KUALA LUMPUR - Opposition stalwart Lim Kit Siang has slammed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s government for going after a fugitive blogger for exposing a classified cabinet paper on the Port Klang Free Zone financial debacle instead of hunting down the real culprits behind it .
Said Kit Siang in his latest blog posting: “The question Najib has failed to answer is why the cabinet papers on the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal should continue to be kept as secret documents instead of being declassified, unless the Barisan Nasional has skeletons in the cupboard which must be kept hidden from public knowledge and scrutiny.”
“The next logical question is why the Attorney-General did not prosecute the two former Transport Ministers for unlawfully issuing the four Letters of Support landing the taxpayers with the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?
“This is the question which the Attorney-General and the government leadership should be answering instead of running after Raja Petra and Malaysia-Today under the Official Secrets Act for their role as whistleblowers.”
Declassify
The DAP adviser was referring to Raja Petra Kamarudin, the country’s top blogger who has been a thorn in the government’s flesh with his frequent bombshell exposes of corruption and dishonest practice.
Earlier this week, RPK as he is also known published copies of an 18-page memorandum submitted by the Finance Ministry to the cabinet on his website, immediately creating a stir with the news.
The crux of the memorandum was to seek the cabinet’s retrospective endorsement for a RM4.6 billion government loan to cover the huge over-expenditure in the PKFZ project, which originally was due to cost only RM1.8 billion.
This suggest that the cabinet was fully aware of how badly the PKFZ project was faring and raises questions as to why the ministers did not immediately order a full-scale investigation.
Coincidentally, Raja Petra’s blog has been blocked the past couple of days, with regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission refusing to comment when asked if it had been instructed to do so.
More questions
PKFZ is an integrated 1,000 acre commercial and industrial zone located adjacent to the national gateway and transhipment hub in Port Klang. The project is overseen by the Transport Ministry.
It is the government’s largest port investment ever. However due to massive cost overruns that independent auditors have blamed on weak governance and questionable practice, the original development budget has ballooned multiple folds and and could hit RM12.5 billion if funding undertaken for the project is not revamped soon.
“As former member of the Cabinet, the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee Azmi Khalid would have access and digested the Cabinet documents on the PKFZ scandal,” Kit Siang shot out.
“Why didn’t the PAC, under his chairmanship, summon the Chief Secretary Mohd Sidek Hassan to appear to help the PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal and testify as to the information given to the Ministers and the decisions taken by the Cabinet on the issue?
“Shouldn’t the PAC take a stand that all the cabinet documents and papers relating to the PKFZ scandal should be declassified not only for full study by the PAC buit also by all MPs and the Malaysian public.”
Malaysian Mirror
21/09/09
Said Kit Siang in his latest blog posting: “The question Najib has failed to answer is why the cabinet papers on the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal should continue to be kept as secret documents instead of being declassified, unless the Barisan Nasional has skeletons in the cupboard which must be kept hidden from public knowledge and scrutiny.”
“The next logical question is why the Attorney-General did not prosecute the two former Transport Ministers for unlawfully issuing the four Letters of Support landing the taxpayers with the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?
“This is the question which the Attorney-General and the government leadership should be answering instead of running after Raja Petra and Malaysia-Today under the Official Secrets Act for their role as whistleblowers.”
Declassify
The DAP adviser was referring to Raja Petra Kamarudin, the country’s top blogger who has been a thorn in the government’s flesh with his frequent bombshell exposes of corruption and dishonest practice.
Earlier this week, RPK as he is also known published copies of an 18-page memorandum submitted by the Finance Ministry to the cabinet on his website, immediately creating a stir with the news.
The crux of the memorandum was to seek the cabinet’s retrospective endorsement for a RM4.6 billion government loan to cover the huge over-expenditure in the PKFZ project, which originally was due to cost only RM1.8 billion.
This suggest that the cabinet was fully aware of how badly the PKFZ project was faring and raises questions as to why the ministers did not immediately order a full-scale investigation.
Coincidentally, Raja Petra’s blog has been blocked the past couple of days, with regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission refusing to comment when asked if it had been instructed to do so.
More questions
PKFZ is an integrated 1,000 acre commercial and industrial zone located adjacent to the national gateway and transhipment hub in Port Klang. The project is overseen by the Transport Ministry.
It is the government’s largest port investment ever. However due to massive cost overruns that independent auditors have blamed on weak governance and questionable practice, the original development budget has ballooned multiple folds and and could hit RM12.5 billion if funding undertaken for the project is not revamped soon.
“As former member of the Cabinet, the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee Azmi Khalid would have access and digested the Cabinet documents on the PKFZ scandal,” Kit Siang shot out.
“Why didn’t the PAC, under his chairmanship, summon the Chief Secretary Mohd Sidek Hassan to appear to help the PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal and testify as to the information given to the Ministers and the decisions taken by the Cabinet on the issue?
“Shouldn’t the PAC take a stand that all the cabinet documents and papers relating to the PKFZ scandal should be declassified not only for full study by the PAC buit also by all MPs and the Malaysian public.”
Malaysian Mirror
21/09/09
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