KUALA LUMPUR: A deputy minister has urged the government to be cautious in dealing with a controversial 9km-long wall built by a Chinese company at an industrial park in Pahang, days after Dr Mahathir Mohamad warned that the structure should be torn down.
Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Ong Kian Ming said the wall, which is 2-3 metres tall and built around the 3,500-acre Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP), was a “very small matter in the overall scheme of things”.
“We need to understand the situation and what is really going on in all of these projects so we can find win-win solutions for all parties,” Ong, who is a member of DAP’s Central Committee, told reporters today, following his visit to the MCKIP site yesterday.
Earlier today, Ong offered a lengthy explanation in defence of the wall, playing down concerns over the barrier as well as defending a Chinese steel factory which erected the structure.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders in the past criticised the structure, which some dubbed as the “Great Wall of China”, as a symbol of unfettered powers of Chinese companies involved in major projects in Malaysia under former prime minister Najib Razak.
Following Ong’s defence of the wall, Najib today said it was a far cry from PH’s strong stance on the matter, adding it was one of many issues raised by PH politicians in which he had been vindicated since BN’s defeat in the May polls.
Najib said he had been accused of “selling out the country” when PH leaders questioned the 3m wall surrounding the Chinese-owned Alliance Steel factory plant in MCKIP.
“Only now do I know that a solution to ‘selling out’ the country is to lower the height of the wall surrounding the steel factory by 1.2m. Why didn’t you tell me then?” asked the former prime minister.
Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Ong Kian Ming said the wall, which is 2-3 metres tall and built around the 3,500-acre Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP), was a “very small matter in the overall scheme of things”.
“We need to understand the situation and what is really going on in all of these projects so we can find win-win solutions for all parties,” Ong, who is a member of DAP’s Central Committee, told reporters today, following his visit to the MCKIP site yesterday.
Earlier today, Ong offered a lengthy explanation in defence of the wall, playing down concerns over the barrier as well as defending a Chinese steel factory which erected the structure.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders in the past criticised the structure, which some dubbed as the “Great Wall of China”, as a symbol of unfettered powers of Chinese companies involved in major projects in Malaysia under former prime minister Najib Razak.
Following Ong’s defence of the wall, Najib today said it was a far cry from PH’s strong stance on the matter, adding it was one of many issues raised by PH politicians in which he had been vindicated since BN’s defeat in the May polls.
Najib said he had been accused of “selling out the country” when PH leaders questioned the 3m wall surrounding the Chinese-owned Alliance Steel factory plant in MCKIP.
“Only now do I know that a solution to ‘selling out’ the country is to lower the height of the wall surrounding the steel factory by 1.2m. Why didn’t you tell me then?” asked the former prime minister.
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following Mahathir's angry outburst, local authorities have suggested the "Wall" be lowered to 1.8 metres |
Ong Kian Ming is a bloke who you get what you see - though still very young, I consider him as salt-of-the-earth type.
He is in generally honest and doesn't bullshit like others.
And he has provides a non-vengeful assessment of the so-called Great Wall of China around the Alliance Steel factory located within the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) in Pahang which Mahathir now detests (I suspect mainly because of his failure in China and Japan in soliciting financial loans and in the former, relief from compensation for wanting to cancel Chinese-Malaysian projects).
Mahathir is behaving spitefully as he has been known to do. On his return from China, he demanded (in a fit of anger) that the "wall" be demolished, saying an industrial park should not be treated like a “foreign country” and must abide by local laws (as if other factories in Malaysia don't have walls around their premises).
Ong reminds the PM that it's only the Alliance Steel factory and not the entire MCKIP park which has the "wall". The company provides 2500 locals with jobs, and that the so-called "Great Wall" is not 3 metres high all around the factory but actually only 2 metres in most places with only 3 metres in some spots - it has been built to protect the company's assets located within.
But the ultras have come out to support Mahathir's anti-China diatribe and demand. While Ong KM is trying to solve the non-issue into a win-win situation, Mahathir and his cohorts are determined to make trouble for China projects here.
I wonder what the company Alliance Steel factory and others in the MCKIP industrial Park are planning to manufacture or produce requiring a 9 km long and 2-3 meters high concrete wall to surround it.
ReplyDeleteIs the product going to be hazardous, toxic, very secretive etc?
Why the need to make it more secure than an ordinary army camp in Malaysia?
Actually, steel mills need to have high walls to prevent steel dust from flying everywhere out of the premise, being that their health & environmental responsibilities are only limited within the compound. Likewise steel mills in packed industrial areas like Southern Steel, Mycron Steel, & Kian Joo, etc, have high walls for such purposes. What I'm more surprised is, the walls are too low and the ones facing road is just a fence.
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