Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 14^th October 2009: 

My question on RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal for first day of Parliament on Monday has been kicked off to seven weeks later to Dec 3

My question on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal for the first day of the budget session of Parliament on Monday, 19^th October 2009 has been kicked off to seven weeks later to December 3 at the tail-end of the meeting, as if the PKFZ scandal is a trivial and inconsequential matter.

DAP MP for Segambut, Lim Lip Eng, had also submitted a question on the PKFZ scandal for the first day of Parliament on Monday, and his question had also be knocked off to Dec. 1, 2009.

I had slated to ask the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Parliament on Monday “the outcome of 2007 Cabinet decision commissioning the Chief Secretary, Economic Planning Unit, Prime Minister’s Department to look into various aspects of irregularities in the Port Klang Free Zone scandal, including unlawful issue of four Letters of Support”.

Why is the Prime Minister not ready to answer this question on Monday?

This has reinforced my reservations about the Super Task Force into the PKFZ scandal set up by Cabinet in early September, headed by the Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.

The question that needs answer is what had happened to the Cabinet decision two years ago that the Chief Secretary head an investigation into the PKFZ scandal, including “determining the type of misconduct or criminal element on the part of individuals or entities involved in the project and recommend actions to be taken against them”?

If the Cabinet decision in 2007 could have ended in a blank, what guarantees are there that the Super Task Force set up in September this year would be any different?

I do not want to get involved in the intensifying MCA power struggle but many are seeing any departure of MCA President and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat as the effective end for any full accountability and transparency of the “mother-of-all-scandals”.

Are all the Cabinet Ministers, whether Umno, MCA or the Gerakan Minister in charge of KPI, prepared to give a categorical commitment that there will be no compromise in the full disclosure of the PKFZ scandal – whatever happens to the MCA power struggle?

The displacement of the two questions Lip Eng and I had submitted on the PKFZ sandal for the first day of Parliament on Monday to some five weeks later in December does not inspire confidence whatsoever that we will head in this direction.

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