Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Saturday,
22nd
November 2008:
Chew Mei Fun should send me her job
application with her cv and I will employ her at a salary befitting her
real qualifications
MCA Wanita chief and Pempena Executive
Chairman, Datuk Paduka Chew Mei Fun publicly asked me on Thursday
whether I will employ and “feed” her if she resigns from Pempena. (Sin
Chew Daily, Guang Ming Daily)
My response – Chew should send me her job application with her cv and I
will employ her at a salary befitting her real qualifications.
However, Malaysians are amazed at her crass audacity – which is typical
of many MCA leaders – that Malaysians owe her a living, and the
government must give her a job and “feed” her just because she lost to
Tony Pua in the March general election in the Petaling Jaya Utara
parliamentary constituency!
If this is the case, then Chew should have been truthful in the March
general election campaign and should have owned up publicly that she
would be “fed” by the Barisan Nasional government even if she loses in
the parliamentary contest against Pua – that she was in an envious
“cannot lose” situation, whatever the outcome of the election!
Be that as it may, Chew may be out of her job as Pempena Executive
Chairman faster than she think, especially if the Star report
“Pempena probe has Azalina fuming” (20.11.98) is to be believed,
that the Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman is mulling over
whether to shut down the subsidiary of the Tourism Ministry!
The report said Azalina was “irked” by the “nonchalant attitude” of
those being questioned over the RM50 million Pempena Group of Companies
scandals.
She said:
“I have been told the immediate standard
response we have been getting is that it is the Government’s money
and ‘why should we care’ statements as if it is the Govern¬ment’s
obligation to invest with them.
“It is so disgusting when nobody cares. How can you not care when it
comes to the people’s money?”
Lashing out at the poor Pempena investments,
Azalina said:
“Pempena should close down if it cannot
invest properly. If it fails, it fails. Then we pick up the pieces
and carry on.”
What is most shocking is that such outrageous
“nonchalant attitude” is fully inherited by the current Pempena
executive chairman as illustrated by Chew’s utter contempt for
accountability, transparency and good governance when she:
• Dismissed questions about Pempena scandals,
declaring that she would not answer “on things that happened before
my time” as she just wanted to focus on revamping the company; and
• Spurned questions as to whether “heads will
roll” and action taken against those responsible for the tens of
millions of ringgit of Pempena losses because of fraud and criminal
breach of trust although the internal audit report detailing the
various Pempena scandals had been completed and been in her hands
for over three months.
If this is the attitude of the Pempena
executive chairman, then I agree that Pempena should be closed down, as
we cannot have an executive chairman who have no clue as to what are her
responsibilities to the Malaysian public and taxpayers who are paying
her RM10,000 monthly salary! Clearly, she does not know who are the
“boss” and who are “feeding” her!
The case for the closure of Pempena is strengthened after I read the
disclosures by Datuk Kee Phaik Chin, the Pempena Chairman from
2004-2006, who is astounded by the Pempena losses, as she had left
Pempena in very good hands,with RM50 million reserves, even salary
increases and bonus for the Pempena staff!
She wondered how Pempena could lose RM20 million in the two years she
was no more in Pempena – a question which Chew and her immediate
predecessor Datuk Chor Chee Heung have refused to answer!
In the circumstances, Azalina must personally answer these and other
Pempena-related questions in Parliament next week when the Tourism
Minsitry come up for scrutiny in the 2009 Budget committee stage debate.
Let Azalina also tell Parliament next week whether she is going to close
down Pempena or whether Chew is fit and competent to continue as Pempena
Executive Chairman.
I met Azalina at the Senai Airport this morning and I want to remind her
of my request for a copy of the internal audit report into the Pempena
Group of Companies scandals, which was completed in August 2008 and the
Final Report of the PricewaterhouseCooper’s report on “High Level
Business Review of Pempena Group of Companies”.
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
http://dapmalaysia.org