'In short, EPF financed the Bakun Dam, the Finance Ministry mismanaged the project leading to the ballooning in the dam’s cost, and Taib makes a lot of money.’

Bakun Dam generates Putrajaya-S'wak tension

Magnus: "However, Sarawak Hidro managing director Zulkifle Othman denied that the state government was using the impoundment permit to put pressure on Putrajaya in the tariff negotiations. ‘It has nothing to do with the tariff negotiations,’ he stressed."

Nothing to do with the tariff negotiations, huh? Does Zulkifle Othman realise that's as convincing as saying that pigs can fly?

Sarawakians ought to look into the conflict of interest in these profiteering deals allegedly done between government officials and their private businesses, an instance of which is illustrated here by the unholy connection between Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his privately-owned and run CMS family business conglomerate.

No state can develop into any developed status when such unholy relationships and unacceptable practices are allowed to exist as a norm as that is a well-known recipe for disaster.

This dam is financed with Malaysians’ private cash, which after deduction from their pay packets get ring-fenced into a public trust fund by the federal government and managed by EPF (Employees Provident Fund) and KWAP (Kumpulan Wang Persaraan), which must by law invest those private funds prudently to earn the best possible returns from trust investments (like loans to the Finance Ministry) so that they can pay Malaysians the best possible pensions when they retire from paid employment.

DannyLoHH: The tension between Putrajaya and Sarawak has nothing to do to the welfare of the people. Sarawak is eyeing for cheaper tariff for their aluminum smelter plants so that Abdul Taib Mahmud-owned CMS could rake in more billions, whereas Putrajaya wanted higher tariff so that they could have more millions to swindle. Either way, the people loses.

Sarawakian: The initial objection by Sarawakians, and also environmentalists the world over, were dismissed by the Taib government as misconstrued, ignorance and troublemakers. Now they have been proven right.

And Taib have another 12 dams on his drawing board. By the time they are done, the state and probably the federal government would be bankrupt. Not to mention the thousands of natives who will be displaced like those in Bakun.

Of course, Taib and his cronies will be laughing all the way to the bank because billions will be channeled to their personal accounts.

Cascara: Any comments from the megalomaniac (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) who conceived the idea in the first place? I am sure he will maintain what he did was right anyway and it was the next man who slept on it.

DOC: Now that EPF’s funds has been used to pay for the Bakun Dam, it looks like the losers will ultimately be the rakyat. In short, EPF financed the Bakun Dam, the Finance Ministry mismanaged the project leading to the ballooning in the dam’s cost, and Taib makes a lot of money.

Just another “dam” day in Malaysia under the BN/Umno rule.

Bryan Michael SM Yeo: Cheap power below cost to smelter owners, subsidised by hard-earned savings of the Malaysian workers. Ecological disaster in the construction and massive displacement of natives. Mountains of bauxite waste from the smelter plants to haunt the rakyat for decades to come.

Greed really knows no bound. May the greedy raiders reap the fruits of their bad intention sooner rather than later.

MrM: "How the two sides reach an agreement could determine whether the rakyat's hard-earned money has been poured into a white elephant project, yet again."

Not just a white elephant - it’s a social and environmental catastrophe.

Scorpene maintenance cost: RM1.3 bil for 5 years

Isaac Ho: The maintenance cost of these two French-made submarines is astronomical and imposed a heavy burden not only on the government but the hard-earned taxpayers who must foot the bill ultimately.

One wonders why there should be a need to acquire such expensive navy hardware as our country faces neither an external enemy nor a threat from without? Their acquisition still open the question whether corruption is involved and no satisfactory reason, so far, has been told to the Malaysian public.

This is definitely a penny wise and pound foolish venture on the part of our rogue powers-that-be.

Cala: If the practice of transparency, accountability and openness is what good governance is all about, show to us that a competitive bidding has taken place before the award of the said maintenance contract.

As of now, what we see is another hallmark of Umno-led BN coalition's short- cut of using direct negotiation method to line up their pockets. Never mind the world surrounding them has changed, but the corrupted culture embedded in them has not. To the corrupted regime, it is business as usual.

Wira: Most believe commission is the reason of purchase. Defence is just an excuse.

Joe: Wira said it right. The Royal Thai Navy did the same thing when it purchased a light aircraft carrier with British Harrier jets. The carrier, HTMS Chakri Naruebet, built in Spain and commissioned in 1997, initally operated in the Andaman Sea and was later found to be too expensive - beyond the budget of the navy - to operate.

The ship is currently mothballed at the Sattahip naval base in the Gulf of Thailand. It serves as platform for disaster relief and as transportation for the royal family - an essentially oversized royal yacht.

Like the Chakri Naruebet, our Scorpene submarines will be another one of those blackholes, like PKFZ and Perwaja, for the Umno regime to suck out taxpayers' money.

Ghkok: Better check whether Boustead Holdings is going to service the submarine by themselves or sub-contract this to somebody else. If it is sub-contracted to somebody else, who are they and for how much?

Tan Kian Khim: What, no additional contract for Abdul Razak Baginda's Perimekar for 'support and coordination services'? No contract to line the interiors of the submarines with plush carpets? No Approved Permits for logistics vehicles to support the submarines? What an outrage! How is Malaysia's economy supposed to function without all these contracts?

Ex-Navy: It is common practice that any armed forces/navy newly-build vessel must come with a five-year contract on spare parts by the builder. It is abnormal that Boustead is given the contract to supply spares as well. Pakatan Rakyat MPs should investigate the initial contract.

Bakun dam to be much worse than PKFZ scandal