Posted on by Kit

Malaysia “implosion” very different from Las Vegas “implosion”

On Tuesday, Malaysians saw on CNN the spectacle of the implosion of the 16-storey 1,000-room New Frontier casino-hotel, collapsing the second resort that opened on the Las Vegas Strip half-a-century ago with 1,000 pounds of explosives.

It was a spectacular engineering feat to behold, the precisely-planned and delicately-balanced demolition operation — to give way to a US$2 billion, 3,000-room megaresort Las Vegas Plaza, featuring a 500-ft tall Ferris Wheel similar in size to the famous London Eye, set to open in 2011.

Malaysia has also our own implosion on the same day, but it was a most shameful and ignominous one – the collapse of the RM4.5 million Perak State Park Corporation’s two-storey administration building on a hillslope on the edge of Tasik Banding in Gerik.

Star said the structure “collapsed like a house of cards” while New Straits Times said the complex “collapsed into a heap of rubble”.

Malaysia’s very own implosion was no spectacular engineering feat but spectacular building failure and government negligence.

After the Perak “implosion”, three different probes have been set up to investigate it causes –an “independent” committee by the state government, another investigation by the Perak Public Works Department on the directive of Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and by the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Heads must roll, and roll immediately, for the shameful “implosion” of the Tasik Banding complex — or are there no one to be held responsible?

Malaysia’s implosion — which is so different from the Las Vegas implosion — is evidence that Malaysia is even more entrenched as a Third World country instead of joining the ranks of the First World nations.

43 Replies to “Malaysia “implosion” very different from Las Vegas “implosion””

  2. Did global warming randomly choose a building to destroy in the middle of our beloved rainforest? Or did someone offend the jungle spirits??
    Or maybe the Johor Mawas came all the way to teach the gomen a lesson!! (See what’s done to their habitat in Johor)
    I can’t fanthom how far our leaders can go the miles giving excuses
    after spending Ah Kong’s money for such flimsy project.
    Sigh!

  5. What is so spectacular about the implosion of the New Frontier casino hotel in Las Vegas? What about our Lingam Tape implosion? Look at how precise we are in fixing judicial appointments and court judgments.

  6. The back trail will probably show that the contact was given without a tender to an UMNOputra. And most probably he has been fully paid for the job.
    Surely the contractor is not going to reimburse the government for the destruction. Being a government owned building, it is probably not insured.
    That means we, the tax payers, have to foot the bill for this massive corruption cum NEP-inspired collapse.
    As always no body will be held accountable.

  9. they sit there with their hands outstretch…….. do not feel the pinch. so what if it is Rm4.5mil. set up an independant body, rakyat have to pay for their report. after submitting…… case forgotten. as dear sami said, to inspect other building for leakage, need another ……..?????? what ??????RM 2mil????

    so HOW MUCH ARE WE PAYING FOR THIS INDEPENDENT BODY????

  11. It’s my first time leaving a comment here. I just have to say this to you, sir. Thank you, for the good work that you have been doing so far, even though at times it must feel very disillusioning. Keep in mind that there are those of us out here that appreciate your contributions and struggle. Thank you again.

  13. It’s a pity the building collapsed a bit early, wrong timing. Should have imploded when the Works Minister is inside it to boast about the latest accomplishment of his ministry and to declare it as another project of BN. That would have been truly spectacular!

  14. Luckily no ppl get harm…
    This building has been available few years already…
    RM4.5m building collapsed in less than a day…
    So, who gonna responsible ? Contractor ? or State gov ?
    If RM4.5m invested in market ? how much money we can earn… ?
    This is why our gov always no money…
    Now, we just like burned the 4.5m …

  21. actually the timing was a little out, otherwise they would have called for renovations to be done,say at double the original budget. you know costs of materials have gone up, so rm$9 million would be considered chicken feed to-day. After all, those at PKFZ have taken billions. Or alternatively, build another at the same site and then they can add the cost of having to remove the debris just like the brilliant idea of producing billets at Perwaja and transport them across the East-West highway to Gurun! Otherwise, there would be business to do! Malaysia Boleh!!

  22. Another crony acquired project that was subx20 and the actual contractor built it with crumbs and did not get paid type of tragedy.

    Sami Value will say ‘it is act of God’ In his heart, he was saying it is a tit for tat from the demolition of the kuil.

  23. the crab gomen body like Majlis,DBKL,PBT,JKR….thy are walking sliding to 1 side like crab and yet thy want to teach every1 to walk straight!
    thy cant even monitor their own projects,like this Perak gomen,betul2 pandai perak sini,perak sana saja(shitting here and there)!

    if you say thy are not efficient also not true!very often we see thm tearing down even coffee-shops’ awnings,right?

  26. Public responsibility and accountability had gone mad….instead of working hard to service the people, they worked and think very hard to cover their arse from their negligence, mistakes, screw ups, abuse of power, excesses and etc..

  27. YB Lim,
    Unfortunately, it wasn’t Mr Samy’s fault. It is the system he operates in.

    One ketua kampung came over. “Towkay kita kena letak 5 klonkong sana.” (“Klonkong,” is huge BRC concrete drainage pipe, 2’x5′). I checked with H/Leong, RM200 each, not inclusive downloading. “Towkay, itu mahal lah. Cari yang harga RM50 atau RM60.”

    The 50 or 60 is what we use for toilets and do not have BRC support. I asked if heavy vehicles used the place. “Sekarang tak ada, besok tak tau lah.” Then whose project is this?

    I refused to supply the 5 RM50 “klonkong” knowing someone might die driving over it. The drainage was still done and a road built over it. So far that part of the road hasn’t collapsed. But it is just a matter of time.

    That is the system where gov’t contracts operate. You want to know how they repair schools, built retaining walls, built a “jambatan,” paint the government buildings etc? The paint used is not the cheaper RM60, but the cheapest white undercoat of RM40 and then mixed with “kapur.” Aiya… to many stories to tell lah.

  29. During Mahathir’s time, the “toll” on government contracts used to be a lot more reasonable. If the “tolls” became unreasonable, there is always an avenue to complain to, and in a number of cases, Mahathir had to intervene to make an executive decision.

    In Badawi’s time, the “tolls” have gotten out of control because of much-greater greed and the fact that there is no final arbiter, no final decision-maker. So everyone takes as much as they can, squeeze the ultimate subcontractor to the point where he has to cut corners – and use substandard materials – to survive. Yes, ultimately the poor subcontractor will be blamed, but the big “sharks” that took the “tolls” will go scot-free.

  32. It is ridiculous.

    YB, better warn PM to instruct Samy and all minister involved in awarding contract to Umnoputra contractor to give prior warning on defect government building.

    It is really scary as anyone can be trapped under a heap of rubble when we walk into government office.

  33. Yup, I also know the business sudah bungkus, but that’s how they launder their ill-gotten gains. In fact, the probably cause the write-off so that they can offset it against the profits from other related companies.

  34. “Godfather, the Nasi Kandar I heard is now Nasi Bungkos lah.” oknyua

    That’s why it is called ‘money laundering’.

    Put your money in restaurant businesses and make sure transactions are in cash. Declare a ‘profit’ (even when the business is actually incurring losses) and pay your taxes and the proceeds of illegal transactions become legal. Nice!

  35. not sure if those mansions built by those blood suckers will one day also collapse like this… if so, i would really applaud those contractors for building lousy houses for such national leeches.
    collapse on them and i will celebrate.

  36. Malaysia do not have a First World Infrastructure despite Badawi’s famous line and most Malaysian’s know it. How do we know?

    During the last sea-quake in Indonesia that was felt in both Singapore and Malaysia, many Malaysians in high rise building especially those of government buildings came rushing out of their building in the middle of the night. The same was not seen in Singapore where building codes are stricter and enforced. That is the difference between first world and NOT.

  37. The collapse of the unoccupied but 2004 completed building waiting to happen. It was left vacant and idle because it was not given a certificate of worthiness as it was not built “according to specifications” and was too dangerous to occupy. Initial PWD findings indicate it was deficient in “design & construction”. This case is not unsimilar to MMR2 fiasco except that it was beyond repairs. Another good example of “Malays bolih” concept that failed for greed & incompetence?. Awarded the tender free turnkey project worth RM5M, funded by Government through Tourism Ministry, with Malay Consultant & Contractor under one roof – they would want to make RM2million out of the RM5 million contract. So what is left for the sub-cons are perhaps bare minimum. Why was Samy Vellu in a state of shock even though this building was not under his purview? Would he now say obviously, it was “not built by God” and humans are involved and they are not perfect as he said about some MMR2 problems?
    More details & pics at
    http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2007/11/more-pics-rm45m-malays-bolih-collapsed.html

  41. I can imagine such stupid collapse could have happened in this country under the curent government.

    But on recollection and hindsight, we should not be surprised at all. There were already on record several similar cases of collapse, some were even worse and costlier.

    Go and boast to the world of malaysia record in construction engineering failures.

  43. I expect the Penang Bridge to collapse into the sea one fine day perhaps not in the life time of Samy Vellu – but collapse it will. It was pure coincidence that I overheard a conversation between a Korean and a Malaysian at the airport in Seoul, Korea that sent shivers down my spine! The Korean was talking in Malay and very fluent Malay at that. Wonder why!?

Leave a Reply