Media Conference Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Thursday, 18^th June 2009: 

Ong Tee Keat should explain whether it is true that he had on 10th May 2009 as Transport Minister pressured the Prime Minister to approve RM1.2 billion payment as variation of costs for the PKFZ project.

My three questions (No.58 to No. 60 on the 20^th day in the current series) to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal today are:

No. 1. – A website, http://pkfz.blogspot.com/, has appeared which uploaded exchange of letters to show that on 10th May 2009, Ong had on 10th May 2009 as Transport Minister pressured the Prime Minister to approve RM1.2 billion payment as variation of costs for the PKFZ project to its turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd and asked why this information was omitted in the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report on the PKFZ.

Ong should explain whether it is true that he had on 10th May 2009 as Transport Minister pressured the Prime Minister to approve RM1.2 billion payment as variation of costs for the PKFZ project and confirm the two letters uploaded on this website.

No. 2 - This website also made a very serious allegation – that Datuk Lee Hwa Beng’s tenure as Port Klang Authority (PKA) Chairman ended on 15th February 2009 and that until today the Yang di Pertuan Agong had never given consent to extend or renew Lee’s term, and that Ong is asking the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to backdate Lee’s appointment. Is this true?

Question No. 3 – Ong has at last admitted on his blog yesterday that he has gone to France to attend the “prestigious” Paris Air Show “to meet up with my French counterpart”.

Couldn’t he send his Deputy Minister to the Paris Air Show? What is there so important about the Paris Air Show except as an excuse for a junket at taxpayers’ expense, when there is the important issue of proper parliamentary accounting by him on the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

If Ong’s attending the Paris Air Show is so honourable and above-board, why did he hide it from public knowledge instead of declaring publicly in advance that he was going for the Paris Air Show and would miss Parliament meeting and parliamentary accounting of the PKFZ scandal?

Is Ong prepared to submit to a public opinion poll as to whether he had acted responsiby in going off for a junket for the Paris Air Show instead of being in Parliament on the very first day to account for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

In fact, there is no need for a national opinion poll. Just poll the MCA members and I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of the ordinary MCA members or more than 90 per cent will agree that Ong was being utterly irresponsible in running away to the Paris Air Show instead of giving proper accounting of the PKFZ scandal in Parliament.

Of course, if the MCA Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries and MPs are polled, 99 per cent will agree that Ong was right to go off for the Paris Air Show.

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