Media Conference Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Thursday, 5^th November 2009: 

PAC report on PKFZ scandal revealed ongoing high-level conspiracy to suppress pertinent information about Ministerial and top governmental abuses of power and malpractices

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:

“We want to reach the bottom of the issue, that is, to look into how the scandal took place. We want to be transparent.”

The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Cabinet are all putting up a great pretence as if they are learning about the abuses of power, criminal breach of trust, illegalities and improprieties in various aspects of the PKFZ scandal for the first time, when most of this information had been in their possession for quite some time.

In fact, I had raised many of these issues in the previous Parliament whether by way of abortive emergency motion under Section 18 of the Standing Orders or speeches during budget and other debates.

The PAC has issued a damning report against Chan and Phang and wants the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Police to initiate investigations against them and several others for criminal breaches of trust.

The PAC should have issued a damning report against the MACC and the Police for failing in their duties to uphold the law, for if the government is really serious as claimed by Najib and Muhyiddin in wanting get to the bottom of the PKFZ scandal, the various errant personalities would already have been hauled to court and standing trial for a multitude of criminal offences.

But even up to now, the government is still continuing with the conspiracy of pretences, presenting a front as if they knew nothing about the various revelations in the PAC report and that the Special Task into the PKFZ scandal recently set up by the Cabinet and headed by the Chief Secretary would work on the revelations of the PAC report.

Such pretences are most shocking and even outrageous. This is why my immediate response to Najib’s announcement on the super task force into the PKFZ scandal in September was to ask whether it would be a “super cover-up” task force into the PKFZ scandal.

I will just give one example – the unlawful issue of the Letters of Support by the former Transport Ministers for the RM4.6 billion bonds which have landed in the country with the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.

The PAC Report said in p 22:

“4.3.4. Pada 27 June 2007, Kerajaan telah memberi kelulusan secara retrospetik berhubung dengan peningkatan kos projek PKFZ kepada RM4.63 billion dan jaminan kerajaan bagi penerbitan bon bernilai RM4.63 billion termasuk kupon oleh KDSB. Kelulusan ini telah diberi kerana pengeluaran beberapa siri letter of support oleh Menteri Pengangkutan yang secara implicit merupakan jaminan daripada kerajaan dari segi undang-undang. LPK diberi pinjaman mudah sehingga RM4.63 billion untuk membiayai projek PKFZ. Kerajaan juga memutuskan supaya pegawai terlibat dalam perbuatan melanggar prosedur yang serious sehingga meletakkan kerajaan dalam keadaan serba salah wajar dikenakan tindakan.”

This 27 June 2007 decision to retrospectively validate that RM4.6 billion bond because of unlawful issue of Letters of Support by the Transport Ministers concerned was made by the Cabinet, but up to now, for more than two years, the Malaysian public and Parliament have not been told the truth – with Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers continuing to mislead Parliament by denying the legal status of these Letters of Support.

The Chief Secretary Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan now heading the Special Task Force into the PKFZ scandal, was directed by the Cabinet in June 2007 to conduct an inquiry as to how the Letters of Support could have issued unlawfully and to take the necessary disciplinary actions against the culprits who have now landed the country with a RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.

The Chief Secretary should explain why this had not been done for more than two years. Why didn’t PAC summon the Chief Secretary to report on the status of such investigations since June 2007?

It is time to end the high-level conspiracy to cover up a full disclosure of all aspects and levels of the PKFZ scandal. Let the full can of worms and swamp of crocodiles in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal be fully exposed.

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