RM4 million ex gratia payment by Tenaga Nasional to Penangites for the 10-day power blackout last year too paltry and inadequate, representing not even half per cent of the losses incurred, and should be increased to one full month’s rebate or RM40 million

While Penangites welcome the Cabinet decision that Tenaga Nasional make an ex gratia payment for the 10-day power blackout in June last year, the 10 per cent rebate for a month’s electricity bill amounting to RM4 million is too paltry and inadequate as it does not even represent half per cent (0.5%) of the losses incurred by Penang island industry, business and consumers - which had been estimated to reach RM1 billion.

Announcing the Cabinet decision, the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Post, Datuk Leo Moggie said yesterday that the additional 10 per cent rebate, over and above the 10 per cent rebate for the 17-hour nation-wide blackout on August 3, is a goodwill payment and not a compensation.

Leo Moggie said this was in response to the appeal by the Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon to the Prime Minister seeking his assistance in getting an additional rebate.

It is right and proper that Tenaga Nasional should make a “goodwill” payment to the 146,000 Penang consumers who suffered RM1 billion losses in the 10-day blackout, but the ex gratia payment must not be so trifle a sum as to remove all meaning of “goodwill” from the gesture, and the minimum for such a “goodwill” payment to be meaningful for the 10-day blackout must be one full month’s rebate which comes to RM40 million.

It would appear that the RM4 million Tenaga Nasional “goodwill” payment is not so much for the losses suffered by Penang industry, business and consumers as a result of the 10-day blackout, but in order to salvage the political flanks of the Penang Chief Minister from DAP criticisms for failing to get ex gratia payment for Penang for the 10-day blackout when there is the precedent of a 10 per cent rebate for 17-hour nationwide power blackout on August 3.

From Oct. 17 to 23, I had issued five statements:

• DEMANDING that Tenaga Nasional should follow its own precedent and pay one full month’s rebate for the 10-day power blackout on the Penang Island in June last year;

• CALLED on the Penang State Exco and State Assembly to convene emergency meetings to demand Tenaga Nasional pay at least a full month rebate;

• DEMANDING an explanation from Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon why he had privately abandoned Penang’s claim for ex gratia payment while publicly pretending that the claim was still pending, as revealed by the Tenaga Nasional executive chairman, Datuk Dr. Abdullah Tajuddin Ali. Tajuddin told the press in Langkawi on 18th October that Tsu Koon had told him that he (Tsu Koon) was satisifed with the investments Tenaga Nasional had made in Penang to upgrade the power supply on the island as “ex gratia” for the 10-day power blackout.

• EXPRESSED surprise that the Chief Minister had only sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking for help to get ex gratia payment from Tenaga Nasional 16 months after the 10-day power blackout last year; and

• NOTED that if the 10-day power blackout in Penang had happened before the 1995 general elections when the DAP had 13 DAP 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 would have been met - even before the August 3 blackout this year.

While my five press statements between Oct. 17 - 23 might have an important bearing in getting the Cabinet to change its mind and to direct Tenaga Nasional to make a goodwill payment to Penang for the 10-day power blackout, the RM4 million “goodwill” payments is too ridiculous considering the RM1 billion losses suffered by Penang industry, business and consumers in the 10-day blackout.

If Dr. Koh Tsu Koon disputes that the RM4 million “goodwill” payment has anything to do with my five press statements, I will not argue with him. I will only ask him to take a strong and clear stand that a “goodwill” payment of RM4 million for the 10-day blackout is not a “goodwill” gesture, and to write further to the Prime Minister to ask the Cabinet to direct Tenaga Nasional to pay a “decent” goodwill sum of at least a full month’s rebate of RM40 million to the 146,000 consumers in Penang.

(31/10/96)