Najib: Penang tunnel probe gone quiet because of DAP?

(FMT) – Najib Razak today claimed that the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission are keeping silent about documents allegedly linked to an investigation into the Penang undersea tunnel project because it would implicate DAP leaders.

In March, MACC lodged a police report after political blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin wrote an expose that he claimed to be based on documents leaked from the tunnel project, which is part of a RM40 billion Penang transport plan.

In his blog posts, Raja Petra had implicated DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who was Penang chief minister at the time the project was initiated, and several state executive councillors, including Chow Kon Yeow (the current chief minister) and Abdul Malik Abul Kassim and Lim Hock Seng (now no longer member of the executive council)

Najib said MCA president Wee Ka Siong had been pressing the MACC to confirm the authenticity of the leaked documents, and had written to former Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun asking about the matter

Wee did not get any replies, Najib said, and had written to Fuzi’s successor, Abdul Hamid Bador, as well as Latheefa Koya, who replaced Mohd Shukri Abdull as MACC chief commissioner in June.

Again, no answers were forthcoming on whether the report lodged was about the authenticity of the leaked document or about the leak itself, Najib said.

He wondered why it was so difficult to get the two agencies to reply.

“This is because, if it is confirmed that the police report lodged by the MACC was about the leak and not about the authenticity, it would confirm that the senior DAP leaders were involved in graft, including the promise of a 10% stake in the project,” Najib wrote in a Facebook posting.

“The Pakatan Harapan government does not want to comment about the leak, do not want to debate the matter, confirm the report, neither do they want a probe by the Public Accounts Committee or for it to be discussed in parliament,” he said.

The 7.2km undersea tunnel is part of a RM6.3 billion project that also includes three paired roads. The projects are part of the RM46 billion Penang transport master plan which calls for the creation of three artificial islands off the south coast of Penang island.