UK Town Council Rejects Malaysian Training Centre Plan At Brickendonbury
What started as an ambitious but financially questionable 'plan' to help our athletes prepare for the 2012 London Olympics, by creating a new multi-million ringgit sports centre at the Malaysian-owned Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickendonbury, Hertfordshire, came to an ignominious end when the town council there firmly rejected the scheme.The National Sports Institute (NSI) announced that its application to build the centre was given the "up yours" sign by the town council. NSI director-general Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz, who was present at the hearing, said that it was unfortunate that the decision had gone this way.
Youth and Sports Minister Azalina Othman, who had mooted the idea last July, had said that the centre would see aspiring Malaysian athletes 'train and compete' in European tournaments. No one bought that story and many viewed it as a greedy, underhanded attempt by some interested parties to bilk the country to the tune of hundreds of millions of ringgit.
After strong domestic opposition even from within Umno, deputy prime minister Najib Tun Razak said that Malaysia had decided to drop the controversial plan. It was reported then that the sports facility would cost about 490 million ringgit. Najib had further stated that the authorities would use an existing facility at the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre. Many feared that the 'existing facility' ruse would still cost hundreds of millions. (Incidentally our sporting performance as everyone knows has flagged in recent years even in events at which we used to excel, such as badminton and hockey. Only Nicol David is a world-class Malaysian sports person today. Unfortunately for her, she does not belong to the 'right' group, for otherwise the rewards would have been astronomical.)
There was also talk last year that the government planned to use an arms deal with Britain to buy two frigates and other hardware as leverage to persuade British planners to approve the sports centre in the Green Belt in East Herts. That devious attempt too proved a non-starter.
Now it looks like the government very quietly did put in an application to build the centre despite the earlier announced turnaround. Apparently the mat sallehs have more respect for rules, regulations and the environment than our pemimpin or majlis tempatan do. Thank goodness for small mercies. We've just saved half-a-billion ringgit, out of which probably a substantial portion would have ended up in a couple of Swiss bank accounts. For the time being at least the public have won. But I'm sure our pemimpin will think up of even 'better' schemes as the days go by. Malaysia Boleh!
Image - Source
From Bernama: Malaysia's Application To Set Up HPTC In Brickendonbury Rejected.
Labels: Corrupt Politicians, Sports., Umnoputras - Blunders And Plunders.
posted by The Malaysian. at 11/15/2007 02:30:00 PM
7 Comments:
Do you have the contact of the Hertfordshire Local Govt - we should thank them for saving our money :-)
i'll donate RM10 to a fund to send Herts Council a terima kasih gift for blocking this scheme.
Lets pray that the govt don't have to pay millions in compensation to the Con-Sultans
The sad part, of course, is that it took some foreign governance to save the Malaysian rakyat's hard earned money .... not our very own members of Parliament.
the public won? but it a damn hollow one. if not for the mat sallehs, another RM500 million will be gone.
do you think they will stop? believe me, they are now hatching another plan. for once, the sports ministry must be a honey pot for the ugly bears to consume in one gulp.
To the Brits, thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you. You do not know what this means to us.
Looks like every ministry has its own innovative ideas to milk the rakyat's money. You better act fast- before the government goes bankrupt.
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