Media statement by Liew Chin Tong in Penang on Wednesday, 8^th June 2011:

Hishamuddin and Najib must come clean over Liberal Technology deal with Securency

The Australian Federal Police investigation of Securency for alleged bribery to obtain Malaysian banknote supply contracts raises questions about Malaysian firm Liberal Technology's influence via its biggest shareholder, Datuk Haris Onn Hussein, cousin of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and brother of Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

While it is a criminal offence in Australia for a company to offer a benefit to a relative of a foreign government official to obtain a business advantage, the linking of a well-connected individual who obtains benefits from a politically powerful relative or contact comes as no surprise in describing the Barisan Nasional government that has a track record of cronyism, nepotism, and questionable deals. The Scorpene submarine deal, controversial APs allocation, highway toll concessionaires, IPP lopsided agreements and logging contracts are still fresh in the minds of the public.

Clearly the Barisan Nasional government has not learnt its lesson and is not helping to disprove its reputation of crony capitalism which is tantamount to the political elite 'fat cats' robbing their poorer cousins to feed their own ilk.

Despite The Age's disclaimer that it is not suggesting either Najib or Hishammuddin's involvement in Securency's dealings here, little is known about how Securency managed to leverage on Liberal Technology's shareholder Haris Onn Hussein's political connections to obtain the lucrative banknote contract except for Hishammuddin's blaise and unconvincing denial yesterday which is unsubstantive and provides no explanations. The Malaysian public deserves to know the truth about sensitive high-level dealings of government official's relatives' companies.

Such confusion could be avoided if the BN government was more transparent and openly reveal financial dealings of their companies and relatives' companies.

* Liew Chin Tong, DAP International Secretary & MP for Bukit Bendera