Category: PKFZ

The Malaysian Insider
Thursday December 10 2009

Pakatan leaders sceptical about PKFZ arrests

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Pakatan Rakyat national leaders were unimpressed and sceptical about today’s arrests made in connection to the RM 12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, calling it a scapegoating exercise where the main culprits still remain free.

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang said the arrests were a small move and had yet to prove the federal government’s will to get to the bottom of the scandal that involved bloated land valuations and double charges.

“Although we are seeing some movement, the arrest is a very small piece of a larger picture,” said the Ipoh Timur MP, who has been at the forefront of the Pakatan campaign on the PKFZ scandal.

“And unless there is a greater political will to deal with those responsible for the mother of all scandals and this only touches the surface of the problem,” he told a press conference in Parliament here. Continue reading “Pakatan leaders sceptical about PKFZ arrests”

During the 2010 budget debate on 29th October 2009, I questioned the Cabinet decision to set up a super task force headed by the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan to take over all investigations into the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal as it represented a “major step backwards in public accountability and good governance”, smacking of a super “cover up” instead of a demonstration of political will to get to the bottom of the “mother of all scandals”.

I argued that what is needed is a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a comprehensive and no-holds-barred investigation into the “mother of all scandals” including relevant Ministerial and Cabinet aspects of the scandal instead of trying to sweep the whole issue back under the carpet.

I also posed the following question:

“In the first place, is Mohd Sidek the most appropriate person to head the super task force on the PKFZ scandal?
Continue reading “Chief Secretary Sidek’s failure to carry out Cabinet decision of July 2007 to take action against culprits responsible for RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal a factor why Malaysia has worst ranking and score in 15 years in TI CPI 2009”

Why must Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) wait for Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommendation for further investigation into former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy for possible offence of criminal breach of trust in the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal when the first report was lodged with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) as far back as 2004?

Isn’t this testimony of the failure, ineffectiveness and impotence of MACC and its predecessor ACA?

These are the questions I posed to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in the ten minutes he touched on corruption in the government winding-up on the budget before he ended his reply for lunch-break today.

I remarked that Nazri was defending the status quo of a worsening corruption problem in Malaysia instead of spearheading an attack on corruption, as is happening in Indonesia.

Nazri was in his classic mode of denial and also disagreed that there is need for a parliamentary motion to adopt the PAC report on the PKFZ scandal for all MPs to take a stand on the PAC recommendations. Continue reading “PAC proposal to investigate CKC for cbt – testimony of MACC impotence/failure”

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should be censured for failing to bring to court even a single person of those guilty of abuses of power and corruption in the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal though the first corruption report was lodged as far back as 2004.

How can MACC convince Malaysians that it is now a Malaysian version of Hong Kong’s ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) when all it has demonstrated is its overzealousness and even abuses of power in investigating a RM2,400 Pakatan Rakyat state assembly constituency allocation resulting in the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock, while it has completely nothing to show and totally impotent in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ “mother of all scandals’?

An exchange between Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member and DAP Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and the MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan at the PAC meeting on 23rd June 2009 highlighted the hypocrisy of the MACC.
Continue reading “MACC should be censured for failing to bring to court those guilty of abuses of power and corruption in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal although the first report was lodged as far back as 2004”

The Public Accounts Committee Report on the Port Klang Free Zone scandal does not reveal enough although it had revealed inadvertently what it had not intended to reveal – the ongoing high-level conspiracy to suppress pertinent information about Ministerial and top government abuses of power and malpractices landing the country with a RM12.5 “mother of all scandals”.

This is why the statement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak that the special task force set up by the Cabinet in September on the PKFZ scandal would look into the PAC findings and would take action is greeted with widespread skepticism and disbelief.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is competing with the Prime Minister as to who can make a more incredulous statement on this subject.

Muhyiddin said PAC had the power to recommend that former transport minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy and former Port Klang Authority general Datin Paduka Phang Oi Choo be investigated for criminal breach of trust in the PKFZ, and that the government’s stand on the PKFZ scandal had been clear from the start,viz:
Continue reading “PAC report on PKFZ scandal revealed ongoing high-level conspiracy to suppress pertinent information about Ministerial and top governmental abuses of power and malpractices”

At long last, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the mother of all scandals, the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), has been tabled in Parliament, together with several tombs of documents, viz verbatim minutes of 13 PAC meetings on the subject from 11th June to 3rd September 2009, Price Waterhouse Coopers’ report on position review of PKFZ and its appendices.

The PAC report has confirmed and vindicated my statements and allegations about the PKFZ not only as “a can of worms” but a “swamp of crocodiles” that I have made in Parliament since the last session, and raises the question why no action had been taken very much earlier to avoid the rotten state of the PKFZ scandal today.

The PAC report has confirmed that RM645.87 million would have been saved if the PKFZ land had been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1960, for then it would have cost only RM442.13 million and not RM1.088 billion before interest.
Continue reading “Attorney-General Gani Patail should resign unless he can explain why he failed to take action against former Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy for criminal breach of trust”

1. RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

   The Cabinet decision last month to set up a super task force, headed by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, to take over all investigations into the PKFZ scandal is not a demonstration of political will to get to the bottom of the “mother of all scandals” but the opposite.

   I see it as a major step backwards in public accountability and good governance, as it smacks of being a super “cover up” task force for the PKFZ scandal.

   What is needed is a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a comprehensive and no-holds-barred investigation into the “mother of all scandals” including relevant Ministerial and Cabinet aspects of the scandal instead of trying to sweep the whole issue back under the carpet.
   In the first place, is Mohd Sidek the most appropriate person to head the super task force on the PKFZ scandal?

   Continue reading “Super cover-up of RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?”

The three MCA factions of Ong Tee Keat, Liow Tiong Lai and Chua Soi Lek have re-assembled as “1MCA” under the dictate of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s “1Malaysia” but the “mother of all scandals”, the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal is the greatest casualty as it has disappeared from the radar of the MCA leaders.

When the Ong faction split asunder at the MCA central committee meeting of Oct. 14 following Ong’s refusal to resign as MCA President despite the passing of a motion of no confidence in his leadership at the Oct. 10 MCA extraordinary general meeting (EGM), Ong wrote in his blog to justify his decision:

“I still have a long list of unfinished business involving Party and public interests, like the direct election of the MCA presidency and the Port Klang Free Zone issue. It is my wish to see such issues be addressed without any abrupt disruption.”
Continue reading “Three MCA factions of Ong, Liow and Chua re-assembled as “1MCA” under Najib’s “1Malaysia” dictate with RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal as the greatest casualty as it has disappeared from the radar of the MCA leaders”

My question on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal for the first day of the budget session of Parliament on Monday, 19th October 2009 has been kicked off to seven weeks later to December 3 at the tail-end of the meeting, as if the PKFZ scandal is a trivial and inconsequential matter.

DAP MP for Segambut, Lim Lip Eng, had also submitted a question on the PKFZ scandal for the first day of Parliament on Monday, and his question had also be knocked off to Dec. 1, 2009.

I had slated to ask the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Parliament on Monday “the outcome of 2007 Cabinet decision commissioning the Chief Secretary, Economic Planning Unit, Prime Minister’s Department to look into various aspects of irregularities in the Port Klang Free Zone scandal, including unlawful issue of four Letters of Support”.

Why is the Prime Minister not ready to answer this question on Monday?
Continue reading “My question on RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal for first day of Parliament on Monday has been kicked off to seven weeks later to Dec 3”

I had posed a question on the “mother-of-all-scandals”, the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the first day of the budget meeting of Parliament beginning on Monday, 19th October 2009.

I have just been informed that this question had disappeared altogether from the list of oral questions for Monday’s meeting of Parliament.

Signs of major cover-up of the PKFZ scandal at work?

DAP MP for Segambut, Lim Lip Eng’s question on the PKFZ scandal has also disappeared from the forthcoming parliamentary list of questions.

This is the question on the PKFZ scandal which I had submitted: Continue reading “Major cover up of RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal at work?”

Today’s media report top government leaders virtually falling upon one another in their competition to denounce and declare action being taken against fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Malaysia-Today website under the Official Secrets Act for leaking on the Internet an 18-page Treasury Memorandum to the Cabinet in June 2007 on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

Led by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, those who had spoken of action under the Official Secrets Act include the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar and Director of Commercial Criminal Investigation Department, Datuk Koh Hong Sun.

However, none of them has shown any concern about the right to know of Malaysians about the hows and whys the taxpayers are being burdened with the “mother of all scandals” – the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal running through three Prime Ministers, three Finance Ministers and four Port Klang Authority Chairmen.

Najib said: “We will inform the people what we should concerning the case and we will do so later but that is no excuse to reveal cabinet papers.”
Continue reading “Why didn’t AG Gani prosecute previous Transport Ministers Ling and Chan for unlawfully issuing 4 Letters of Support causing the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?”

Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s Malaysia-Today website is not accessible.

Has it anything to do with the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) documents, including Cabinet papers, on the website in the past three days?

New Straits Times reported today that investigations have been ordered into Malaysia-Today’s disclosures of secret official government documents showing how the Port Klang Free Zone issue had spiraled into disaster.

The Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail was quoted as saying that if the document was genuine, action could be taken against the editor of the website under the Official Secrets Act.

The time has come for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to honour his pledge of public accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance which must include a commitment to freedom of information and respecting the right of Malaysians to information about the entire process as to how Malaysia could be landed with a RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal through three Prime Ministers, three Transport Ministers and four Port Klang Authority Chairmen.
Continue reading “Raja Petra’s Malaysia-Today website not accessible – any connection with disclosure of the PKFZ Cabinet documents?”

In the past five-and-a-half months of his premiership, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had made valiant attempts to project his administration’s commitment to reform, accountability, integrity and good governance as exemplified by his slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”, his website, walkabouts and his emphasis on KPIs with the appointment of two KPI Ministers.

But all these efforts by Najib had failed to convince the Malaysian public that the Prime Minister is committed or capable of fundamental change in government.

One important reason is the long drawn-out farce of the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal – resulting in the public fallout between the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC) Chairman Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing who is also the CEO of the PKFZ turnkey contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd and other political skirmishes in MCA, Umno and Barisan Nasional.
Continue reading “Best Hari Raya present Najib can give country is to declassify all Cabinet minutes and documents relating to PKFZ scandal”

It is a great disappointment that the MCA Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) is not being used for a united MCA call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal to bring to book all MCA, Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders implicated in the “mother of all scandals”.

When former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin could say that the PKFZ fiasco provides the Barisan Nasional government the best opportunity to fulfill its promise of cracking down on corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement, why are MCA, Umno and other Barisan Nasional component parties dragging their feet when they should be acting decisively to identity and punish the wrongdoers, without fear or favour and regardless of their present or past position or status?

Daim speaks with great authority, knowledge and experience when he said:

“The government must punish all those lawbreakers, only then can it regain the public’s confidence.
Continue reading “Chief Secretary should explain why he had failed in past two years to carry out Cabinet mandate to identify and punish culprits responsible for the unlawful issue of four Letters of Support by two Transport Ministers?”

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat today rebutted in the Chinese media the Singapore Straits Times report on Tuesday that former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy had been implicated in the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal as one of those identified as having committed serious breaches by the PKFZ Task Force headed by lawyer Vinayak Pradhan as chairman.

Ong has his theories as to how such a Singapore Straits Times report came about but Malaysians are only interested in whether as the Transport Minister who had unlawfully issued three of the four Letters of Support for the issue of multi-billion ringgit bonds by the PKFZ turnkey contractor, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB), resulting in the Malaysian government and taxpayers being burdened with the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal, is Chan Kong Choy innocent or implicated in the PKFZ scandal.

As I had said when I unsuccessfully moved a motion of censure against Kong Choy as Transport Minister during the budget debate on 27th November 2007 when I proposed a RM10 salary cut against him, it is completely unacceptable for Kong Choy to say that he did not know that he did not have the power as Transport Minister to issue such Letters of Support, especially as Kong Choy was Deputy Finance Minister for close to four years from Dec. 1999 to June 2003.
Continue reading “Is Chan Kong Choy innocent or implicated in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?”

I am taken aback by the announcement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak of the Cabinet decision yesterday to set up a super task force, headed by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, to investigate the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

Why didn’t the Cabinet establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to ensure a full inquiry and public accounting of the mother of all scandals – as the Gerakan President and KPI Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon had belatedly given his support?

Unless convinced otherwise, I see the establishment of the so-called “super task force” into the PKFZ scandal as a major step backwards in public accountability and good governance, as it smacks of being a super “cover up” task force to get “the cat back into the bag” with specific reference to the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.

What is the purpose of a super task force into the PKFZ scandal, which is to include the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, the Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz and representatives from Finance and Transport Ministries, after the the PKFZ scandal had ballooned from RM1.08 billion in 2002 to RM4.6 billion in 2006 and now set to become RM12.5 billion through three Transport Ministers and three Prime Ministers?
Continue reading “Will Najib’s super task force on PKFZ scandal be a super “cover-up” task force to try to “get the cat back into the bag”?”

I welcome the support given by the Gerakan President and Minister for KPI, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the “mother” of all scandals – RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

This is the first time since the long sorry saga of the PKFZ scandal, which ballooned from a RM1.08 billion scandal in 2002 under Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik as Transport Minister to a RM4.6 billion scandal in 2006 under Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy as Transport Minister and is now set to mushroom to become a RM12.5 billion scandal under Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat as Transport Minister that a Federal Minister has acknowledged its gravity as to support the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Can Tsu Koon do what Tee Keat has failed – getting Cabinet approval for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to ensure that it will not go down in history as Barisan Nasional and the nation’s most “heinous crime without criminals”?

Or is Tsu Koon taking the easy way out from the mounting public pressure for “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” about the PKFZ scandal to be told, by publicly giving lip-service support to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, without doing his utmost as KPI Minister to get the Cabinet to make the crucial decision to set it up?
Continue reading “Can Tsu Koon do what Tee Keat has failed – getting Cabinet approval for a RCI into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?”

It has been reported that Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB), the turnkey contractor for Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) has challenged the legality and legitimacy of the appointment of Datuk Lee Hwa Beng as the Port Klang Authority (PKA) Chairman.

The deputy CEO of KDSB Datuk Faizal Abdullah has issued an ultimatum to the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat to produce Lee’s appointment letter as PKA Chairman by 4.30 pm tomorrow (Monday) or face the legal consequences.

According to Faizal, the statutory power or prerogative to appoint the Chairman of PKA is vested with the Yang di Pertuan Agong as provided under the Port Klang Authority Act 1960 and the Minister of Transport has no power to personally decide to extend Lee’s tenure as PKA Chairman at the end of April.

Faizal contended that if Lee’s appointment as PKA Chairman was unlawfully renewed by the Transport Minister and not by the Yang di Pertuan Agong, then Lee’s appointment is null and void and all “tasks and responsibilities” handled by Lee after March 31 this year, when his first appointment expired, would be null and void, including: Continue reading “Tee Keat can depend on my full support to oppose attempts by Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd to put the lid to block accountability and exposure of causes of the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal”

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has announced a 30-member task force to investigate corruption in the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

In announcing this, MACC Deputy Commissioner Datuk Abu Kassim Mohamad said the MACC task force would investigate the findings of an earlier special task force set up to probe the legal and financial aspects of the controversial project – the 370-page report with 2,500 appendices made by the special task force comprising Skrine partner Lim Chee Wee, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services (PwCAS) managing director Chin Kwai Fatt and PwCAS senior executive director Lim San Peen.

The special task force found that there was possible fraud, unsubstantiated claims and over-charging by Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd, the PKFZ turnkey developer, ranging from RM500 million to RM1 billion.

The immediate response of everyone reading Abu Kassim’s announcement is the question why the MACC (and previously the Anti-Corruption Agency) had failed to charge anyone for the PKFZ scandal although the first report on the PKFZ scandal was lodged with the ACA some four years ago!
Continue reading “30-member MACC task force into PKFZ scandal – public inquiry needed why MACC (previously ACA) failed to charge anyone although the first report on PKFZ was lodged some four years ago”

At 1.40 pm at the SS2 Police Station, Petaling Jaya, I lodged the following report against the MCA President and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and the Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB) CEO and MP for Bintulu, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing asking for police to commence immediate investigations into Tiong allegations against Ong, particularly over Tiong’s RM10 million donation to Ong last year for MCA divisions.

My police report, SEA PARK/006222/09 reads:

“This is to lodge a police report on what appeared in all the media today, including New Straits Times, Star, the Sun, Sin Chew Daily, Nanyang Siang Pau, China Press, Guang Ming, Kwong Wah Yit Poh and Oriental Daily,Berita Harian, as well as electronic media like Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider viz:

1. Statement by the chief executive of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd and MP for Bintulu, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing that he donated RM10 million to Transport Minister and MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat last year;

2. Statement by the deputy CEO of Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd Datuk Faizal Abdullah that Ong had used the company’s jet five times incurring US$40,000 for the services; and

Continue reading “Police and MACC should commence immediate investigations into Tiong King Sing’s allegations against Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat, particularly over the former’s RM10 million donation to Ong last year for MCA divisions”