RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal - no need for MCA to campaign in KT if OTK continues to hide the truth

By Lim Kit Siang

“Nothing to hide” - this was the front-page headline of Sun yesterday on Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat’s “tell-all” press conference on Sunday on the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal – which told absolutely nothing!

Although Ong adopted the stance that he had “nothing to hide”, in actual fact he had hidden the most important fact in his “chronology of events” on the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal – the RM4.6 billion retrospective approval given by the Cabinet in June 2007 to bail-out the four unlawful “Letters of Support” which gave implicit government guarantees issued by the two previous MCA Transport Ministers to the money market for the RM4.6 billion bonds for the PKFZ project.

Both the two previous MCA Transport Ministers had acted unlawfully, as they had no powers to issue financial guarantees committing the government, which could only be issued by the Finance Minister and only after Cabinet approval.

However, the Malaysian Government would have created a major crisis of confidence in the international money market if the Cabinet had not bailed out the two MCA Transport Ministers and given retrospective approval to the four Letters of Support which gave implicit government guarantees to the RM4.6 billion bonds issued by Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB), the PKFZ turnkey contractor, for the PKFZ project.

Can Ong explain why he had deliberately omitted this important fact in his “chronology of events”, which need not have to depend on the outcome of the Pricewaterhouse Cooper audit report? Or is he denying that Cabinet had given such retrospective approval?

I am still waiting for Ong to answer the five questions about the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal which I had posed to him nine months ago, particularly about the history of impropriety in land transactions, illegal issue of Letters of Support, Cabinet bailouts and retrospective ratification of illegal decisions by the two previous MCA Transport Ministers, Tun Liong Liong Sik and Datuk Seri Chong Kong Choy.

Let Ong publicly furnish the answers to the five questions about the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal or there is no need for MCA to help in the Barisan Nasional campaign for the Kuala Terengganu by-election next month.