Media statement by Liew Chin Tong Georgetown, Penang on Saturday, 12^th February 2011:

Najib should come clear on First Lady of Malaysia division

The recent revealing of the ridiculous "First Lady of Malaysia Division" dedicated to Rosmah Mansor is bewildering and has yet again shown the inconsistency of the Barisan Nasional government in informing the public.

In his reply to my parliamentary answer in November 2010, Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Razak said that there is no full-time staff or contract staff specially assigned to his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

The Prime Minister is clearly contradicting himself when the official website of Prime Minister's Department included the "First Lady of Malaysia Division" in the staff directory, under which five staffs are employed to work, suggestively for the self-proclaimed "First Lady" of Malaysia, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

When the information was discovered and made public by certain media and by MP Seputeh YB Teresa Kok, the related information 'mysteriously' disappeared from the website. The truth about the allocation remains to be told.

In fact, the 'newly discovered' First Lady of Malaysia division was not mentioned in the four-volume Senarai Perjawatan Persekutuan (federal staff list), which forms part of the federal budget 2011 documents. Questions remained to be answered of how and how much is the division been allocated and what is the function of the division.

In the same directory we discovered that many advisors on specific issues are also listed, whom positions are similarly not allocated in the Federal Budget 2011. This include Dato' Seri Dr. Abdullah bin Md Zin as Advisor for Islamic Affiars, Dato' Shahidan Kassim as advisor for matters on North Corridor Economic Region (NCER), Datuk Seri Jalaludin bin Bahaudin as the Media Advisor, Dato' Mohammad Kamal bin Yan Yahaya as Advisor for International Relation, and Prof Emeritus Dato' Dr Zakri bin Abd Hamid as the Science Advisor. Each of the advisors has one or more staff assisting them.

Indeed the Prime Minister's Department is the biggest spender among the various ministries. The department receives RM15.8 billion this year (excluding the allocations for Attorney-General's Chamber and the Public Service Department), a record setting amount compared to past years and has been more than doubled from the RM 6.87 billion allocation in 2007.

I pressed on the Prime Minister to present a truthful reply on this issue and remain accountable to the people. The people of Malaysia deserve to know how their money is spent.

* Liew Chin Tong, MP for Bukit Bendera