I had never used an AP to import car and I reserve the right to legal action for the defamatory statement that I have “sold AP for importing cars”

Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  

(Parliament, Wednesday): I  had never  used an AP (Approved Permit) to import car and I reserve the right to legal action for the defamatory statement that I have “sold AP for importing cars”.

Malaysian Democratic Party secretary-general Wee Choo Keong’s report with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) that I have “sold AP for importing cars” is a lie.

I have never used an AP to import car and I reserve the right to legal action for the  making and spreading of the defamatory statement.

Wee  has proved that he is not only a political joker but also a  political desperado who has no compunction in lodging an ACA report accusing me of AP corruption, when I had never used an AP to import car or any item.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said yesterday that  those who are spreading lies and wild allegations through the short messaging service (SMS) should be stopped as it does not bring any good at all. I fully agree and endorse Abdullah’s sentiments.  I wish to add that  the making and  spreading of lies and wild allegations through ACA report as perpetrated by Wee yesterday  is equally reprehensible and should also be stopped.

A MP who used an AP discloses no offence of corruption.  From January 2000 till 31^st May 2005, 4,393 individual APs were issued,  including to  the Yang di Pertuan Agong, Sultans, State governors, the Prime Minister, Members of Parliament, members of the Royal Australian Air Force,  members of foreign embassies, participants of Malaysia My Second Home Program under the Ministry of Tourism and  Malaysian citizens who worked or studied abroad.

In view of Wee’s utter lack of scruples in lodging an ACA report based on a lie, I will henceforth not entertain any exchange with him, his party or “comrades-at-arms”.

I will not add another word on this sordid episode, especially as I do not want to be distracted from the  issue of APs, the national automotive policy, the larger question of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance, not to mention the great issues facing the country, such as the haze,  the spiraling inflation, the higher education crisis, UMNO Youth’s demand for the revival of the New Economic Policy, etc.

The Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Paduka Rafidah Aziz, is finally attending the Cabinet today to explain the multitudinous questions that have surfaced in the long-running AP saga.

Apart from the questions of accountability and transparency on the issuance of Open and Franchise APs in the past 35 years since 1970, she should also give full and satisfactory explanation on the basis of the issuance of the third category of individual APs which average a thousand a year.

In December 1996, the then Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, told the Senate that MPs were not provided with individual APs.

However, in 1997, MPs were offered an AP each.  Was this the decision of the Cabinet or the sole decision of Datuk Paduka Rafidah Aziz as Minister for International Trade and Industry and what was the reason for the decision to extend the individual APs to MPs.

(10/08/2005)