Let’s Revisit DAP’s Mega Tunnel Scandal
Aathi Shankar
Comment
Perikatan Nasional federal government should expose the RM6.3 billion mega Penang tunnel and its related RM30 billion property development project mega scandals, and haul the perpetrators to court.
This is the expectations of millions of Malaysians.
Many have expressed hope that the newly appointed Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki and Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun will not swept the DAP mega scandals under the carpet.
Under the previous ill-fated Pakatan Harapan government, the details on the investigation into the tunnel scandal were never revealed, thus no one was charged. Cover-up? Abuse of power?
It has been alleged that several politicians, mainly from DAP, had received monetary bribes from the tunnel main contractor, Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZC).
The alleged corrupt misconduct was also linked with 2 land swaps done as payment for the feasibility study for the tunnel project.
When he was then the MACC Deputy Chief Commissioner in charge of Operations, Azam Baki revealed that the investigating team had gone to 42 locations in Penang and the Klang Valley and questioned more than 76 witnesses.
MACC has said that it had 6 investigation papers (IPs) mega scandal.
The MACC 1st IP was opened in July 2017 and the subsequent five IPs in January last year 2019.
Five completed IPs were referred to the deputy public prosecutor (DPP).
Three of the papers had been returned to the commission for further investigation, while another two are still being studied by the DPP,, until today!
The remaining one paper is still being studied by the anti-graft body.
In early 2019, Malaysia Today online political portal published the alleged IPs.
Subsequently the MACC lodged a police report over the leak.
The leaked MACC IPs into the DAP mega scandal were mainly recorded statements by CZC managing director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli.
His statements implicated mainly DAP leaders at helm of Pakatan Harapan’s Penang government then.
Former Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng was the Penang Chief Minister then.
The leaked IPs in Malaysia Today alleged that several Penang government executive councillors had received kickbacks from Zarul Ahmad, who however had refuted the claims.
He claimed that Malaysia Today posts were pure fiction and clearly concocted to deceive and defame him, his company and the Penang government.
Zarul Ahmad was remanded for 11 days by the MACC “for what was billed as an extensive investigation into the project”.
“Besides me, my entire company was called for questioning, spending a total of 40 days in and out of the MACC office, cooperating with every single aspect that was being investigated. This includes close scrutiny of our accounts,” he said last year.
Zarul Ahmad said the MACC had even hired external consultants to see if the company was fair in its pricing.
“May I remind all sceptics out there that this case was investigated and completed way before the change of government had taken place,” he claimed.
According to the leaked IPs, Zarul paid a bribe of RM22 million to close the MACC investigation and to get the investigation file marked NFA (no further action).
This is a fact because the alleged ‘bribe agent’ G.Gnanaraja is now facing trial.
The 7.2km undersea tunnel is part of a proposed integrated infrastructure project which includes three highways, and is slated to begin construction after the completion of the first two highways.
The three highways comprised the 10.53km north coastal paired road from Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang; the 5.7km paired road from Air Itam to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway bypass; and the 4.08km paired road from Gurney Drive to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway bypass.
The mega development project has long been a subject of controversy, especially over the high cost of its RM305 million feasibility studies and the prolonged delay in its completion.
Recently former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the new Perikatan government only had to confirm the authenticity of the leaked IPs.
“From the time the papers were leaked until their government collapsed, Pakatan has never once denied, inside or outside the Dewan Rakyat, about the authenticity of the investigation papers. Not once,” he said.
Penang MIC chairman Datuk M. Nyanasegaran has also called on the police to publicly reveal the outcome of the investigations into the authenticity of the leaked IPs.
“People are eager to know the outcome of police investigations. It’s a major public interest case,” he said
It has been several years since the DAP’s mega Penang tunnel scandal broke out.
But until today neither the MACC nor the AG Chambers had given a public statement to provide any clarity on the status of the mega scandal.
The people want to know and they have every right to know.
Malaysians hope that the DAP’s mega tunnel scandal would not be swept under the carpet like the bungalow scandal that implicated Guan Eng.
Guan Eng allegedly purchased a bungalow property located in Jalan Pinhorn, George Town City, below the market price from a person who had business ties with his state government then.
Former AG Tommy Thomas however, withdrew the bungalow case, which was pending in court, almost immediately after he assumed office in 2018.
DAP’s mega Penang tunnel scandal is the biggest daylight robbery in the country since the multi billion forex scandal that happened nearly 3 decades ago under former 4th Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad’s watch.
