KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22- Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed today lashed out at the ruling government for inaction over the issue of sand-smuggling throughout the country.
Dr Mahathir claims that this practice has been going on for some time but corrupt officials have managed to keep a close lid on the matter.
“I read in the papers about the Works Minister saying 500 lorries delivering sand to Singapore. No one has said anything on that, seems like they are ‘agreeing’ to it. Well I know it is not 500, it is actually 700 lorries,” he said to reporters during a press conference.
“If I didn’t draw people’s attention to this issue, no one would speak up, they all are too busy worried about whether they would get their Datukship,” quipped Dr Mahathir.
The elderly statesmen maintained the validity of his facts, saying that the main sources were the Works Minister (Datuk Shaziman Mansor) as well as a “friend”, whose identity he declined to reveal as he did not want to get his friend “into trouble”.
He claimed that Malaysia was being sold bit by bit to foreigners, citing the sand-smuggling issue as an example.
“What these people are doing is selling a little bit of Malaysia at one time, dig, keep digging Malaysia and give her to other people.”
When asked to comment on the recent arrests made by the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Crimes Commission) where 38 suspects were arrested for sand smuggling, Dr Mahathir expressed his relief that action had finally been taken.
“I’m glad ... I have seen so many places where people are digging sand and no action is taken, particularly in Langkawi.
“People were digging sand near the airport, so I told the MB (Mentri Besar) that doing so was going to affect the airport roads.”
According to him, these illegal activities were under the supervision of a “powerful individual.”
“I was told this man was a very powerful man. I don’t care whether he is powerful, you dig sand near the airport you are going to damage the airport.
“They must have some reasons for allowing this chap to dig sand. The government never takes actions,” lamented Dr Mahathir.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday arrested four more people, all of them government officers, and raised to 38 the number of people detained over the theft and smuggling of sand by a syndicate.
It is believed that three of them were caught in Pahang and one in Johor.
The MACC said 20 of the 38 people had been remanded for between four and seven days while the rest had been released on MACC bond after their statements were recorded.
The Kajang Magistrate’s Court had remanded nine of the suspects for five days from yesterday to assist in the MACC investigation.
Among the ones arrested was a senior aide to a PKR politician in the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat state government.
Hussein Ahmad, the executive secretary to Selangor Agriculture, Natural Resources and Entrepreneural Development Committee chairman Yaakob Sapari was detained at his office in Shah Alam, during the start of the crackdown by Malaysian graft-busters.
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