LETTER | Dr M's privatisation agenda failed the nation

LETTER | Recent news involving the Sabah Water Supply Enactment 2003, which allows the state water authority to issue licences to undertake water supply distribution, brings to the fore the extent of the cartel-like operatives that have taken root under the privatisation agenda that was pushed through by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The reported case of a private water-supplying company charging ten times the price of water billed by state authorities in Kota Kinabalu during times of water supply disruptions is in all likelihood the tip of the iceberg. 

The privatisation agenda pursued at great speed in the 1980s to the 2000s is a practice still favoured by politicians who rose to power and control.

While we once believed that the privatisation of government-owned service-providing entities was the panacea to rid the system of lagging productivity and corruption, today, we see how it has instead fed greedy hands. 

From land grabs to rare earth mining to housing to the importation of cheap foreign labour, we have read all about the ugly shadow operatives.

Is it far-fetched and unfounded to suspect that the privatisation agenda a’la Malaysian fashion has only enriched the elites?

Today, if citizens are paying ridiculously more for their goods, transport, education, housing, and all else, is it not therefore true that inflation is not the sole cause?

The common belief among citizens (including foreigners) that privatisation in Malaysia is akin to “piratisation” may be true after all. 

Perhaps, it is high time that essential and vital services like water, electricity, road works, etc were returned to the government turf and public accountability made mandatory, transparent, and a categorical determinant to evaluate the service quality, performance, and track records of heads of departments.

We senior citizens know that in the past decades of our immediate post-independence period, we were proud of our postal, water, transport, electricity, and education institutions, to name a few. 

But the mortar and glass that make our nation look granduer and gleaming after decades of privatisation and claimed as “privatisation success” has not relieved the citizenry but instead nudged more in the middle-income bracket into the hard pressed B40 segment of society.

Let us courageously and honestly ask ourselves, are Malaysians eating better-quality rice at lower or more affordable prices today compared to countries like India, Thailand, Cambodia, or Vietnam? 

Did Sri Jaya, Len Seng, Omnibus or even KTM (Railways) of bygone times, for example, grow large and serve the nation with nation-building visions and people caring at heart? 

The time is almost overdue to revisit the privatisation agenda in Malaysia.

For a small nation, have we not gone overdrive with privatisation so much so that today it operates like a chameleon making huge profits as the privatised entities rush to be listed on Bursa for humongous profits and to serve the interest of hidden shareholders, and maybe to even keep political funding well-greased?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.