Dubai-based Malaysian blogger Fudzail pleaded with Putrajaya and JB officials not to let Iskandar Malaysia fails, here.
(Fudzail's blog often open my eyes to pak arab news. I have never met him though).
His final plea:
"Iskandar Malaysia, especially the leaders, politicians, managers, workers, PLEASE DO NOT FAIL US.... enough of Malaysia Boleh and the billions that wasted."
Kesian beliau. Nak minum kopi pekat arab dalam Hummer beliau kat padang pasir pun masih susah hati tentang tanah air.
So from somewhere nearer Iskandar, I put up a reply to his posting.
I repeat the reply below, since Iskandar, minus the politics, is a great project.
I have visited Nusajaya many times in the course of my work, and the place is superb.
There is one semi-dee there with a huge courtyard that I simply love. I was brought there as part of a tour of the place as a reporter.
Tapi tak mampu nak beli.
Lagipun, kalau beli nanti kena tuduh "Neo Con Jews" dari negara pro-Israel nak "annex" (curi?) Johor, seperti apa yang ditulis *bigdog.
Actually, I thought it is Malaysia's government and Iskandar that want investments from Singapore and Singaporeans.
And not Singapore and Singaporeans wanting to come in and "systematically" "colonise" and "annex" southern Malaysia.
Oh well, people are free to give opinions. It's good to have debate over issues. Let people decide for themselves.
(*bigdog - gambarnya di sini - ada berkongsi satu pengalaman dengan saya, walaupun beliau mungkin tak tahu. Apabila Dr Mahathir disembur pepper spray di airport Kota Baru pada Julai 2006, saya pun terkena juga sama benda haram tu, sama seperti bigdog ni.
(bigdog berdiri dekat Dr M pada masa tu, di sebelah pintu kereta Pajero. Saya, yang membuat liputan sebagai wartawan, berdiri di pintu sebelah sini. Saya menunggu Dr M memanjat atas seat Pajero dan beri taklimat dari lubang sunroof kereta, setibanya ke Kelantan.
(Macam nak pingsan terhidu pepper spray itu. Saya 'tercampak' - berlari terhuyung hayang - kira-kira 50m, kerana tak tahu kenapa tiba-tiba hidung dan tekak pedih, sesak nafas. Kalau saya 'tendang baldi' masa tu tak ada orang sedar sebab lagi kecoh besar disekeliling Dr M).
(Saya pernah berjumpa bigdog beberapa kali, tetapi cuma hi-hi-bye-bye saja. Tak tahu beliau ingat ke tidak).
INI CERITA ISKANDAR - "Invest Work Live Play"
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tuan fudzail,
let me tell u my worries about Iskandar.
it wants to attract sporeans and those foreigners living in spore to invest - in homes, factories.
it needs sporeans and foreigners in spore to visit often as tourists.or else the project will likely fail.
or it will more likely become the walking dead like cyberjaya and putrajaya.
not quite mati but not making money for the government (and taxpayers). ie not a thriving place like any KL neighbourhood where droves of people and cars move around day or night and shops are open for long hours.
it needs sporeans simply because there aren't enough rich people in johor who could afford the houses there, or to visit the theme parks and malls (people may sneer and scold me, but yes, there is huge salary gap betw spore and johor).
u can bring in arab money but the arabs are not going to live there and buy many homes, and visit often as tourists. u still need sporeans by the thousands.
i am a sporean who lived in malaysia for some 13 years (1994-2007). now back to work in spore.
so i would like to think that i understand how both sides of the causeway think and act on many issues - more so than people who have lived only on one side of the border.
i should think that many sporeans would love to buy a house in jb.
they would love to have a landed home where they could park their car/s right at the doorstep.
i know the feeling cos i have lived thru it in kl.
most of us in spore live in tall flats in this small but proud island nation (87 pct of the 4mil sporeans live in hdb flats, another 8 pct perhaps live in condos, and some 5 pct only can afford landed properties - terrace, semi-dees, bungalows).
but every time people want to take out cheque books to buy in johor, there are the issues of:
1) malaysians in general, malays in particular, and esp johore malays it seems, not rolling out a welcoming mat.
they say sporean chinese want to take over johor and colonise the place.
some of these harsh words come from former pm mahathir himself, as we all know.
and blogger bigdog recently put a similar heart-breaking argument (heart-breaking to me, who would love to see real love betw the neighbours).
it's his right to write but if that sentiment is widespread then sporeans will indeed give the place a miss, thank you very much.
in these days of low-cost flights, sporeans don't even need to go to jb for weekends anymore.
we could and do fly to phuket, bangkok, jakarta, medan, manila, subic bay, hong kong, macau on weekends with not much sweat.
so u want to welcome sporean malays only to johor, isit? hahaha.
if u become as racist as this even in your housing policy, then malays like me get turned off (racial politics is not an issue in spore, babe).
plus frankly, most malay sporeans do not have much, let's say, spare cash.
kita kerja makan gaji.
2) crime. yes, it is being tackled. thank goodness. but there are worries. until and u stop rampant street crime (snatch thefts) and rampant house break-ins (cos the sporean house buyers, if any, mostly could come to their johor landed homes over weekends only), then people will not want to buy houses there.
it is easy for politicians to say: No! johor crime is low, etc. but the headlines in your own papers tell a story.
and ask the johor officials and reporters off-the-record and u hear worrying tales also.
3) policies keep changing. in the last 15years, i tell u, the johor govt (sometimes with help from federal policies) keep changing policies on foreigners buying houses (condos and landed) there.
for eg the minimum price that foreigners could buy.
at times the minimum is rm250,000, then suka-suka can rise to rm500,000, later drop back to rm200,000 (when there is big property overhang).
and later go up again. now there is talk of the minimum going up again.
so people with deals to strike get confused - because their applications (even backdated applications) can get stuck at the johor land office.
gee, forgive me for saying this, they want bribes to clear these deals or what?
how can u backdate a new policy and ask the guys to pay the new property levies?
rather than get caught in these, more sporeans, it seems, are buying in melaka and kl, and even penang, instead.
if u are worried about being colonised, then draw up strict guidelines and stick to it - say, make that minimum rm500,000 for foreigners to buy property in johor, and then stick to it, babe.
and have no-go areas where foreigners cannot buy property.
so yes, i am worried about Iskandar failing.
i dearly, dearly hope i would be proven wrong.
because khazanah and its units have worked so hard to make this a hongkong-shenzen model.
if only the politicians and their supporters could get off the 'race' horse on this issue.
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