Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 11^th September 2009: 

Is Chan Kong Choy innocent or implicated in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat today rebutted in the Chinese media the Singapore Straits Times report on Tuesday that former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy had been implicated in the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal as one of those identified as having committed serious breaches by the PKFZ Task Force headed by lawyer Vinayak Pradhan as chairman.

Ong has his theories as to how such a Singapore Straits Times report came about but Malaysians are only interested in whether as the Transport Minister who had unlawfully issued three of the four Letters of Support for the issue of multi-billion ringgit bonds by the PKFZ turnkey contractor, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB), resulting in the Malaysian government and taxpayers being burdened with the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal, is Chan Kong Choy innocent or implicated in the PKFZ scandal.

As I had said when I unsuccessfully moved a motion of censure against Kong Choy as Transport Minister during the budget debate on 27^th November 2007 when I proposed a RM10 salary cut against him, it is completely unacceptable for Kong Choy to say that he did not know that he did not have the power as Transport Minister to issue such Letters of Support, especially as Kong Choy was Deputy Finance Minister for close to four years from Dec. 1999 to June 2003.

If a bank officer who exceeds his authority in a loan approval by a few hundred thousand ringgit could be prosecuted under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act for jeopardizing public funds why should a Minister who exceeded his authority by committing public funds measured in terms of billions of ringgit go scot-free and need not be accountable, and even more serious, could get his unauthorized and illegal acts ratified retrospectively – creating the monster of the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal for 27 million Malaysians today!

Is there no one at the Ministerial and Cabinet level who need to be held responsible and accountable for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

Is the “super task force” headed by Chief Secretary Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan as announced by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Wednesday empowered to zero in on the culprits responsible at Ministerial and Cabinet level for the “heinous crime” of the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal or is its ulterior agenda to sanitize, minimize or expunge whatever governmental, Ministerial and political fall-outs from the PKFZ scandal?

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