Last week, YB Rafizi embarrassed himself when he got the cost of the MRT1 construction wrong. He was then chided by the Finance Minister II for not being able to count.
Then, YB Rafizi incorrectly alleged that the government will finance the full construction cost of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX).
Subsequently, he was corrected that it was private investors who funds the development of their own individual projects on the TRX plots while the govt bears the infrastructure cost only.
He was then told that he does not understand business models.
Yesterday, YB Rafizi made yet another new allegation. He said that the cost of the MRT1 project was double the price of similar projects in Spain and South Korea.
He had alleged that the Barcelona Sants-La Sagrera MRT project cost US$39 million per km, the Seoul Line 9 MRT project cost US$43 million per km while Malaysia's MRT1 cost US$103 million per km.
It appears that YB Rafizi had taken his information from an anonymous Word Press blog called "and said Pedestrian Observations".
The link is here: https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/comparative-subway-construction-costs-revised/
The blog lists various constructions costs of MRT systems globally - many of which are higher on a per km basis compared to our MRT 1 project.
It appears that YB Rafizi had taken the two lowest cost per km entries in that blog - the Seoul and Barcelona lines - for this use in his latest allegation.
The anonymous blog itself had warned its readers not to rely on its data "as large errors crop up".
Unfortunately, YB Rafizi ignored this warning and had used this info in an official press conference in yet another failed attempt to accuse the government.
More authoritative sources for the Seoul Line 9 MRT project from the Korean Development Institute shows that the cost is US$5.7 billion for 37.5km or US$152 million per km.
In another source, the Seoul Metropolitan Government gave its average construction cost for its various MRT lines built at different points in time as US$105 million per km.
Certainly both figures are very different from YB Rafizi's claim of US$43 million per km.
YB Rafizi will realize that he had made yet another mistake when he compares transit projects closer to home.
The Singapore government had reported that their Downtown line cost SG$20.7 billion for 42km or US$340 million per km - much higher than YB Rafizi's claim of US$100 million for our MRT 1 project.
Whereas the LRT project from KOMTAR to the Penang Airport was reported to cost RM257.14 million per km - or US$64 million per km.
If YB Rafizi still believes that the higher capacity underground Seoul MRT project cost US$43 million per km, he should question the DAP Penang Government why their smaller capacity above ground LRT project cost 50% more at US$64 million per km.
YB Rafizi is advised yet again to stop making unfounded and erroneous accusations to avoid further embarrassment.
Continuing silly mistakes like these is the reason why he is no longer taken seriously by anyone, much less the Prime Minister.
After all, YB Rafizi did tell the court that he was only joking about the diamond ring issue when the Prime Minister had rightfully sued him for slander.
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Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Team,
Putrajaya.
28 Dec 2016
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