Confusion over Soda Tax and Forest City

Yesterday was a bit confusing.

In the morning there was this story,

Govt mulling soda tax

 to encourage healthy living: Dr M

but later in the afternoon there was this one,

Sugar price drops 

as govt weighs soda tax

I think the government needs to coordinate better on these sort of things.

Otherwise people would say it has a jumbled up policy.

Didn't they discuss these first at Cabinet meetings?

Then there were these comments,

A soda tax is not going to 
solve the obesity problem — The Galen Centre

Tax sugar and not 

just soda, say academicians

Well, don't know lah.

Then there was also this announcement yesterday morning by Dr Mahathir as quoted by Reuters,

Malaysia says Forest City 

project off limits to foreign buyers

which is a complete opposite of this one by a minister earlier this month,

Minister: Foreigners can buy 

freehold properties in Forest City

I hope Dr Mahathir can sit down with his ministers and tell them to shut up and let him do all the talking.

Just like it was during his first 22 years as a BN PM.

Better that way.

Whatever it is, Dr Mahathir's announcement yesterday was as good as killing off the project.

Well, I was not really surprised as getting at Forest City was one of the handsome old man's GE14 promises,

But then again the developer later in the day issued this statement,

Forest City developer believes 
Dr M's statement 'taken out of context

These are the most interesting bits,

excerpts;

“Today’s comments do not correspond with the content of the meeting between Tun Mahathir and Founder and Chairman of Country Garden Holdings, Yeung Kwok Keung,” said the company.

The two, according to the statement, had a 40-minute closed-door meeting on 16 August 2018, prior to the prime minister’s visit toBeijing.

“During the meeting, Tun Mahathir reiterated that he welcomes foreign investments which could create employment opportunities, promote technology transfer and innovations that could benefit Malaysia’s economic growth and job creation,” said the company.

CGPV said it had complied with all laws and regulations with the necessary approvals to sell to foreign property buyers.

Well, I hope the developer is right. That it was just a misunderstanding.

Otherwise, we may likely be in trouble with not only the Chinese but also other potential investors.

You shouldn't say this today but say something else tomorrow.

People are going to be scared of you when you do that.

Meanwhile, down in Johor,

Exco: We're trying to 

make sense of PM's comments

Hmmm....that's understandable.

I wonder what the Johor palace, which has significant interest in the Forest City project has to say.

Somehow I suspect that another announcement will be made later to straighten things out....and the project will be all right.

You see, I was against those projects along the Tebrau Straits earlier than everyone else such as in this post on Sept 3 2014,

Meanwhile in Johor...the song remains the same

(you can check earlier similar posts in this blog's archive)

but I don't think shutting it down now is a good idea.

That's because there will be severe backlash if we do this now after it has already started.

If it has not started yet, then it's a different story.

I think even Dr Mahathir knows this.

So, see lah how.

For now we just relax.

After all, these days, words and promises don't really worth that much.

Tomorrow, they would say something else.

Just wait for things to really happen, okay.