Ramblings of Abufaris

I couldn’t agree more with the Penang CM Lim Guan Eng. The country is under economic uncertainty and government agencies were told to adopt wise budget and cut spending. Do the state executive councillors and senior government officers really have to travel in a Mercedes? Are they afraid cheaper cars couldn’t do the same job? If so, the Terengganu people have paid a high price by voting them on the last general election.

One thing for sure, the return back of oil royalty to Terengganu does not mean the Terengganu government can spend as it wishes. Think of the sensitivity of the poor rakyats.

The menteris besar of Pahang and Kelantan today came to the defence of Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said over his insistence that Proton Perdana V6 Executive cars incur high maintenance costs.

Both Datuk Adnan Yaakob and Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat agreed with Ahmad that it was costly to maintain the national cars.

Ahmad had said that the high maintenance cost had driven the Terengganu government to decide on the purchase of 14 Mercedes Benz E200 Kompressor cars at a cost of RM3.43 million to replace the Perdana cars of its state executive councillors and senior government officers.

However, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the Terengganu government’s purchase of the Mercedes Benz cars was not right at a time of economic uncertainty, and that it should have settled for a cheaper car such as a Toyota.

Adnan said his Mercedes Benz car, which had been in use for years since the time of Tun Khalil Yaakob as the menteri besar, ran up a maintenance cost of RM42,000 last year while a Perdana used by a state executive councillor had cost RM57,500 to maintain.

“The Terengganu menteri besar is basically right when he said the maintenance cost of the Proton Perdana V6 Executive is higher than that of the Mercedes Benz,” he told reporters after the presentation of cheques to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students, here.

Adnan, however, said he did not want to support or oppose the decision of the Terengganu government to buy the 14 Mercedes Benz cars, adding that all decisions now had to take into consideration the current situation and needs of the people.

“The people now prefer to travel in a Kancil car or even a motorcycle if it is over a short distance,” he said.

Adnan said the Pahang government would adhere to the directive and decision of the federal government on the use of the national car though the matter could be disputed.

In KOTA BAHARU, Nik Aziz said the Kelantan government also found the maintenance cost of the Perdana V6 to be higher than that of imported cars and that the national car became faulty often.

Nevertheless, he said, the state government had no plan to change its official cars to other makes, including imported models.

“In the Kelantan government, we also use the Perdana besides the older Mercedes Benz. We give some relaxation. This is because, like the Terengganu menteri besar said, the Perdana has this maintenance problem,” he said after opening the Taqaddum Ilmi mosque at the the Sekolah Menengah Agama Taqaddum Ilmi, Ketereh.

In PENANG, Lim asked the Terengganu government to reconsider its decision to buy the Mercedes Benz cars, saying it was improper for the leaders to drive luxury cars when the people were suffering.

Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, said the Penang government had cancelled the purchase of Perdana cars booked by the previous state government as a cost-saving measure.

In IPOH, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said the cost of maintenance would definitely be high for cars used often for long-distance travel but the maintenance cost of Perak’s official cars were not as high as that of Terengganu.

Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad had said in a statement on Tuesday that the maintenance cost of two of the state’s Perdana cars since 2004 was RM175,229.97 and RM132,357.76.