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The Person Who Proposed Nearly RM 100,000  Egyptian Junket For The Selangor Public Accounts Committee(PAC) At Public Expense Should Foot The Bill For The Cancelled Trip Instead Of DAP’s Ng Suee Lin Press Statement by Lim Guan Eng (Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): BN’s  Selangor PAC members’ unreasonable anger at DAP State Assemblyman for Sekinchan Ng Suee Lin for causing them to lose their nearly RM 100,000 Egyptian junket at public expense can not hide the fact that DAP elected representatives had done their duty to monitor the government’s performance, expose wrongdoing and save public funds. BN Selangor PAC members such as tour leader and Taman Templer ADUN Datuk Ahmad Bhari Abdul Rahman. should be embarrassed that they were caught red-handed trying to use public funds for what is essentially a pleasure holiday trip disguised as an educational trip.  Instead of trying to get DAP’s Ng Suee Lin to foot the bill for the cancelled trip, Datuk Ahmad Bhari Abdul and Subang Jaya ADUN Lee Hwa Beng should ask the irresponsible person who proposed the Egyptian junket for the PAC to foot the bill. The Selangor PAC should thank DAP’s Ng Suee Lin for saving its reputation as an oversight body set up by the Selangor State Assembly to monitor government bodies to ensure compliance of procedures, prevent and identify financial irregularities and wastage  to ensure that public funds are not used for junket trips.   It is sad that the PAC is doing the very thing that it is supposed to prevent thereby making a mockery of their goals of establishing accountability and transparency in government departments. Such conduct is unacceptable and those Selangor PAC members who wanted to go for the trip at public expense should resign or else PAC will lose all credibility as the guardian of public accountability and transparency in Selangor.  Despite Datuk Ahmad and Lee Hwa Beng’s repeated assurances, the public can not see how the Egyptian trip can be educational when there were belly-dancing and as the headline in the Malay Mail screamed, “2 hours of business 7 nights of pleasure”. Even though the itinerary was subsequently changed following public pressure to exclude belly dancing, official business in the revised itinerary is only two and half days, while sight-seeing is five-and-half days.   How can Lee Hwa Beng public describe this trip as “100% educational” when nearly 70% of the time spent  is for pleasure and sight-seeing? Lee Hwa Beng should not allow his eagerness to go to Egypt to blind him of basic mathematics and simple logic. The sight-seeing included visiting the Nile River, the pyramids, Sphinx, Suez canal, Moses’ hot springs, an arts institute, museums, temples, a sound and light show, Pompeii’s Pillar as well as a few shopping excursions.  Lee Hwa Beng’s explanation for the many visits to mosques, churches and other similar sites in the tour programme are that they are religious site and everybody wants to go to heaven shows how unapologetic BN is despite public disapproval.  Once again, BN wakil rakyats have shown that they are more interested in getting elected not so much as to serve the people but to enjoy the privileges of office such as using public funds of almost RM 100,000 for the Egyptian junket.  Ng Suee Lin’s willingness to forgo a holiday to Egypt should be praised as an effort on his part to save public funds. Additionally, it reflects the commitment of DAP leaders to practice what we preach and that principles of integrity, accountability and transparency can not be compromised.   All Malaysians are now looking at BN and Prime Minister Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to see whether he demonstrates similar commitment to these principles as well as disapproval of misuse of public funds by taking action against the Selangor PAC members who are not ashamed of such irresponsible and unethical practices. Any failure to do so will only lead Malaysians to realize that the slogans made during the general elections last year against abuse of power and malpractice  were just empty promises. (25/1/2005) * Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General