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Call on PLUS Board of Directors, with its glittering cast of former super-civil servants, to show an example of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by convening an emergency meeting to decide on the proposal for a of two-month deferment of 10% NSE toll hike and not to allow the PLUS Management to usurp its powers and responsibilities
Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh, Thursday): The high-handed rejection of the proposal of two-month deferment of 10% North-South Expressway (NSE) toll hike by PLUS managing director, Idrose Mohamed without requisitioning a meeting of the PLUS Board of Directors to decide on the matter shows the PLUS management’s utter contempt for public opinion, its most deplorable absence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the usurpation of the powers and responsibilities of the PLUS Board of Directors. After meeting the delegation from the multi-party-NGO Committee Against Unfair Toll Increase led by its Chairperson Teresa Kok, Member of Parliament for Seputeh, Idrose Mohamed came out with a statement declaring the 10% toll hike as “fair, justified and reasonable”. PLUS would have previously made the same claim about its toll rate structure being “fair, justified and reasonable”, but the fact is that the original toll rate structure with regard to quantum and period of increase had been so unfair and lop-sided that it had to be revised twice in two Supplementary Concession Agreements, the first time in 1999 and the second time in 2002. And the NSE toll rate structure is still unfair and lopsided – raising the need for a third revision, which is the reason for the proposal for a two-month deferment of the 10% toll hike on 1.1.2005 to allow a full public study of its far-reaching implications. It is most regrettable that the PLUS management has chosen to unilaterally and arbitrarily reject the proposal for a two-month deferment of the 10% NSE toll hike increase without first referring the proposal to the Board of Directors for a decision, although PLUS has a star-studded cast of former super-public servants as its directors. With a glittering cast on its Board of Directors, including its Chairman, Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim, former Secretary-General of Treasury, and serving as Directors, Professor Ungku Aziz, former University of Malaya Vice Chancellor, Tan Sri Razali Ismail, former United Nations Security Council Chairman and Dato’ Mohamed Azman Yahya, former Danaharta Chairman, it is most shocking that the PLUS Board of Directors had not been allowed to set an example of good corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) by the PLUS management by taking the final decision on this issue. It is still not too late, however, for responsible and conscientious PLUS Directors to respond to urgent demands of public interest and requisition for an emergency meeting of the PLUS Board of Directors to seriously consider the proposal that it approve a two-month deferment of the 10% NSE toll hike on 1.1.2005 to allow a full public study of its far-reaching implications. I call on the PLUS Board of Directors, with its glittering cast of former super-civil servants, to show an example of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by convening an emergency meeting to decide on the proposal for a of two-month deferment of 10% NSE toll hike and not to allow the PLUS Management to usurp its powers and responsibilities on this issue, in view of the great public interests involved. |