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EX-TRANSPORT
MINISTER TESTIFIES
AT PAC’S HEARING
ON PKFZ
by Giam Say Khoon
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
UALA LUMPUR: Former
K
Transport Minister Tun Dr
Ling Liong Sik yesterday
told Parliament’s Public Ac-
counts Committee that the first and
only letter of support he issued for
the controversial Port Klang Free
Zone project was not a government
guarantee.
The letter was probably the most
important document to come under
scrutiny during a three-hour inquiry
by the PAC on the RM4.9 billion
project, which reportedly benefited
from three other similar letters issued
by Ling’s successor Tan Sri Chan
Kong Choy who is scheduled to be
summoned next week.
Ling, who was the longest serving
MCA president, is the first former
minister to appear before the PAC
on the PKFZ issue, on which an
independent audit report by Pricewa-
terhouseCoopers (PwC) was made
public recently.
After the hearing, PAC chairman
Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said that
Ling told them he signed the letter
of support issued on May 23, 2003,
under the suggestion of the ministry’s
secretary-general and advice from
legal experts.
“It is not a letter of guarantee and
it has no financial implication on the
government,” he said.
Ling waved to reporters when he
arrived for the inquiry, but evaded
the press when he left.
The PKFZ project, one the Port
Klang Authority could ill afford, re-
ceived a RM4.6 billion government
soft loan. It was done in one go,
instead of in phases, and there is not
enough business generated for the
project to pay for itself.
It has been reported that Chan
issued letters of support on April 23,
2004, Dec 8, 2005 and May 23, 2006.
He had also denied that they were
government guarantees, although
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations (Malaysia)
» Mohd Khir suspended for one year pg3
Ling: Letter
not guarantee
detractors have argued that the
wording seemed to suggest so.
Azmi said Ling was involved in
only the initial part of the project and
not in the implementation stage. He
said Ling was cooperative and gave
his side of the story on the project and
how the 405ha site (in Pulau Indah)
was identified.
“We had posed a few questions
regarding the decisions he made. He
answered all except for some that he
had forgotten as the incident hap-
pened years ago.
“The interview with him is part
2009 AWARDS
Award winning newspaper
for excellence in
investigative reporting
No. 4803 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)
Thursday
July 16, 2009
TELLING IT AS IT IS www.sun2surf.com
» It’s raining music pg19 Entertainment
Together in
life and
in death
LONDON: Inseparable in life and
in death, that was what celebrated
British conductor Sir Edward and
Lady Downes epitomised.
It was, said their family, a very
civilised way to die. The couple,
a shared lifetime of personal and
professional triumphs behind
them, held hands for their final
moments together before climb-
ing on to separate beds to drink the
clear liquid containing a fatal dose
of barbiturates. Within 10 minutes,
SHAHRIL AMIN/THESUN
watched by their weeping family,
they were dead.
The decision of one of Britain’s
greatest conductors and his wife
(photo on page 2) to end their own
lives in a manner, time and place of
their choosing has re-ignited the
debate over assisted suicide in
Britain. On Monday, as their children
were interviewed by Metropolitan
Police officers over their role in
facilitating their parents’ death,
the extraordinary finale to the life
of Edward, 85, and Joan Downes,
74, began to emerge.
News of their suicide on Friday
was released in a statement by
their son Caractacus and daughter
Boudicca. It said: “After 54 happy
years together, they (our parents)
decided to end their own lives
rather than continue to struggle
with serious health problems. They
died peacefully, and under circum-
in ...udHodinmHu
BoxSeeridHish
e Minister
ssein
stances of their own choosing, with
amm the help of the Swiss organisation
Datuk him amid a
task before nds Dignitas in Zurich.”
ponders the co ntaining thousa
fu l of bo xe s –
d
The reluctant choice of Britain’s
ro om ship an
ns for citizen finest post-war conductor – who
of our effort to of applicatio nce – in his of
fice in
en t re side over ernment’s worked his way up from humble
perman w ho to ok
summon all e minister, guarantee beginnings to lead the world’s
Putrajaya. Th s ag o, ha s
related parties, three month as well as greatest orchestras, a roll-call
including all the portfolio
to the nigh t to clear the why the of achievements which included
in
been working
former ministers project taking the baton for the first per-
backlog. report page 2
as well as cur- » Full was not formance at the newly built Sydney
rent Transport developed Opera House – was made after his
Minister Datuk in phases. wife of 44 years was diagnosed
Seri Ong Tee Keat, “We want to know how with terminal secondary cancer in
who will also appear before the com- the decision was made and by who ... the liver and pancreas earlier this
mittee tomorrow (today),” he said. why Finance Ministry officers had not year.
Azmi also said other issues raised brought the issue to their superiors,” In recent times, she had become
by the committee included the land he said, adding that the committee not only his constant companion,
purchase and why the bonds for the will compile all the interviews into a
project were not issued on the gov- report to Parliament in October. » Turn to Page 2