Sarawak Pakatan says ‘no’ to Riot joining them

KUCHING: Sarawak Pakatan Harapan will not accept Serian MP Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem into its fold amid rumours that the former Human Resources Minister is looking to join PKR.

State Pakatan chairman Chong Chieng Jen has advised fellow coalition partners PKR and Amanah against accepting “individuals with tainted records”.

This is in light of the RM40mil misappropriation of funds scandal that saw the arrest of several individuals, including Riot’s political secretary Datuk Peter Runin last September to assist in investigations.

Riot also endured questioning by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commis­sion (MACC) officers for nearly 10 hours to facilitate investigations into the missing funds allocated to the Skills Development Fund Corporation under the ministry.

Chong Chieng Jen

“Riot is not an appropriate person to be accepted into Pakatan Harapan, especially considering that his political secretary was investigated over a RM40mil corruption scandal. I would refrain from jumping to conclusions that he (Riot) was involved but as the boss of his political secretary, he would be under a lot of suspicion.

“Either he was a part of it, or at the very least, he was totally incompetent or negligent for allowing the political secretary to run away with RM40mil.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know what happened, especially when your department had RM40mil missing?” Chong said yesterday.

The Stampin MP said Riot should undergo stringent vetting by MACC before any acceptance to join Pakatan.

“We owe it to our voters who chose us based on our integrity and the desire to see that a clean government is formed. We don’t want to go off course at the beginning of this political change,” he continued.

Chong, who is also state DAP chairman, said the party will reject any application from Riot to join it.

Riot was not implicated over the missing RM40mil scandal and the arrested individuals were released on MACC bail.