Screenshots

With the opening up of the KUL-SIN air route to budget airlines, how viable will this project be?

Most companies' policy is to send their staff on a flight, instead of an express train. So for business people, price is not an issue since it's on company expense.

So besides a rush of commuters and tourists on weekends, there's pretty much low traffic in the weekdays.

I think if 100% of the costs is borne by YTL, by all means, go ahead. But knowing how they operate, doubt that they wont ask for grants etc from the Govt. If that is the case, it must be on open tender with open committee instead of cronies, so that the best wins, but then again, on so many countless occasions, has the best ever wins?

Looked at SMART tunnel, even that comes with Govt funding but toll collected by private companies.If we have gone for open tender, the toll charge may even drop to 50sen! Hope the PM know arithmetric as the savings goes to millions of citizen in the KL city instead of lining up some greasy cronies's pockets.

Let's see from the angle of economy.

The steel price is on the rise. So material on the rise, at least 10% increase, thus make it 11 billions.

With Selangor state land NOT GOING CHEAP, add another 2 billions on the land acquisitions and compensation

EU are much stronger, another 0.5 billions increase on forex cost.

So RM13.5 billions. So with a early start RM5 billions bonds, coupon rate of 4%, the interest rates are RM200 millions per year.

Say the project are "lucky" to complete in 3 years, 5 billions are raise on and 3.5billions rd year.

Using the same 4% coupon rate, interest end of 2nd year = 1st bond(200 mills x 2) + 2nd bond 200 mils = 600 millions.

And 3rd year = (600 mils + 400 mils ) + 3rd bond 140 millions = Total 1.14 billions interest served for 3 years.

If the loan repayment stretch across 20 years. The capital repayment will cost 56 millions per month, and another 2.2 millions interest, total RM58 millions PER MONTH. Add another 2 millions to operation cost, this will be RM60 millions per month

Can Francis tell us, how is he going to generate RM60 millions per month NET revenue. OR RM 2 millions ticket sell per day.

it's quid pro quo i reckon.

Raz: 'I think that Yeoh fellow should take off his tie and get himself admitted to the 3rd class ward at GHKL for a lobotomy or something.'

Neil: 'Why do you say that?'

Raz: 'People like him who think they can slip in another Pahang Cement deal on the govt need to have their heads examined and they should do it in a third class ward of a govt hospital to understand what people like Nades have written, in fact what they have missed all their lives. It can be quite a humbling experience, even for a billionaire or two.'

Neil: 'Pahang Cement?'

Raz: 'A money spinner for the group using state funds.'

Neil: 'Probably more of such deals around. Reminds one of Times Square. They all seem to think that things will go back to what they're used to before, don't they?'

Raz: 'March 8 was the turning point for Malaysia, Neil. It's the cut-off point. You can say that day was the Malaysian Revolution. If the french could have theirs, why not us? The rakyat voted for liberty from the oppression and arrogance of BN and their cronies. The rakyat voted for equality amongst the races who no longer want to have anything to do with racial politics. The rakyat voted for fraternity of all fellow Malaysians because they felt for one another's suffering. Yes, Neil, finally the rakyat spoke out from their hearts because they woke up their own minds and closed their ears from the propaganda.

Remember what Samy said recently - that he shed tears when the Indians came to ask for his help? He contradicted his own MIC's propaganda pieces in the media splashed before the elections. They had proclaimed how well the MIC had served the Indians. If this was indeed so, why should its president be crying for them then?'

Neil:'Do you think this will last?'

Raz: 'Let me answer you in another way. This Yeoh talked about trains. Let's talk about train stations.

The situation now is like what you see in a train station. Some are moving out; others are moving in; people pass one another at the turnstiles. PR is learning the ropes of how to govern. BN is learning the ropes of how to oppose. It's a criss-crossing race to get to the destination. Malaysia is in transition. She's in a quasi-governed state.'

Neil:'Which destination will she reach, Raz?'

Raz: 'It depends on two contending forces. How much BN can reform and transform itself and how much PR can push forward changes and improvements in governance. My feel is that in the end it will come down to some form of dynamic equilibrium.'

Neil:'Why not PR all the way?'

Raz: 'That can indeed happen.

Look at BN. Take Umno. After their losses, they said they were wrong about blogs. Then they said they need to reform. Then they go about finding scapegoats, blaming others, and pinning their losses on people. Then when they run out of words, they raise the racial card all over again.

Neil, they said everything just so long they didn't have to change themselves. They tried to cheat the rakyat all over again by deflecting attention from their own embedded faults, not just faults as politicians but also faults as human beings.

And yet we all know the rakyat voted for change. Therefore, Umno in the aftermath remaining the same as before shows that its leaders are all humbugs.

How can one change if one is dishonest and not willing to clearly and honestly admit one's fault?

Neil, i don't blame you and the others if you think we are hypocrites. I think playing the racial card again is insulting to the rakyat. Despite BN's splittist propaganda, Malays, Chinese and Indians voted for one another. Despite their past government called BN, the rakyat found it within themselves to care for one another. It was just in time. Another BN-loaded governance for another year and we will be bankrupt as a nation. See Penang. Now the worms are coming out. Over two hundred million in the red because the previous govt spent millions through its council on stupid projects like sports when people have no jobs and can't pay their bills. See Terengganu. It's no difference whether the rakyats' money is spent on RM450 screwdrivers or on RM450 million sports complexes. How does making a few athletes healthier pay for petrol, food and other daily living costs of an aging population with shrinking savings and little prospect of better paying job and business markets? What's a five percent increment today for executives whose starting pay has been stagnant for twenty years but inflation has been galloping ahead? Take Selangor. You have billions blown on a port and everyday you drive past the Shah Alam sports stadium which is just standing there while its former MB is now just blogging away. And then that immersion centre in England - how much consultants and travelling fees were blown so that the idea can now finally get squashed right in the face of another punk of a minister who's only good for spending rakyats' money on nonsense, doing absolutely nothing useful and then coming out to shove political apartheid on tourism when she should be making sure mainlanders visiting SEAsia will spend more time in Penang, KL and Melaka than in Singapore, as the tourist guides will lament to you?

How many more millions of the rakyats' money will need to be wasted before they say enough is enough? And you have this crony coming out to say the rakyat want a bullet train. What has he done for the rakyat? Groom their interest in italian opera so that they can enjoy more their daily diet of one ringgit nasi lemak using their purchase-with-purchase savings?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.'

Neil: 'So what about MCA, MIC and Gerakan?'

Raz: 'They should take up Rustam's advice who had said Umno can win alone. They should all just collapse themselves into PR.'

Neil:'But that will raise the ante and turn Umno into bigger ultras than they are at the moment in all but name.'

Raz: 'Neil, that won't happen if the Malays can see through the ruse of raising the notion of Malay rights as their burning platform again. Malaysia is like a healing patient after a bypass. There can be complications if the chest is exposed again. All must reject those desperadoes and ultras like Razaleigh and he who wrote the Kelantan regent's speech who continue to harp on Malay rights. Let us be reasonable. How is anyone going to apply those rights nowadays in a globalized world? Ask the United Nations to enforce them? Put them in the UN charter? Get the dutch arbitration court's views on the historical basis for them? i think the dutch have other problems at the moment, Neil.

Unlike those who can only trick themselves to bring up the issue of rights again because they think they can trick the rakyat and voters again, i have seen the world like you and we are in deep shit, Neil.'

Neil:'But we must help the marginalized, the poor and the dispossessed, Raz.'

Raz: 'Yes, Neil, we must. That's what any gomen must do, and do well. If cronies want funding for bullet trains in order to show progress, they should go get it themselves and not touch the rakyats' funds. And if their tickets have to be sky-high, bad luck kiddo; you want the reward, you take the risk.

Talking of rakyats funds, maybe that's why people can so easily quote Shakespeare when they say it's not that they love Caesar less but that they love Rome more. Hello kitty, Umno burnt Rome to the ground yesterday and PR is now calling for the fire engine.'

Neil:'What about PR?'

Raz:'It's all about PAS, Neil. They should once and for all stop talking about Islamic state and hudud laws. It's bad enough the other side talks about rights than to have another side talk about religion. To each his own with the Almighty, i say. The rakyat voted for freedom of politics from race. Give them another day. They will vote for freedom of politics from religion. Neil, if PAS is not careful and clear about how the world has moved on, PAS will be passe and PR will be paste, given BN's still formidable and ruthless capabilities. PAS should quietly think about this carefully. You want an economic analysis of a terrorist written by an israeli professor? I have that; unbelievable, what people really research but that's unfortunately the entrenched perception of investors, and investors we all need big time to crawl out of this mud hole. When the people are starving and have no future, how can they pray fullsomely? PAS should remember the reason BN won the last round; the rakyat didn't vote for BN; they voted against PAS. And this time they might have voted for PAS; but they also voted more against BN. Hahaha.'

Neil:'And PKR, DAP?'

Raz: 'Anwar has come out speaking better than all the others, including Umno. But he must himself be transformed first in order to do the right things otherwise people will say he was also umno before and his stay in prison is not the same as Lim's stay in prison. After all, Anwar played a major role in the malayification of education and was an ultra one time. You know, the rakyat are completely tired of ultra games played by politicians trying to claw their way up. Those games are over, man. They're history. They can only be played by bunglers and zealots and other harlots of opportunism. The question remains for Anwar - does he have a firewall where he and his sidekicks will not have to repay in contracts later those who hop to PR? Or those who had funded his post-trial support before? The rakyat are tired of all these schemes and cronies, too. He comes clean or PKR goes history.

All should remember. Keep it clean, keep it simple from now on. No double standards, no side and future deals. Full disclosure, above board, transparent governance, and the interest of all the rakyat up front. No more bullshit. The price of fertiliser has gone up, if i may add.

And DAP should remember the other communities too. Poverty and misery blight lives without considering race. If a Malay family is poor, let those who can afford to help be seen to help. F'ck the policy thing. If you have one young Azlan scoring 20 A1's today, help one hundred young Azlan's score 30 A1's tomorrow (muahaha, thirty!). While at it, the Muthusamy's and the Ah Beng's who deserve govt support too. All must not be forgotten. All gomen projects must have direct positive impacts for the rakyat regardless of race and religion. Otherwise, screw it.

And if i may add again, Neil, Sabah and Sarawak must never be forgotten. They have been forgotten for too long. Their peoples must be lifted up without fail and Project M must be exposed completely. Hentam kuat kuat on this one, i am not dangduting. And get back that RM54 billion to speed up the development.'

Neil: 'Do you see any other internal threat to PKR, Raz?'

Raz: 'Yes, the rakyats' expectations. That's why it is so important to expose the actual situations in the previously-BN run states. Always remember BN can play the hot and cold game. It holds the funds and may take its time to disburse them. It also left the states in a financial mess and that takes time to solve, if at all. If those financial mess problems eat into the future of PR-run states, PR may get bad fallout from not being able to do more. The rakyat must be completely clear who started the mess and who is trying to solve them while depending on funds to be released by the mess-creators who themselves want their seats back. Heck, maybe the six states should have their own IRBs.'

Neil: 'You're looking forward to your parliamentary sitting?'

Raz: 'Oh yes, Neil. I might just juice things up by asking if the Sedition Act applies to Umno GAs too. If no, why not? The results are different, ah? While at it, how does anti-hopping differ from not allowing to change religions? See, i will make a strong contribution to the hansard.'

Neil: 'Who will be the next PM, you think?'

Raz: 'Oh that one. The answer my friend is also blowing in the wind. The next PM of Malaysia will be a proxy. A short sharp hard woman of fiendish ambitions. My question to Umno in particular but not exclusively, and only half in jest:

"Do you know her real character(and his), and can you all take it?"

See the shit this country is in, Neil?'

Neil: 'careful, Raz. You don't want your photo blown up, too, do you?'

Raz: 'Seriously, the best solution is to demonarchize Raja Nazrin and make him the next PM. If TAR, a real prince could be PM, why not this leader of reasonableness and integrity?'

Neil:'But who will support this, Raz?'

Raz: 'Our YM Royal Highness, the King.'

Neil:'Ah, a faint hope there, i guess...'

Raz: 'Neil, it's not about politics. Who gives a shit what this or that party stands for? It's all about good to great governance, clean and efficient government, caring and prosperous nation, happy and fulfilled rakyat. Just think about it, when Terenggganu, for instance, runs out of oil in two years time, what can that RM450 million sports complex do for its people? For that matter, the rakyat in the other states? That is how Umno has spent our money. Keep it up and GE13 will be extremely unlucky for those who continue to dream on today.'

Neil:'I think they know it; that is also a disquieting thought.'

Raz:'And why is that so?'

Neil:'They may cut their losses and cream off more leakages; siphon state funds out, issue big contracts to not just locomotive cronies.'

Raz: 'Yes, as had happened just before one PM resigned, one faintly recalls. That's why PR and even those who have the hearts of the rakyat in their minds in Umno and the other BN parties should watch out. Imagine, loot state papers! What, we are at war or something? Criminals.'

I am currently working in HK and my job requires a lot of business travelling to China. Even if you have been to China for various reasons, you might not have taken their train before. They have over 9,000 km of of high speed train service which travel over 200km per hour.

We could not book the hotel for Olympic, we were jokingly saying that we should stay in Tianjin so that we can take the train to Beijing within 30 min. 30 min is just what it takes from Beijing to Tianjin by train. I once took a train from Shanghai to Nanjing - it took me just 2 hours (and that is the medium speed train of 130 km per hour). I decided to go Nanjing because it was CONVENIENT to do so (i.e. not because it was required of me to do so). High speed train actually promote business activities.

I personally think that such high speed train is required between Singapore and KL. It will create a lot of business opportunities (even silly things like Singaporean can come to KL partying on Friday night and go home the next morning) and KL will catch up on Singapore on the service industry.

Richard Green has a blog on urban planning and I remember reading it long long time ago that infrastructure (airport, high speed train) has a lot of benefits to economy.

It is just unfortunate that my fellow malaysian are too sceptical with the cronysm in the country that they are not prepared to take any risk on a project like this.

Junior

When the very rich talk they only think of his rich friends, how they can make more money for each other. Do they care what TEN BILLION Riggit can benifit the poorer sector? DUH! When I was working in KL I was shocked that you CANNOT even drink the water coming out of the tap like we do everywhere in New Zealand! Clean water, the basic bare necessity which a so called DEVELOPED COUNTRY like Malaysian cannot even provide to her people and you are wanting to spend TEN BILLION just to get to Singapore faster? NIAMAH!!!

Matter of interest, did you know if you have a stack of 10 Billion Riggit in 1 Riggit notes and every 5 seconds if you hand out a Ringgit to this long line of people, it will take 63.4 years to distribute this RM1 notes!

to undertake such mega billion ringgit project , is the private sector alone capable of coughing out the funds to let tis project materialize with out any grants or help from the authorities ? will the aviation industry take be adversely affected ? comparing the train ticket price to a budget airline ticket price how much could consumers save ?