Thesun 2009-07-16 Page01 Ling Letter Not Guarantee

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No. 4803 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)

Thursday July 16, 2009

TELLING IT AS IT IS

Straight frompg12-13 the heart

by Giam Say Khoon [email protected]

UALA LUMPUR: Former Transport Minister Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik yesterday told Parliament’s Public Accounts 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 PricewaterhouseCoopers (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, received 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

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» It’s raining music pg19

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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 happened years ago. “The interview with him is part

Datuk him amid a task before nds ponders the aining thousa nt co – s xe bo of l fu d om an ro ship ns for citizen fice in of applicatio nce – in his of de si re t en over ok to perman ho w e minister, s ha o, Putrajaya. Th ag s three month the portfolio t to clear the gh ni e th to in been working backlog. report page 2

of our effort to summon all related parties, including all former ministers as well as current Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, who will also appear before the committee tomorrow (today),” he said. Azmi also said other issues raised by the committee included the land purchase and why the bonds for the project were not issued on the gov-

ernment’s guarantee as well as why the project » Full was not developed in phases. “We want to know how the decision was made and by who ... why Finance Ministry officers had not brought the issue to their superiors,” he said, adding that the committee will compile all the interviews into a report to Parliament in October.

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Together in life and in death

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EX-TRANSPORT MINISTER TESTIFIES AT PAC’S HEARING ON PKFZ

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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 climbing on to separate beds to drink the clear liquid containing a fatal dose of barbiturates. Within 10 minutes, 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 circumstances of their own choosing, with the help of the Swiss organisation Dignitas in Zurich.” The reluctant choice of Britain’s finest post-war conductor – who worked his way up from humble beginnings to lead the world’s greatest orchestras, a roll-call of achievements which included taking the baton for the first performance at the newly built Sydney Opera House – was made after his wife of 44 years was diagnosed with terminal secondary cancer in the liver and pancreas earlier this year. In recent times, she had become not only his constant companion,

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