No final decision whether to cancel resale of Tabung Haji land at TRX — minister
KUALA LUMPUR: The process of reselling the Tabung Haji (TH) land at the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), here, is going but there is no final decision yet whether to cancel the resale plan.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said TH's decision to resell the land was made to avoid more controversies and baseless accusations against the agency, although the asset purchase was based on business considerations and was syariah-compliant.
"The purchase of the land was made carefully, as although 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) first made the offer for the land in May 2013, it was only bought in 2015.
"There are people who don't understand that if the land's worth is assessed by an independent international body, the price would be very high but TH was actually given a better offer and at that time (2013), the land was not developed yet.
"However, due to the overwhelming negative opinions and perceptions over the land purchase, TH decided to resell the land to avoid more baseles accusations," he said in his reply to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Muhammad Olian Abdullah in the Dewan Negara, here yesterday.
Muhammad Olian wanted to know whether the decision to sell back the 0.63ha TH land at TRX was final.
Jamil Khir said the protest gathering against TH in front of its building and the memorandums it received from non-governmental organisations showed public anger due to misperception over the land purchase.
He said Malaysians, particularly the Muslims, should instead be proud that the Muslim community could own a developed area in the golden triangle and which could be an icon in the future.
"Now 1MDB is developing the land which will have a high-speed train station, highway...there will be an iconic building like KLCC, in fact the infrastructure will be more awesome, and it's just not on paper."
Jamil Khir said the interest of its depositors was a priority for TH that every investment planned and implemented by it was safe and viable to benefit the depositors.