He claimed the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) mentri besar’s “lack of leadership” had resulted in illegal sand mining becoming more serious in the state.
“It (illegal sand mining) needs to be stopped immediately,” he told reporters after officiating the second Asean Schools Games at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium today.
Muhyddin said the onus was now on the state government to reveal the real situation.
And today 14 July, The Malaysian Insider had reported The Selangor Mentri Besar challenged Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today to act against illegal sand mining in the state, since the “deputy prime minister said it was easy,” as Barisan Nasional (BN) continued its relentless attacks on the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) administration.
Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said he had written to Muhyiddin and had forwarded all information about illegal sand mining in Selangor so that the DPM and Umno deputy president could take action.
“Since he said it’s easy to do it, so I thought he got the magic formula. I might as well use it,” said Khalid today. Full article read here.
Hmmm.. I have no comment on Muhyiddin statement since I agreed with him, he is right when he said illegal sand mining needs to be stopped immediately.
I have some comment for The Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, for me Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is wasting his time to challenged Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to take action against illegal sand mining in the state of Selangor.
The illegal sand mining is happened in yours state Tan Sri, so as a Menteri Besar you should handle it yourself.. the State is yours not Muhyiddin.. he is ours TPM, he have a lot of job to do, don’t you bother him.
You want to know why I said you should handle it yourself ka MB?
This will happened if you let Muhyiddin handle this issue and depend on him.. read below.. three years alreadyla..
Sand pirates: Millions floated out of the country via Sungai Johor
Thursday June 24, 2010, JOHOR BARU: Sand worth millions of ringgit is being illegally “floated” out of the country daily via Sungai Johor here. And this has been going on for the past three years.
A Starprobe team investigating this lucrative trade found that the sand ends up in Singapore, despite a ban on sand export imposed by the Malaysian Government.
Sand extraction is a common sight along the river as mining syndicates illegally transport millions of tonnes of sand, even on weekends and public holidays, via Danga Bay and Port of Tanjung Pelepas.
The culprits use barges to pass through the international waters from Kota Tinggi and Ulu Tiram before arriving at local ports for shipment to Singapore.
The probe revealed that the barges are directed towards a private jetty or landing point at Pulau Punggol Timur in Singapore where the sand is unloaded.
A Singaporean company, which obtains the sand from a Malaysian partner, supplies it to the Housing Development Board of Singapore to cater for construction projects in the island republic.
The Starprobe team’s visit to the landing point revealed that the sand from the barges was loaded onto trucks before being taken to the private storage area.
The Pulau Punggol Timur jetty is believed to be used to solely stock up sand.
The private jetty is filled with sand mounds, mostly from Malaysia, and some from neighbouring countries.
To circumvent the Malaysian ban on sand export, the syndicates are believed to be exporting this highly sought-after material as processed or “packed” silica sand, an item that can be exported.
By obtaining sand from its Malaysian partner, the Singaporean company is making huge profits as it only pays S$30 per cubic metre compared with S$40 for the same amount of sand from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
It is estimated that since August 2007, more than three million cubic metres of sand has been smuggled out through Sungai Johor.
Starprobe’s findings also revealed that more than 90% of the sand was extracted from Sungai Johor while the rest was from sand mines from the Kota Tinggi and Johor Baru districts.
Further investigation revealed that the illegal business started after a contract worth RM62.4 mil was awarded by the Malaysian Drainage and Irrigation Department to a private company to carry out redesigning and rectification works of Sungai Johor.
This involved deepening and widening a 12km stretch of the river mouth from Kota Tinggi towards Singapore.
Checks revealed that since the project also involved sand extraction from the river, a total of three million cubic metres of sand had been mined from the river.
Based on the calculation that the sand is being sold at S$30 per cubic metre, the syndicates could have raked in RM207mil over the two-year period of the project.
After the project’s completion, the syndicates continued to extract sand from the river, purportedly for local use but instead “exported” it to Singapore.
It is also learnt that an average of three sand-laden barges are transported out of Sungai Johor daily. A total of 326 barges of sand are believed to have been smuggled into Singapore over the past four months.
The syndicates have made an estimated RM44.9mil from the sale of 652,000 cubic metres of sand over the four months, which means they have pocketed a total of RM251.9mil from the illegal sale of sand to Singapore over the past three years.
The Government has also sustained heavy losses due to the fact that the sand is freely smuggled out.
The Government should have collected not less than RM37.5mil in taxes from the transaction based on RM12.50 for exporting per cubic metre of silica sand.
A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission source confirmed that it had received a tip-off on the involvement of government officials related to the sand stealing activity.
The source also revealed that the commission had tipped off the relevant government authorities on its findings.
On Feb 9, The Star reported that several government officials were charged with accepting bribes for allowing the smuggling of sand into Singapore.
The Star
