TheChoice:Why Won’t Pakatan Help Fix the Selangor Water Crisis Instead of Criticising?

Sometimes it seems like it doesn't pay to do the right thing. In an effort to end the long-running Selangor water crisis, the Federal Government has rolled up its sleeves and swung into action to take charge of the shambles.

First off it announced plans to enact the long-term solution – the Langat 2 treatment plant, a project that has been stalled by inertia on the part of the PKR-led state government.

Then, just last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak personally oversaw the payment of RM120 million to water concessionaire Syabas to help it solve the recurrent problems relating to maintenance and equipment saying "we don't want Selangor people to continue being victims."

Although this was the Federal Government effectively saving the skin of the state government after all its dithering, you wouldn't expect Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to do anything as humble as thank the PM. But you also wouldn't expect Pakatan Rakyat to thumb their nose at the gesture either.

But that is exactly what has happened.

DAP publicity Chief Tony Pua says the RM120 million amounts to a bailout of Syabas, conveniently ignoring the fact it is being offered on the basis that it'll be used to stop the pipes running dry.

Further he said, it brings to RM3.41 billion the amount the federal Government has used to prop up Syabas, an allegation that has been flatly denied by Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui.

Chin attacked the core allegation from Pua, which is that the Federal Government has spent more than three billion taking over bonds issued by Syabas. It did this, said Chin, because although these bondholders have received dividends in the past, those payments have stopped since Pakatan Rakyat took over Selangor in 2008.

The Federal Government took over the bonds, said Chin, to make amends for the actions of the State Government yet again.

"Should there be a default, the bond holders can resort to taking legal action, which eventually will disrupt water supply," he said.

This episode again shows Pakatan Rakyat at its negative worst. For all the mistakes and name-calling in the Selangor water fiasco, Najib is at least trying to come to a workable solution and Tony Pua is throwing it back in his face.

It's a reminder of what Najib said at the end of last month: "The Opposition, they are not constructive. They only know how to belittle everything."

That makes Tony Pua the "Belittler in Chief" (or maybe "Deputy Belittler" behind Anwar). His modus operandi is to produce long lists of figures that tell of impending doom: Malaysia will be bankrupt by 2019, we will become like Greece, there is a grand conspiracy against the people of Selangor by the Federal Government over the issuer of water. All of this is nonsense.

But we shouldn't be surprised. Tony Pua has already lost a civil action taken against him by Syabas, but he has singularly failed to learn. This man doesn't know when to stop.

His reaction to the Selangor water crisis is a reminder of just how detached Pakatan Rakyat has become from the most basic needs of ordinary people. An elderly woman forced to carry buckets up three flights of stairs due to a water outage doesn't care about the current status of Syabas bonds, she just wants the water back on. These are the people Najib is trying to help by his no-nonsense action.

If only Tony Pua and friends thought the same way.