Tee Keat forewarned that he would be the third Transport Minister whose reputation would be marred and tarred by the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal if he reneges on his pledge to “tell all” soon

Many must be surprised by the combative and ferocious response of the new Transport Minister, Datuk Ong Tee Keat in response to my statement welcoming his undertaking to give a full report on the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) bailout scandal.

Ong’s reaction was totally unprovoked and unjustifiable as my statement had welcomed his pledge of government accountability and transparency on the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, pointing out five cardinal questions of the PKFZ scandal which are crying out for answer.

I hope Ong’s uncharacteristic response was not because he had been told to “shut up” whether at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting or elsewhere after his bold announcements on Monday and Tuesday that he would reveal the whole truth about the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, which was reported by the media, such as the following newspaper headlines viz:

• “Ong to tell all on the PKFZ – ‘I wish to reveal to the people the true situation’” (Star 8.4.08)

• “Report on PKFZ – IT WON’T BE JUST A STATEMENT, PLEDGES TRANSPORT MINISTER” (The Sun, 8.4.08)

• “Won’t consider whether former leaders would be investigated – Ong Tee Keat: Revealing the truth is about the issue and not personalities” (Sin Chew 9.4.08)

The Sun reported:

Asked when the report will be ready, he said it will be out soon once a thorough report is completed. “We will not just give a statement to explain everything.”

From Ong’s statement, Malaysians would expect him to make public the full report on the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal in a week or two, or latest by before the convening of Parliament on 28th April 2008.

It is to ensure that Ong keeps his pledge to make public a full report on the PKFZ scandal that I took out the “insurance” to pose him an oral question in Parliament on 8th May – a full month’s notice - on the PKFZ scandal, viz:

“To ask the Minister for Transport to fully explain the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) bailout scandal, i.e. on its viability, history of impropriety of land transactions, illegal issue of Letters of Support, Cabinet bailout, retrospective ratification of past illegal decisions by previous Transport Ministers.”

In my statement two days ago welcoming Ong’s pledge to give a full report on the PKFZ scandal, I pointed out five areas why the PKFZ project has become a RM4.6 billion financial scandal – the biggest financial scandal of the Abdullah administration which is even bigger than the first financial scandal of the Mahathir premiership, the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal.

All right-thinking Malaysians use the word “scandal” in connection with the PKFZ because of the government inability to give full and satisfactory accountability as to how a RM1.1 billion project could balloon to RM4.6 billion, requiring government intervention and bailout when it was all along meant to be feasible, self-financing and would not require any single sen of public funding!

Ong should be better briefed before he makes any public outburst. He criticized me for not lodging any complaint to the authorities or making a visit to PKFZ.

He cannot be more wrong. DAP had lodged over four police reports and one Anti-Corruption Agency report on the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, but all to no avail – and I had made a visit to the PKFZ at the end of last year.

Ong must be forewarned that if he reneges on his public pledge to “tell all” about the PKFZ scandal soon, made voluntarily and proactively by him early this week, he runs the risk of being the third Transport Minister whose reputation would be marred and tarred by the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal.

* Lim Kit Siang, DAP Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission Chairman & MP for Ipoh Timor