Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tee Keat calls DAP rep’s demand for an apology a ‘joke’

By Boo Su-Lyn

September 06, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Pandan MP Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat has dismissed as a “great joke” Teratai assemblyman Jenice Lee’s demand for an apology from him over fund-raising for a Chinese school in Pandan Perdana.



Lee threatened last week to sue Ong if he failed to publicly apologise for allegedly defaming her over accusations that she had abused public funds for a campaign since 2007 to build a Chinese primary school in Pandan Perdana, which has yet to materialise.



“It will be a great joke if I were to apologise simply because I wrote in my blog that I received such a complaint of alleged abuse of public funds against her from the local community,” Ong (picture) told The Malaysian Insider in an SMS today.



He said the DAP lawmaker's refusal to make a public account of the donations she had collected since 2007 was an “acid test” of her integrity and commitment to transparency.



“She is answerable to the community leaders who lodged police and MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) reports against her. She should show her accounts to the investigators, not me,” said Ong.



Lee challenged Ong last week to visit her and peruse the accounts of the party campaign from July to December 2007, following his allegations on his blog entry dated August 31 that she had been abusing public funds by collecting donations for a non-existent school.



Ong had said that his service centre recently received complaints from local residents who claimed they had donated to the DAP by buying hand-held fans bearing Lee’s portrait in support of a school-building project on a plot of land known as a “green lung” of Pandan Perdana.



Lee has maintained that she does not need to be accountable to the public over their donations for the party campaign despite the allegations of corruption. Selangor DAP chief Ean Yong Hian Wah also claimed no knowledge of her donation drive.



Angry Pandan area residents’ association representatives reportedly highlighted Lee’s alleged misdeeds to the MACC.



She has refuted the accusations and insisted that the donations she had collected since 2007 were for the party to campaign for the school, not to construct it.



She has also disputed reports that she had sold some 10,000 fans, claiming instead that she had only ordered 2,000 fans and raised RM4,773.50 in sales. Campaign expenses however amounted to RM6,173, causing a deficit of RM1,399.50.



Lee claimed that Ong had falsely accused her of failing to file an application for land conversion in connection with the school project.



She pointed out that she visited the site intended for the school in Pandan Perdana on August 31 with Selangor executive councillor Ronnie Liu, Hulu Langat district officer Zainal Abidin A’ala and Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) deputy president Abd Hamid Hussain.



But she admitted that the Education Ministry has yet to approve her application filed in 2008 for the school project.



“She owes the people and her own party a clear and convincing explanation,” said Ong.

No comments:

Post a Comment