Luxurious Exco Mansions: Dr
Khir Toyo's cover-up attempt fails to convince Malaysian public
Media Statement
by Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew
(Petaling Jaya,
Thursday):
Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo’s must have been
finding it very hard to justify the building of the estimated RM40 million
luxurious mansions for the Selangor Exco members in a press conference
yesterday. We believe Malaysian taxpayers in general will not buy his story,
let alone the two whistle-blowers - Teng Chang Khim and Ng Suee Lim, both
are from the DAP.
Khir Toyo claims that the total
bill will not come to RM40 million. But the breakdown given by him simply
would not match the real cost of building and furnishing for the 10
bungalows, clubhouse and two swimming pools.
Every Selangor Exco member
receives RM1, 000 every month as housing allowance. If Khir Toyo and his
team feel that the allowance is not sufficient, he can always raise it to a
higher but reasonable level, instead of spending so much to build bungalows
and clubhouse for themselves. This is a clear-cut case of power abuse and
mismanagement of public fund.
Khir also talked about using
the profit from some privatised projects for the bungalows. He has obviously
forgotten that the state still owes the federal government a lot of money.
Selangor has also not been able to pay its water bills and the huge debts
accumulated over the past few years.
His other stories about
roof-leakage of some official residences and the clubhouse for the NGOs to
hold meetings were just craps. I also wonder how many people will believe M.
Sivalingam’s story. This MIC Exco member claimed that the idea of bringing
all Exco members to live in the same compound was to facilitate consultation
among the members in order to provide better service to the people.
I doubt any Exco member would
want to move in to the Exco Mansions after the big hoo-hah. Khir Toyo should
seriously start thinking about selling the bungalows to the public. RM2.1
million each (as claimed by Khir) for such a three-storey bungalow with an
exclusive clubhouse and two swimming pools is certainly a best buy in the
prestigious Section 7, Shah Alam.
We do not wish to see these
bungalows to be left vacant for months and years without any takers. Please
accept this as our friendly reminder.
(10/3/2005)
* Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew,
DAP International Secretary and NGO bureau chief
|
http://dapmalaysia.org