KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has hit back at Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok over the latter's allegation that his administration forced the Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) to sell its land at below market price.
In a Facebook post, Najib said the sale involved two government agencies.
He said Kok, in a press conference, claimed the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government had forced MRB to sell 2,800 acres of land at Sg Buloh, below the market price of only RM1.5 billion, in October 2010, to Aset Tanah Nasional Bhd (ATNB) in a direct sale.
She also revealed ATNB had, in 2012, sold the 2,800 acres to Kwasa Land for RM2.28 billion, without holding any open tenders.
Najib calculated this sale price which worked out to be RM18.70 per square foot - which he said was a reasonable market price paid by Kwasa Land, at that time.
"Kwasa Land is a company fully-owned by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and had already started to develop the land as a new city centre that included houses for about 150,000 people with an estimated gross development value of at least RM50 billion," said Najib, who was also the former finance minister.
"This means Kok has accused BN of forcing the government to sell government land to the government, and subsequently giving an opportunity to EPF to raise billions in profit for its depositors," Najib reasoned.
Commenting further, Najib said the public would recognise the site today as Kwasa Damansara, a new development which included an MRT station.
He pointed out that the site, located within the Subang parliamentary seat, was part of the Greater Kuala Lumpur Strategic Development Project as announced under the 10th Malaysia Plan.
"How despicable of the old BN government to take care of their cronies, the EPF contributors.
"How cruel is the old BN government to carry out development projects as announced under the 10th Malaysia Plan," Najib wrote in a sarcastic tone.
"Of course, many now know the new town is named Kwasa Damansara. There is also MRT station there right now.”
The development of Kwasa Damansara in the Subang area is among the steps in the Strategic Planning for Regional Development (Greater Kuala Lumpur Strategic Development Project) as envisioned in the 10th Malaysia Plan.
"Does Teresa Kok have nothing else better to do? Shouldn’t she be taking better care of smallholders’ welfare, by embarking on effective measures to support the price of palm oil? Shouldn’t she be setting-up a palm oil ambassador club?" he asked.
"I think it's better for Teresa Kok to just focus her attention on telling smallholders to use rainguard devices, fixed on the bark of rubber trees, to lessen their losses due to interference of rainwater when harvesting latex," Najib wrote.