Wednesday, January 7, 2009

SNIPPETS - I HEAR VOICES

7btc
As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det Weblog on January 6, 2009 3:03 PM

1. No, I am not mad yet.

2. The voices I hear is about a new airport.

3. We have three airports in and around the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, one in Sungai Besi, one in Subang and one in Sepang.

4. Sepang was designed for 125 million passengers a year. It can have two terminals, four satellites and five runways.

5. Right now the voices tell me we are handling only 25 million passengers. So we have capacity for another 100 million passengers more.

6. But the voices said we will be building a new airport (the whole carboodle) at Labu in Negri Sembilan. It is to be exclusively for the low cost airlines, e.g. Air Asia.

7. We paid RM8 billion for KLIA Sepang. Even a small airport at today's prices would be near to RM2 billion. The distance to Kuala Lumpur would be longer but of course it would be nearer Seremban and other parts in Negri Sembilan.

8. But that's all right as you don't pay any fare for the flights, only for the fares to the airport.

9. The building of the airport should stimulate the economy. Somebody can make quite a bit selling land. A Government Link Company will get the job and contract it out to some lucky bloke. There will be a whole lot of other contracts to look forward to. It could even help with the coming recession.

10. These are of course only voices. Maybe the Government can enlighten us why Sepang or even Subang is not suitable. Has the Sepang Formula One circuit taken up all the land so we cannot build any more facility in Sepang?

11. What happens to the low cost terminal at KLIA we have built only recently with such great speed? Do we close it down or do we transport the whole lot to Labu?

12. After thinking up about raising buffalos in Langkawi, Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi must be congratulated for yet another great idea.