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