Don’t envy Penang’s 4 Made-in-Vietnam ferries when “we can’t even ‘pasang’ one LCS vessel”

Don’t envy Penang’s 4 Made-in-Vietnam ferries when “we can’t even ‘pasang’ one LCS vessel”





Editor’s Note: Former Penang Port Commission (PPC) chairman Jeffrey Chew has alerted us that the decision to purchase the four so-called Made-in-Vietnam ferries was made during the tenure of his predecessor Datuk Tan Teik Cheng who is the MCA vice-president and Penang MCA chairman. Although the position of PPC chairman is now vacant, the thoughtfulness of Chew who was the former special investment officer to the then chief minister Lim Guan Eng to set aside political rivalry and render credit when credit is due deserves high praises.


THERE was one interesting post in the “Entrepreneurs and Startups in Malaysia” Facebook page where one Azmi Salim enquired why Penang Port Sdn Bhd decided to acquire four Made-In-Vietnam ferries “when we have our own engineers and numerous shipyards in Malaysia with good facilities?”

For the uninitiated, each ferry costs RM18 mil and have the capacity to carry 250 passengers and 50 two-wheelers. The travelling time between the island and mainland is approximately 10 mins one way which is half the time of the classic ferry. The ferries that are not designed for cars are slated to commence operations in mid-July.




This is where netizen Maurice Ryan Downs rekindled the furore of Malaysians with the RM9 bil Littoral Combatant Ship (LCS) saga or rather, scandal.

“Why? Simple. You know the LCS of Boustead Naval Shipyard? It is not OUR design; we do not MAKE the offensive and defensive weapon systems on board the vessel; and our job was to PASANG (install) the vessels together like LEGOs,” he pointed out.

“And we can’t even do that … paid for six (vessels), negotiated down to five (not four as stated by the netizen) and can’t even finish one (till now). Now they claim can deliver two (vessels) with a small top-up by 2025. Pathetic. Need I say more?”



To a question that if there are issues pertaining to military secrets that need special attention or compliance in the case of New Generation Patrol Vessel (NGPV), Second Generation Patrol Vessel (SGPV) and LCS, Maurice reckoned that such issue “is not as top secret or as complicated as everyone thinks”.

“We outsource and acquire a vast majority of our defence equipment from foreign military suppliers/manufacturers (even if we are capable to build them in Malaysia),” observed the netizen.

“In Johor, we have MMHE (Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd), for example, that services more than just the O&G (oil & gas) sector. Its surrounding area contains many vessel manufacturers. If I recall correctly, Malaysia has over 100 companies that can actually build naval vessels.”

As to the question “why not us”, Maurice attributed it to “racial and religious politics as well as general politics being the two factors”.

“Say for example, Penang (which is DAP-led) purchases from local Company X, there will be questions of (i) why Penang chooses this company?; (ii) is it because the Penang EXCO (executive councillor) has some family ties to this company?; (iii) is the company giving kickbacks in the tender process?; and (iv) why are the criteria so difficult to achieve? (is this intended to single out favourable companies)?” he revealed.

“Whereas if Penang deals with an external company, it is a simple made-to-order deal. Any claims of impropriety can be addressed with paperwork/trail but the same cannot be said if they dealt with any local companies as we all know people who love to spin things would spin certain strawman arguments which cannot be quantified.”

After all, as shared by fellow netizen Marv Seven, the purchase of Penang’s four new ferries was settled above board.

“It was done pretty fairly. Penang Port called for an open tender to give the Penang ferry services a complete makeover. A total of 36 companies submitted their bids, of which 23 were local companies and 13 foreign companies.” – May 13, 2023