By Shannon Teoh
KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — After trading barbs with the transport minister over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, Lim Kit Siang has filed a motion to refer Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat to the Privileges Committee.
But DAP's parliamentary leader also wants the MCA president to reciprocate with a similar motion if he is serious about his accusation that Lim had feigned ignorance of a Cabinet decision to purchase 1,000 acres of land earmarked for the industrial zone at RM25 per square foot (psf).
"As Ong has also accused me of misleading Parliament... has he submitted a motion to refer me to the Privileges Committee? Shall we ask the Speaker to give these motions top priority so they are debated together next Monday?" he said.
This would of course pit the two rivals together in an open debate, which Lim has been unable to engage Ong in since a report on the project's overspending was made public last month.
Lim accused the transport minister of misleading Parliament in his ministerial statement on Monday over the project which has ballooned from RM2 billion to a potential RM12.5 billion outlay.
According to the DAP stalwart, Ong had referred to an Oct 2, 2002 decision which approved the purchase value in his ministerial statement but ignored an Oct 23, 2002 Cabinet accord to only pay RM10 psf.
However, Ong hit back at Lim, stating that the Ipoh Timur MP knew that on Nov 6, 2002, the Cabinet decided to revert to RM25.
Ong pointed out that Lim had published an excerpt from the Hansard of a Sept 4, 2007 debate where Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Awang Adek Hussin told Lim about the Nov 6 decision.
When quizzed by reporters, Lim insisted that he could not bring up the Nov 6 decision as he was not allowed to continue his request for clarification on Monday.
He claimed that he had in fact wanted Ong to reveal details of all Cabinet meetings regarding PKFZ.
Lim said that Ong's claim was ridiculous as "this is the first time a minister has criticised a member of the opposition for not revealing Cabinet decisions."
He also shot a warning to Ong that there would be public protests should the full report with appendices on PKFZ not be distributed to MPs by Monday.
Ong had stated that 300 copies of the report had already been handed to the Parliament secretary but they have so far not been passed on to the lawmakers.
"Is he so useless and powerless as transport minister? If Ong writes officially to the Parliament secretary, he would comply and the report would be on the table of all MPs the next morning," Lim said.
Lim added that Ong instead wanted the present scenario to continue, where MPs will only be given the report along with the findings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which he said "nobody expects until the Parliament sitting from Oct 19 to Dec 15."
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