SINCE taking my seat in the Senate, I have had an opportunity to observe the deputy education minister. I have been enormously impressed by his professional approach and attitude to his ministerial duty. He has struck me as a liberal, and I was, therefore, taken by surprise to read that he “had contacted the Bernama TV producer and the programme host of the ‘live’ show (Jan 8) to say that he will also take legal action against them.” And all this in an obvious attempt to muzzle  anti-corruption advocate Tan Sri Robert Phang from exercising his citizen’s right to fair and responsible comment on the PKFZ affair, a subject of great public interest.

The live talk show was stopped dead in its tracks well before time.

Not content with using his position to influence the government-linked TV channel, he again sought to silence dissenting views by obtaining a court order to force the proceedings of a press conference called by Phang to be halted in mid-sentence. 

Wee Ka Siong has every right to sue, but he must first listen to what his critics have to say. His actions in these two instances have invited questions about the cause of his behaviour.

The PKFZ scandal has rocked this nation, and as he himself has admitted, “his former consultancy firm, Hijau Sekitar Sdn Bhd was engaged by Wijaya Baru Sdn Bhd to produce a feasibility study of port expansion in Port Klang.” Phang’s suggestion that given Wee’s familiarity with the project through his firm’s participation in the early stages puts him in a useful position to come forward as an important witness in the inquiry into the affair. We should welcome this helpful suggestion because we all have a positive role to play in the fight against corruption.

We live in a society aspiring to democratic principles and behaviour in public life. Let us lead by example.

Source: The Sun – January 27, 2010