Ngeh refutes land scandal raised in state assembly

CLAIMS that a plot of land in Kelantan was given by PAS to DAP as an exchange for the Perak Mentri Besar post was brushed aside by DAP yesterday.

Ngeh Koo Ham (DAP-Sitiawan) revealed the original sales and purchase agreement of the land that was dated May 3, 2006.

“This shows that the transaction between Yayasan Islam Kelantan and Upaya Padu Plantations Sdn Bhd was conducted even before Pakatan Rakyat was in power in 2008.

“Therefore claims that the land was given to us by PAS in exchange for a Mentri Besar position is slander.

“As a lawyer maintaining my professional ethics, I could only reveal that the group of investors, who were also my clients, only purchased the company this year.

“It is only a personal transaction and a private sector investment into the state,” he said in a press conference.

Ngeh added that there were plans to file a defamation suit against the blogger pisau.net who published the letter and made the claims.

The matter was raised in the assembly on Wednesday and both Barisan Nasional and DAP assemblymen traded verbal blows.

The main players in the shouting match were Datuk Hamidah Osman (BN-Sungai Rapat) and Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Pantai Remis).

The fury started after Nga accused the state government of awarding a project to refurbish the Casuarina Inn in Taiping to its supporter.

Hamidah stood up to remind the House on the issue of a lounge suit sewing contract that was allegedly given to a company belonging to Nga’s wife during the brief rule of the DAP-PKR-PAS pact in Perak after the 2008 general election.

She also accused Nga and his cousin, Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham (DAP-Sitiawan), of getting land from the Kelantan government.

Debating on the state’s 2013 budget, Nga had earlier said several buildings in Perak — including the 100-year-old Casuarina Inn building and the Rest House in Taiping — were in a dilapidated condition.

“The Rest House, a heritage building, is now a drug addicts’ den,” he said, suggesting an open tender to refurbish the place.

He argued that although the state tourism committee had spent RM18mil for the Visit Perak Year 2012 campaign, the state’s infrastructure and facilities for tourists in many places were still found wanting.

This included the Maxwell Hill cable car project as well as the hill resort’s accommodation structures, tulip and tea gardens.

Hamidah explained that the cable car project was still being discussed with the developer and that the project had met with a financial predicament.

In a press conference Hamidah challenged Ngeh and Nga to deny that they are directors of a company alleged to have received bribe from the Kelantan Government.

“In Ngeh’s police report, he did not deny that he was one of the said company’s director,” urging Ngeh to reveal the amount paid for the land.

During the press conference, media members got hold of a Companies Commission of Malaysia statement showing that Ngeh and Nga, including three others, were directors of a company called Upayapadu Plantation Sdn Bhd.

The statement also noted that its business nature was “engaged in cultivating of timber and its related activities.”

State Opposition leader Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin had also come under fire for tweeting over an alleged land scandal instead of bringing up the issue in the assembly.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir in a press conference, denied the tweet, adding that Mohamad Nizar’s allegation was unfounded.

He was responding to Nizar’s tweet on Tuesday which read, “YB Dato Ngeh is now exposing 14,164ha of land scandal given by Zambry and his exco to just one company Rahman Hydraulic.”

Dr Zambry said there were plans to provide land, but not only to Rahman Hydraulic, which was a 100-year-old company.