KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 – The public must examine the merits of the Warisan Merdeka 100-storey tower and not condemn it outright in a “knee-jerk reaction”, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah has said.
“We have to study it in detail, ask questions... and then after getting the answers to those questions, we make a decision, not listening to just one voice, ‘This is no good. This will be a white elephant’,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
Husni stressed that people should not react based on “hearsay” and “emotion” and must instead ask the right questions about the feasibility of Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s (PNB) skyscraper proposal in order to make an informed decision.
“What we should be asking is: Why did they (PNB) decide to go into property? How much is the return? What are the risk factors? Have you mitigated the risk? If you’ve done that – the rational thinking – then you make a decision [whether] you agree or not,” he said.
“This is the investment of PNB. They have various investments. How many years they have been in business? So they feel that they want to go into property because property can fetch lots of money. Definitely they have done their study. It is not something ad hoc.”
The controversial Warisan Merdeka project, which promises to be a symbol of a modern and developed Malaysia, has been viciously attacked by the opposition as well as ordinary Malaysians online since it was mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last Friday.
Malaysians, who were recently declared the world’s heaviest users of Facebook, have turned to the social networking site to express their dismay over the proposal.
An anti-Warisan Merdeka page on Facebook called “1M Malaysians Reject 100-Storey Mega Tower” has been signing up fans at an astonishing rate of over 1,000 fans per hour on Wednesday.
Its total number of fans breached the 100,000 mark yesterday night.
Husni said project was crucial to the Najib administration’s plan to boost domestic investment in the country’s quest to wean itself off foreign direct investment (FDI), and reiterated the prime minister’s assurance that the Warisan Merdeka will confer “multiplier effects” to the economy.
“There’ll be 140 sectors that will benefit, from banking sector, from services, from materials, from transportation, from contract work, employment, salary,” he said.
“That will create... both private investment and private consumption. These are the things that will boost the GDP of the country.”
Husni accused the opposition of riding on the rising tide of public discontent at the project to create “fear, anger, suspicion”, without first looking properly at its benefits.
“We must look a things comprehensively, not just on the surface, listening to some opposition leaders then we go with them,” he said.
“If that is the case, then government decided no KLIA, no Putrajaya, no Penang Bridge, no (Petronas) Twin Towers. What would the position of the country be now?”
“We must look at things rationally and with a proper, ordered mindset. If not, the country will not move,” Husni added.
In his Budget 2011 speech, Najib said the rationale for the Warisan Merdeka tower was similar to that of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, in that it would serve as a symbol of a modern and developed Malaysia.
When completed, the “supertall” skyscraper will be the tallest building in Malaysia, surpassing even the Petronas Towers – once the world’s tallest building – in height.
The 19-acre development area of the megaproject, which includes a condominium and a shopping mall, is sited on the car park and land adjacent to Stadium Negara and Stadium Merdeka.
