The answer by the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts, Datuk Leo Moggie in Parliament to the DAP MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, that it is up to the consumers to take Tenaga Nasional to court for compensation for the August 3 nation-wide blackout is a great public let-down.
When Leo Moggie said that the Government has no power to order Tenaga Nasional Bhd to compensate consumers for the August 3 nation-wide blackout, he was washing the hands of responsibility of the Government in the matter. This is most irresponsible especially as the Government holds a 70 per cent stake in the utility company.
Malaysian consumers are entitled to ask whether Leo Moggie is a Minister for the people or a Minister for Tenaga Nasional Bhd!
There is no need for Leo Moggie to quote the Electricity Supply Act 1990 which provides that compensation would only be given to consumers who could prove that they had suffered losses as a result of Tenaga’s negligence two months after the August 3 black-out.
Everybody knows that Tenaga Nasional had been able to escape accountability and responsibility for its negligence, carelessness and poor management all these years because of the one-sided and anti-consumer Electricity Supply Act 1990.
Is Leo Moggie doing anything to introduce a Bill to amend the Electricity Supply Act in the current meeting of Parliament to make it more consumer-friendly and to make Tenaga Nasional responsible and accountable for its negligence and error without hiding behind the protection of a anti-consumer law?
Malaysians had hoped that the Minister had realised the inequity of this law and following the statement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed that Tenaga Nasional should compensate Malaysians for the losses they incurred as a result of the nationwide blackout, that Leo Moggie would play the primary role to get Tenaga Nasional to assume responsibility for the blackout and to pay compensation, particularly in the form of rebate to all consumers.
Leo Moggie’s answer is all the more disappointing as one day earlier in Parliament, in answer to my question, the Deputy Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts, Datuk Chong Kong Choy said that the Cabinet had yet to decide whether Tenaga Nasional should compensate the consumers for the August 3 blackout by way of an ex gratia rebate to the consumers.
Leo Moggie must give a clear-cut answer whether he has foreclosed all options of Tenaga Nasional paying compensation for the nation-wide blackout by way of an ex gratia rebate, and if so, he should give the reasons.
The Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and Posts has given Malaysians the impression that after the initial furore over the August 3 nation-wide blackout, complacency and insensitivity to public demands for quality service from Tenaga Nasional for uninterrupted supply of electricity has again set in at the higher reaches of the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and Posts.
It is shocking to read of the statement by Leo Moggie last Saturday that Malaysia’s rate of power blackouts was relatively better than several other countries.
It is such complacency and insensivity which is a primary reason for the poor Tenaga Nasional service record and frequent power disruptions in the country.
Tenaga executive chairman, Datuk Dr. Ahmad Tajuddin Ali had revealed that over the past year, a total of 149,682 power breakdowns were reported, and said that this represented a 48 per cent dip from the 280,663 breakdowns that were reported the previous years.
Having 12,000 power breakdowns a month is not a record for any efficient utility company to be proud about. In any event, how many power breakdowns had been reported in the first nine months of 1996?
May be it is time for the country to have a new Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts who is ashamed of Tenaga Nasional’s power blackout record, who does not want Malaysia to compare with the worst but to match the best in the world, if there is going to be a real improvement in Tenaga Nasional’s quality of service.
(16/10/96)