PAS Shah Alam Member of Parliament Khalid Samad visited the Carlsberg brewery in Shah Alam yesterday, shocking the company’s deputy managing director.
The PAS man and several Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) members visited the brewery yesterday to evaluate it as a site for a new bus terminal.
“Datuk (Chin Voon Loong, deputy managing director of Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd), said that he has never had his factory visited by an entourage like us for almost 30 years he has worked there!” said Khalid in his blog today.
“Before this, Umno labelled me a ‘Church Khalid’, but after this, I do not know what they want to say,” Khalid told The Malaysian Insider.
The PAS man said that he was reluctant to post pictures of his trip as he was afraid that they would be misused by Umno, like what had happened during the cow head demonstration.
Khalid had last year blamed Umno for bigotry claiming that the brother of a local Umno chief had been caught on tape carrying the cow’s head to protest the relocation of a Hindu temple.
“But I submit to Allah and I feel that there is nothing for me to be afraid of as I know why I went there,” said Khalid, adding that he had made the trip to evaluate the brewery as a possible site for the new Shah Alam bus terminal.
Khalid said that the brewery, which started operating in 1972, has 300 workers including Muslim Malays.
“I said (to Chin) that if the factory has plans to build a bigger site, they can consider building their new site at the Klang port as 100 per cent of their malt is imported while 50 per cent of their products is exported.
“If that is possible, then we can ear-mark the factory site for the Shah Alam bus terminal,” Khalid wrote in his blog post.
However, Chin told him that Carlsberg did not have plans to move as the company had made large investments in the 6-acre area, which was enough to accommodate any expansion plans they had.
While Carlsberg may make some savings by shifting to the Klang port, their transport costs were not large enough to merit the move, added Chin.
“Hence, it was clear that possibilities of them moving are extremely thin,” concluded Khalid, adding that they would have to unfortunately forgo the strategic Carlsberg site and consider another area near a KTM station or a highway.
“As usual, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) needs to work hard to destroy false perceptions created by Umno-BN,” said the PAS MP, adding that his blog post titled “Work visit to Carlsberg factory” would probably shock a few parties.
