Rosmah centre of jet query

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-j On Nov 18, 2013

Tarani Palani, Fz.com

Minister in the Prime Minister (PM)’s department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim today was grilled over Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s use of VVIP jets reserved for the likes of the Yang Dipertuan Agong (YDPA).

The trip in question was to Qatar for the International Business Women Forum in Doha last week, which was brought up by PKR Vice-President Azmin Ali. The Gombak MP wanted to know specifically how much that trip with the jet cost the government.

This came up while Shahidan was winding up speech for the PM’s department and answering queries brought up by MPs on the maintenance cost of the VVIP jets reserved for certain government and state personnel.

“The Cabinet decided that this (trip to Qatar) was an important and that Rosmah should attend (and can use the jet)…she was representing the country. This was in the interest of the country,” he said.

What transpired next was a 20-minute long argument ranging from whether Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak left the meeting when the decision was made and if Rosmah had the powers to represent Malaysia’s government sentiments and interest in the international platforms.

Azmin, Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin (PAS) and Pokok Sena MP and PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar were the vocal Opposition leaders who put Shahidan on the spot.

Azmin said since the Cabinet decided to allow Rosmah to use the jet, and her husband was the head of Cabinet there was clearly a conflict of interest.

Shahidan however persistently refused to answer the question and merely replied that he could not simply devulge details of a Cabinet meeting as he was “bound by oath when taking office not to reveal government information”.

Hanipa then stood up and argued that there this information was not sensitive and demanded answers.

“Did he leave the meeting? We need to know. We`are merely asking what your PM and my PM did,” he said.

Mahfuz then asked if there was a national law which stated that the PM’s wife could represent the country in inter-government relationships. “This had not happened before,” he said.

Azmin added that in any international events there will be events for the accompanying spouses of state leaders, which was fair for Rosmah to attend but he asked how Rosmah could attend events representing national interests.

The Qatar forum was organised by the Qatari Businesswomens Association and the Interactive Business Network.

In early October, the government, through a written reply had said RM20 million was spent on maintaining the VVIP jet ACJ319. An additional US$25.2 million (RM100 million) was spent from 2010-12 for leasing the jet.