Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 29^th April 2009: 

Why Ong Tee Keat dare not discuss with Najib the issue of declassification of official secrets and the publication of PwC report on the RM8 billion PKFZ scandal for the past six months until he gets Najib’s nod now?

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 is 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?

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor