Saturday, June 16, 2007

PM & DPM Want UM To Stay Put

Let's hope the good news remains good.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak do not want the Universiti Malaya campus to be relocated to make way for commercial development.
Abdullah, himself a graduate of UM, said that personally he would not want the university to be relocated.
He said the university was the country's first institution of higher learning and had produced many graduates who now served in the public and private sectors.
Najib said the government would never agree to the proposal to relocate the university if it went against the public interest.
He said so far, many had voiced opposition to the proposal to relocate the university to Sepang for the site to be developed into a RM10 billion commercial and residential hub.
Najib said UM is an iconic institution of higher learning in the country.
It has been reported that real estate company Guocoland (M) Berhad, controlled by millionaire Quek Leng Chan, has offered to relocate to university to Sepang and develop its present site.
Bernama has the story here.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this relocation offer had come out on April 1st, I and lots of others would definitely have taken it for an April Fool's joke.

Rockybru said...

It's good that both Pak Lah and Najib have made known their stand on the UM relocation proposal, although many days late.

We'll still want to know what Tok Pa's take on this is, if he was in the loop in the first place. Whoever came up with the idea wanted Business Times to play up this story. Was it Guoco or was it someone in the government who leaked the story to BT?

Najib said he will ask Tok Pa about it. We can only hope that he shares the information with us. We want to know.

Hi&Lo said...

I don't believe Quek's co came up with the idea to develop UM campus into a commercial project.

Anonymous said...

Our PM is one sharp cookie. A most astute learned man. There is no way anyone can pull wool over his eyes. He knows Guacoland has no altruistic motive in wanting to relocate UM.

Bernama said: Asked why there was an offer now to relocate the university, Abdullah said: "Perhaps they see the value and benefit of turning the area into a commercial zone."

See what I mean? And yet people say our PM is like blur all the time.

MSAbdullah said...

University of Malaya to be moved to Sepang...
All Malaysian with social concern and love for the Nation should put on their thinking cap and come out with a proposal how we can put a STOP to all future attempts to rob National assets for personal or corporate interest such as this.So much has been done during Tun Mahathir's era that the new administration should put a complete stop to it.
I think the time has come for a Contitutional amendment to be put in place so that no National Asset can be frittered away under any guise whatsoever without a national referendum. A National Asset can be defined as those where public funds had been spent over a period of more than 10 years to build up the asset. This is my two sen worth contribution to the idea. I am sure many legal minds in this country can think of better mechanism to prevent this legal abuse. After all what right has the administration at that time to sanction the destruction of the whole Subang Airport complex when billions of public money had been spent to develop the complex over a period of more than two decades. Look back into our recent past and you can find a few more examples of the dissapearance of our National assets that could have added to our heritage. People in power should think of the legitimacy of their decisions.

MSAbdullah.

Anonymous said...

UM is no longer the institution it once was...even then it was not that good.Might be a good idea to relocate it to some place like Kubang Pasu or Mersing so it is close to the various pondoks and sekolah agama, etc. Also the land in Lembah Pantai can be used to develop a national version of Disneyland...you know things like koran reading, best tudung, giant gasings, kites and even teaports (oops, no teapots)and with camel rides and entertainers from countries like Iran and Pakistan (not from Albania as those ungrateful wretches are pro-Bush). It will attract a lot of tourists from the middle east. That's progress.

Anonymous said...

Its bad enough that Khazanah is being stripped bare of its asset and now they are looking at anthing else that is possible to enrich themselves. If Guocoland is able to develop UM land then they will make a double gain, big opportunisities on the UM present site to be developed into commercial development and secondly they will add value to Damansara City with the presence of a University in the area. The instant translocation of the student population alone will increase the potential of Damansara City which otherwise may take time to attract a sizeable population like what Putrajaya is experiencing now.