Post Maszlee: Remembering Ani Arope, YTL and Mahathir

Editor's Note: On Jan 9, 2020, YTL Corp responded to the commentary below.

COMMENT | In Hari Raya’s of yore, my family would often stop by the home of a family friend, Ani Arope, in Shah Alam.

It was always a quiet, but lovely affair. The lemang was delicious, the fish in the pond graceful, and the company charming.

I think it was only a little later on that I learned the full story of this man.

Ani's (above) defining moment came in 1996, when he was the executive chairperson of Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).

Then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad seemed to be in favour of TNB signing a power purchase agreement from YTL Power, the nation’s first independent power producer (IPP).

Kinibiz may be gone now, but this rather good article by Khairie Hisyam remains. He wrote regarding Ani Arope:  

“... Ani stood his ground as executive chairperson of TNB at the time in refusing to sign the very first power purchase agreement (PPA) for YTL Power’s benefit. While the terms of this agreement remain under wraps of the Official Secrets Act 1972, Ani had repeatedly stated later that the terms were ridiculous from TNB's perspective.

In the interview with KiniBiz in July, Ani reiterated that the PPA was a lopsided deal and that he could not sign it in good faith given his duty to TNB's shareholders to administer the utility in their best interests.

“There were many clauses detrimental to TNB (that I couldn't agree to),” said Ani to KiniBiz. “If I (had) signed, people would have said that I also ‘sapu' (get a cut).”

As we spoke on that period in his life, part of me felt a sense of deep admiration and respect for the man, who opted for principle and integrity when playing ball was such an easy alternative.”

Long story short, Ani was eventually replaced, and YTL Power got the PPA they wanted.

Remembering YTL’s 1BestariNet

Twenty-three years later, on July 5. 2019, The Edge Markets ran a story headlined: “We rejected YTL’s six-month free internet service to schools due to hidden costs’ - minister”.  

Here are some excerpts:

“The Education Ministry rejected YTL Communications Sdn Bhd’s offer for free internet service to schools nationwide for an interim six month period prior to the call of an open tender next year, mainly due to hidden costs of more than RM40 million.

Amongst other reasons, the main reason why it did not select YTL was that the company had stated terms and conditions in their offer, including the request of free electricity and rental of their telecommunications tower, Education Ministry secretary-general Mohd Ghazali said.

“The ministry found that it would incur a potential loss of rental revenue totalling RM32.58 million from the telecommunications tower in the six months. These are hidden costs and would not be a free service for the Ministry,” he said.

“Estimates of these costs involving 2,715 sites total up to more than RM40 million, and are paid for by the government,” Mohd Ghazali said.”

This is the somewhat famous 1BestariNet project, which turned out to be free internet that was (of course) not in fact free.

I applaud the Education Ministry and its then minister for standing their ground against a project that seems very much lopsided and suspect.

Half a year later, The Malaysian Insight claimed to have sighted a letter dated Dec 27, 2019, from the prime minister to the education minister, in which free internet service for schools is explicitly mentioned:  

“Describing the letter as a '17-paragraph missive', the article claimed that Education Minister Maszlee Malik failed to follow cabinet's directive on the teaching of Jawi in schools, free internet service for schools and the free breakfast programme for pupils.

According to the article, Mahathir ended the letter with the words: "It is now time for Yang Berhormat (Maszlee) to withdraw from the cabinet"."

Remembering Khalid Ibrahim

I suppose some Malaysiakini readers wouldn’t believe it’s a Nathaniel Tan article without the mention of former menteri besar Khalid Ibrahim - a man cut from much the same type of cloth as Ani Arope.

In the press, an ever-evolving list of reasons for wanting Khalid removed as menteri besar in 2013 was bandied about (like throwing wet spaghetti to a wall to see which sticks), but when it comes down to it, one lesser-known reason seems to rise above the rest.

In the Selangor water restructuring exercise, Khalid wanted to buy over water treatment company Splash (Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd) for RM250 million, excluding Splash’s liabilities of RM1.8 billion.

One of the main owners of Splash, Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah (the other being Gamuda), was adamant that Selangor pays a price of RM2.5 billion instead, plus take over the RM1.8 billion in liabilities.

Despite immense pressure from PKR, Khalid (photo) refused this price.

The Kajang Move happened. Pakatan Rakyat fell apart.

Long story short, Khalid was eventually replaced, and Wan Azmi got the price he wanted.

Why was Maszlee removed?

Now that Maszlee has been removed, I suppose a few people might be tempted to wonder why.

In August 2019, no less than the magnificent and tycoon-friendly Daim Zainuddin himself deigned to (somewhat unusually) position himself as the latest expert on education, and write a scathing commentary criticising the Education Ministry.  

Once such commentaries and others succeed in making Maszlee look more and more like a fool, less and less people can be expected to be surprised when they finally decide to remove him.

To borrow from an episode of the TV series Monk - no one would ever suspect a man riddled with gunshot wounds to have died by poisoning.  

I suppose all that remains is to see in a few months whether or not the people who did not get the contract they wanted under Maszlee will now get it under his successor.

I attended the funeral prayers for Ani Arope some years ago. I bumped into good people there, people who clearly admired him - including one old friend who is now a minister.

The prayers were a small and humble affair at the TNB mosque - nothing like the massive funerals of tycoons (the type our good prime minister has so very kindly just reminded us not to be envious of).  

I couldn’t help but think though, that in the end, this soft-spoken, unassuming man who stood his ground, stood taller than any tycoon.

All I know is that if I can end days with my integrity as intact as his, then my heart will lie peaceful and calm, as I’m laid to my rest.

NATHANIEL TAN obviously is drawn to jousting at windmills. He is honoured to be curating @twt_malaysia on Twitter this week, and can be reached at [email protected].

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