FOR decades, Lim Kang Hoo built his fortune and his reputation by getting along with government leaders and royal households from Perlis to Johor. ‎

He did not crave publicity and was even willing to turn the other cheek when he got the short end of the stick in negotiations with the powerful, accepting that was the price to pay for moving with the rich, famous and connected crowd.‎

In return, he had access to the corridor of power at the state and federal levels and managed to snag some choice deals, including highway and river beautification projects in Kuala Lumpur and the plan to develop Bandar Malaysia.

Sandwiched in between were a slew of incentives given by the government to develop his pet project, a waterfront property in Johor Baru.‎‎

In the past few days, the unthinkable has happened.‎ 

‎Lim has become the government’s No. 1 enemy, with Prime Minister Najib Razak himself making it clear to stakeholders in Johor that the businessman had acted beyond the pale by going to Beijing to reinstate the deal to develop Bandar Malaysia.

Putrajaya last week terminated the December 2015 deal with Lim’s Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) and partner China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) after the joint venture failed to pay the RM7.42 billion purchase for a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia to owner, TRX City Sdn Bhd.

As reported by The Malaysian Insight, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has moved to withdraw all the incentives it gave Danga Bay, the waterfront development controlled by the self-made businessman.

Also in the pipeline are a review of his projects with the government‎. 

So why is the government using the sledgehammer approach on the businessman, who joined the Forbes billionaires’ list in 2015?

Two reasons, perhaps.‎

‎Najib has a few key objectives to meet in the run-up to the 14^th general election (GE14), chief among them are nurturing what he sees as a  special relationship with China and being able to tell Malaysians that all debts of troubled state company 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) have been settled.‎

‎Putrajaya believes that both these objectives would have been achieved if a new agreement to develop Bandar Malaysia is inked this week in Beijing between Dalian Wanda and the Malaysian government. 

The plan was for Najib and China’s President Xi Jinping to witness the signing of the deal said to be about US$8 billion, and for this event to be trumpeted back in KL as another sign of Najib’s ability bring in the big deal, much like the Saudi Aramco deal.

But IWH-CREC didn’t read the memo. The consortium refused to back down.

Lim and several other individuals met the Chinese ambassador in KL to plead their case and even canvassed Chinese officials in Beijing to get their deal back on the table. 

As it stands, there appears to be no chance of the consortium getting a second chance with Bandar Malaysia.‎

At this point, the signing with the Dalian Wanda group is also uncertain. Given all the confusion and the drama the cancellation of the IWH-CREC contract has caused, there is likely to be a cooling-off period before any new deal is struck.

Putrajaya expect the Dalian Wanda deal to happen but the deal is unlikely to be cobbled together this week. And for that, the government puts the blame squarely on a businessman it embraced as one of its own for a long time.

Lim also finds himself in unfamiliar territory. He has thrived as a friend of the establishment.

Now he has a target on his back. ‎– May 11, 2017.