Malaysia: Private Profit Taints Water and Health

PENANG, Jan. 30, 2006 (IPS/GIN) -- Civil society groups worry that private sector interests will soon dominate the country's water and health care sectors and burden the public -- despite government assurances that these areas will be spared privatisation.
Last June, following an intense civil society campaign, the minister responsible for water, Lim Keng Yaik, said the government had made an about face and decided that total privatization was not suitable for Malaysia. His remedy? "We have cut out the word privatization".
Similarly, senior health ministry officials have assured activists that there would be no privatization in the proposed national health care financing mechanism. This scheme would allow the government to collect health insurance premiums from the public - - apart from exempted groups -- to finance the running of both public and private hospitals.
But while the government may be avoiding the word "privatization," civil society activists fear the result will be the same.
"We all know they are going to bring water under federal control (away from state control) and then privatize it," says Letchimi Devi, coordinator of the Oppressed Peoples Network (JERIT), which brings together 120 grassroots groups.
"And when they say there will be a tariff review every three years, we all know tariffs will probably be increased."
Two draft bills -- the Water Services Industry Act bill and the National Water Services Commission (SPAN in Malay) bill -- are expected to come into effect later this year.
Commenting on the former, the "Edge" business weekly said: "The Bill's aim is to create a homogenous and holistic structure in water privatization in all states." The key difference is that private operators will no longer be supervised by the respective state authorities. Instead, SPAN will monitor the operators after renegotiating their concession agreements. source