Zahid Hamidi the current Minister for Defence announced officially yesterday that the RMAF Sungai Besi air base will be closed to make way for redevelopment under the RMK10 plan. I still think it is a good defence asset that should be preserved for operational use by the RMAF and other air wing of the Government Enforcement agencies due to its proximity to KL/Klang Valley just in case there are internal troubles, say like the Bangkok violent demonstration of the past previous months. The Sungai Besi Air Base have good infrastructure and makes a good staging point to respond to any security emergencies. Alas the Government have decided.
Anyway Zahid also mentioned that beside local investors there will be some middle east involvement in the redevelopment as well. Seems to me that its fashionable to announce middle east investors proposed participation in Malaysia when ever there are proposed mega developments, the last big one I heard was for the Iskandar Region a couple of years back and more recently the Aluminium smelting plant in Bintulu Sarawak but have heard little especially since the global financial crisis started coupled with the Dubai meltdown late last year.
The bernama news on Zahid's announcement can be read here.
Just hope that the Kementerian Pertahanan and LTAT will be professional and be above board when they actually carry out the redevelopment work which more often than not will at the end involve the people's money whether it fail or succeed.
Jangan jadi macam PKFZ which started with good intention to emulate the success of Jebel Ali Free Zone but unfortunately turned out to be an expensive blunder and an unforgiven mistake for the decision makers and managers involved in the fiasco...yang rugi siapa..rakyat Malaysia juga.
This is a good self explanatory timeline of the PKFZ fiasco by Price waterhouse on the PKFZ fiasco, very concised but straight to the issues.
I hope lessons learnt by the MOT/Port Klang Authority in the PKFZ are applied in the TLDM Sungai Besi airbase redevelopment by the Government and of course MOD/Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera.
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