Tsu Koon’s official letter to the Prime Minister for ex-gratia payment by Tenaga Nasional 16 months after the 10-day power blackout in Penang has lost all meaning and is just an empty gesture

Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon announced yesterday that he had sent an official letter to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on Penang’s claim for ex gratia payment by Tenaga Nasional for the 10-day power blackout on Penang Island in June last year.

Tsu Koon’s official letter to the Prime Minister for ex-gratia payment by Tenaga Nasional 16 months after the 10-day power blackout in Penang has lost all meaning and is just an empty gesture - or to use Tsu Koon’s own words, just “to place our request on record”.

It is most shocking despite an unanimous motion by the Penang State Assembly last year, the Penang Chief Minister had not sent any official letter to either Tenaga Nasional or the Prime Minister to formally ask for ex gratia payment for the 10-day power blackout on the Penang Island in June last year, which had caused an estimated RM1 billion losses to industry, business and consumers and gravely dented Penang’s attractiveness as a hi-tech investment centre.

Tsu Koon’s official letter to the Prime Minister for ex-gratia payment by Tenaga Nasional is now meaningless and an empty gesture for the following three reasons:

• The 16-month delay in sending an official request to the Prime Minister seeking his help in getting ex-gratia payment for the 10-day power blackout is quite fatal, as this inordinate delay can only convey one messasge to the Cabinet - that the Penang Chief Minister is not serious in pursuing the State Assembly claim for ex-gratia payment from Tenaga Nasional;

• Tsu Koon sent in the letter after the Prime Minister had taken a public position on the 10-day Penang Island power blackout, telling reporters after opening the 11th Conference of the Electricity Power Supply Industry in Kuala Lumpur on Monday that Penang’s claim for ex gratia payment from Tenaga Nasional for the 10-day power blackout would not be entertained.Why didn’t Tsu Koon send in a formal letter before the Prime Minister has taken a public position on the matter?

• Tsu Koon’s assurance to the Tenaga Nasional chief executive officer, Datuk Tajuddin Ali that he was satisfied with Tenaga Nasional’s RM1.7 billion plans for upgrading the power supply system in Penang as “ex gratia” for the 10-day power blackout. Although Tsu Koon subsequently denied that he had told Tajuddin that the Penang State Government was abandoning the Penang claim for ex gratia payment, his denial and clarification had not been confirmed or collaborated by Tajuddin. Unless Tajuddin publicly admits that he was wrong or had been misreported when he said in Langkawi last Friday that Tsu Koon had indicated that he would not pursue the Penang claim for ex gratia payment, substantial numbers of Penangites would tend to believe Tajuddin’s statement.

I have no doubt that if the 10-day Penang Island blackout had happened before the 1995 general elections when the DAP had 13 State Assemblymen, with the backdrop of DAP’s “Tanjong 3” project to capture the Penang State Government, the Penang claim for ex gratia compensation from Tenaga Nasional for a 10-day power blackout would have been attended to with despatch, with the Cabinet directing Tenaga Nasional to make ex gratia compensation - and not at present, completely ignored by Tenaga Nasional and the Cabinet.

(23/10/96)