Why hadn’t the MCA President and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat raise with Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had become Finance Minister since September last year when he was Umno Deputy President, the issue of the declassification of certain letters and correspondence in relation to the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project so that the Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC) audit report on the PKFZ scandal could be made public?
Or was he just afraid to discuss the issue with Najib in the past six months until he got the nod from Najib?
This is clearly not a relationship between political equals but between a political master and an inferior!
These are the thoughts of anyone who read yesterday’s Edge Malaysia online report, headlined “Najib to hear out Tee Keat on PKFZ declassification”, viz:
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will hear out what Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat has to say about the proposed declassification of certain letters and correspondence in relation to the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project that has hogged the limelight for its huge cost over-run.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to check with him (Ong) first”, Najib said when asked to comment on Ong’s remarks on Sunday that the delay in releasing the PKFZ audit report, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), was caused by another ministry in declassifying certain letters and correspondence.
Ong had told reporters that his ministry was not the cause of the delay in releasing the PwC report but another ministry. He had said that PKA had been seeking the declassification of letters and correspondence pertaining to the PKFZ since the beginning of the year from the other ministry and still awaiting the approval.
It has been reported that the other ministry is believed to be the Ministry of Finance.
The current issue of The Edge weekly reports that the PKFZ project can cost up to RM8 billion instead of RM4.6 billion due to the higher cost of funds and unfavourable financing terms. It is said that the project to build a transshipment hub started off initially with a budget of less than RM2.5 billion.
Najib took over the Finance Ministry post on 17th September last year, and Ong’s failure to raise the issue of the publication of the PwC report on the PKFZ scandal, involving the declassification of documents under the Official Secrets Act, in the past six months is a sad reflection on the MCA President’s commitment to accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance as well the seriousness of his much-touted pledge to “tell all” to Malaysians about the PKFZ scandal.
Now everyone is asking whether the PKFZ scandal has ballooned from RM1.8 billion when Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik was the Transport Minister, to RM4.6 billion when Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy took over the Transport Ministry and now to RM8 billion under Ong.
Can Ong continue to put up the public pretense that he is not directly and personally responsible to honour the pledge he had publicly given in April last year that Malaysians would be told the entire truth about the PKFZ scandal?
C’mon, this is sandiwara of the highest order. How can Najib not know of the fundraising exercise carried out by Azim, the then UMNO treasurer ? How can Najib not know of the letters of support issued by Ling Liong Sik and the further letter of comfort issued by Nor Mohamed Yakcop when these were discussed at cabinet meetings ?
This is the usual “pass the buck” game where the perpetrators all hope to buy time, and that the rakyat will forget once there is a government-sponsored news blackout.
My take on this is that Ong Tee Keat (before he became Ong Ta Kut) was full of bravado and announced the independent audit by PwC and the making of the PwC report public BEFORE he had a chance to consult his masters at UMNO.
Najib to OTK: Which idiot asked for the PwC audit ?
OTK: Er….er….
Najib to OTK: Which idiot volunteered to make the report public ?
OTK: Er….er….
Najib to OTK: So just sit at the corner and keep quiet.
OTK: Yes sir, yes sir…
We’re not going to hear anymore from Ong Ta Kut.
Maybe Ong Ta Kut is waiting for MaCAi to take back the Finance Minister position from Umno.
The subservient MaCAi dig their own grave long ago.
Fruits of what they sowed is plentiful now.
Godfather is dead right. Its umno punya style. Everything also subject to cabinet discussion and approval. Including minor issues like putting up sign boards in chinese at the airport. So how on earth najib or for that matter any cabinet minister can claim ignorance. In any event he controls the money. How can he not know? Will he pull a mahathir on this issue by claiming that “perhaps I was stupid to approve it” or that “I didnt read what I signed”?
OTK must be shaking in his boots. He has good reasons to tread with extreme care. After all the mother of Gobi desert is furious for having lost her beloved child. And OTK knew well the reason that is fueling her fury. And he knows well too that in fury she now brews a powerful desert storm – the darkest, strongest and angriest sand storm known to man. OTK certainly would not want to be caught in its midst nor at the same time would he want to risk meeting the same Fate that found fragments of the lost gobi child and tiny bits of another.
Why has it ‘been reported that the other ministry is believed to be the Ministry of Finance’? Is that information classified too? Has anybody asked OTQ which ministry is delaying the availability of the report? Didn’t he know it was classified when he promised to make it public? Is the classification of ‘secret’ automatic for this kind of report, or is it a ‘special’ in this case? If it’s automatic, he promised something he knew was impossible. If it was a special, he really needs to clear his name and tell us who made it impossible for him to carry out his promise made in (at the time) good faith.
Ong Tee keat is a real damx coward. Malaysian Chinese will only continue “begging” from UMNO under his lame leadership. He is exactly Najib’s boy!!!
Now he has sat on the posts-MCA President and Transport Minister and it will be difficult for him to reveal all the truth now!
I dont think he dare to offend SOME BODY and he rather prefers to subservient to that BODY by making “twist and turn” statement to comfort the public…Finish lah MCA!
OTK was so LOUD when he ascended the throne of MCA president but when he settled down, his voice drowned!
Kit:
Now that Ong Ta Kut has succuumbed to your pressure to release the PKFZ report (by next Wednesday according to Lee Hwa Beng) can the DAP make this report available to us online ? A link would enable some of us to read the report and pose further questions.
Like they say, Ong Ta Kut can run, but he can’t hide.
I think they need time to change and fabricate the documents so that it looks as though nothing has gone wrong and the billions lost do not need to be answered.
BN has never committed to change. As I always believe it was almost impossible to discharge your duty with out resigning from the post, but then who want to resign as a minister as wll these while serve the people is secondary while getting to the minister post is of top priority? Ong will not be so stupid to take responsibility.
In the name of security and classified info, all the wrong doings reported in the PwC report could be erased before it is released to the public next week!
But will a world top auditing house like PwC allow such incomplete report to be released and to mis-led the public?
well they can make immigration records of undesirables disappear so even the PKFZ going-on can be white-washed.
You can be sure it will make Balkis look like peanuts!
Full investigation is required……the ordinary people want their money back, every single cent, to invest in schools, teachers, community facilities, place of worship, aged and disable care and etc..
One cannot expect PwC to fully disclose its damaging findings…..as long as the 8 billions X 2 is returned to the ordinary people, we should be satisfied to close the case.
Shameless scumbeg,
Pls dont call yourself MCA. Chinese will disown you fellos.
Disgrace to your community for robbing and raping the future of our next generation and generations to come.
Pls go back and read the history to see how insignificate you are even with billions in your bank accounts. Tun Ling Leong Sick, Tun Chong Kong Choy, Tun Ong, TM, TN, … all will gone down the history as the most disgraceful in the country!
This issue is simple, they have a lot to hide. PKFZ was not inflated etc. The truth is the people behind it started to come up with all sorts of ideas to build more and more. We know why they did it right? I got this from a little bird who works with certain parties.
So perhaps the investigations should look into the ‘EXTRAS’ that happened … that would be a real eye opener.
Before Only Talk Kok can be forthcoming (it takes 6 months for him to ‘maybe – I’ll still talk kok – come clean’), he will need to learn the uniquely Malaysian art of magical disappearance from Peletup Mongolia. Besides heavy-set man, pregnant woman, and army exploC4ves, this particular Bugis martial art also deals with how to launder any written reports such that any unsavoury evidence connected with any unsavoury characters is removed with use of the specific technique used to delete the entry into the country of unsavoury persons of Mongolian descent. After which when called upon to provide any explanation and clarification, the investigating officer can claim, ‘I don’t know’, ‘There’s no need to check with the authors of the report’, ‘I don’t know who the authors are,’ ‘The report has been released by the proper authorities responsible for the release, therefore it must be correct,’ ‘I don’t know’…
Obviously a very powerful martial skill, this Bugis art of magical disappearance also renders underlings mindless and senseless such that they become breathing, walking, talking imbeciles who only know how to say ‘I don’t know’ or variations of this phrase.