Press Statement by Charles Santiago in Parliament on Wednesday, 25^th November 2009:

Bukit Antarabangsa landslide report: Is the Federal Government protecting water related business?

When the Selangor state government went public with its intention to declassify the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide report, the country missed a collective heartbeat.

But that anticipation has since dissipated as the federal government applied brakes on Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim's decision.

The Federal Government has challenged the decision and cautioned the state not to declassify the documents.

For now, only parts of the report are available pending an approval from the works Minister. No one knows when or if the green light would ever come.

The fatal landslide which occurred on 6th December 2008, killed five people, damaged 14 bungalows and caused damages costing millions of ringgit. The government established a technical committee led by the Public Works Department together with 11 other agencies to investigate the causes of the landslide.

The public has a right to know exactly what triggered the tragedy. The Malaysian Insider, on Sunday, reported that the Bukit Antarabangsa residents had welcomed the release of the report.

The BN government’s gift for predictability is repeating itself and this is evident in the government's hasty decision and subtle caution to stop making the entire report public. The question that comes to mind is the following: is the government protecting particular interests.

But the Selangor leadership must demonstrate that it is different from the federal government.

Therefore, I call on Khalid to honour his earlier commitment to legislate freedom of information and declassify the document in the interest of the people of Selangor who voted for good governance transparency and accountability in the 2008 elections.

If necessary, Khalid should convene an extraordinary state assembly meeting to get the legislative body’s endorsement to declassify the report. In this way, the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government could send a strong message to the people of the state and the federal government that it would not compromise on the right to information and public safety of its people.

Furthermore, the report is crucial to set guidelines for hill-side developments and prevent further landslides in the future.

As for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's administration, this is certainly not the time for back and forth legal wrangling on whether or not Khalid has violated the Official Secrets Act when he decided to make the report public.

Neither should the Menteri Besar's decision be used to spin a mysterious web of deceit to expose Khalid to criminal liability or fashion this episode to craft his exit. We are not scripting a cult fiction and neither is M. Night Shyamalan going to come knocking on our doors.

In reality Najib's image would take a whack as his 1Malaysia government resorts to another tactic to silence facts and figures. Or maybe they are simply trying to protect business and contractors involved in the distribution and management of water in the state.

It has been reported that the Bukit Antarabangsa residents were not surprised that a burst pipe and leakage in active water supply pipes caused the tragic landslide as the leafy suburb has always been waterlogged despite a lack of rain.

This view has been since confirmed by the PWD’s technical team that a leaking pipe was the main cause of the landslide.

If indeed that the cause of the landslide was a result of negligence and poor maintenance of the pipes by the water company than immediate action should be taken against these business and contractors by Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN) and the Ministry of Energy, Water and Green Technology.

I suggest that SPAN and the Ministry immediately identify the company, suspend all existing water related infrastructure work pending further investigations. If necessary the water regulator or the Ministry should not hesitate to revoke the licenses of these companies.

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail must also start investigations to determine whether any laws or contracts were violated by the water related business.

But for now it is left to Najib's 1Malaysia government to tell the people, who lost their loved ones in the landslide, the truth.

* Charles Santiago, Selangor DAP Vice Chairman & MP for Klang