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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