theSun | FRIDAY JULY 17 2009
news without borders
Tee Keat: They’re
ganging up on me
TRANSPORT Minister
Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat
reveals that several forces
had ganged up to try, by all
means, to stop him from
making public the Price-
waterhouseCoopers (PwC)
audit report on Port Klang
Free Zone (PKFZ).
In an interview with
Sin Chew Daily yesterday,
he said the forces included
people involved in the case,
politico-business forces with
connection to these people
and certain quarters within
the ruling coalition.
“The means they have
used to stop me from mak-
ing the report public include
threats on my personal safety
and applying internal pres-
sure,” he said.
Relating his experience
in handling the PKFZ case
since becoming transport
minister last year, Ong, who
is MCA president, said he
came under siege from po-
litico-business forces trying
to block him from making
the report public, as well as
from a Chinese-based oppo-
sition party which resorted
to spreading rumours and
smear against him after the
report was made public.
He said someone had
warned him through “broth-
‘Internet lover should share blame’
THE man police picked up
for questioning over a report
by his “internet lover” that
he had circulated raunchy
pictures of her in cyberspace
admitted he made some
mistakes but said she should
share the blame for what
happened.
Phang Jian Hua, 36, who
has been released on police
bail, claimed the Chinese
woman from Guangzhou,
identified only as 33-year-
old Ah Yen, a widow and
mother of a seven-year-old
briefs
Opium-laced
tribal hats
BANGKOK: Thai police have
arrested a Hmong hill tribe
woman on charges of embroi-
dering opium into handicraft
for export to the US, a media
report said Thursday.
Police on Wednesday
arrested Payia Saesong, 46,
who was caught in the act of
embroidering 710gm of opium
into six tribal hats in her home
in Nan province, 300km north-
west of Bangkok, The Nation
newspaper reported.
Payia, a member of the
Hmong ethnic minority group,
told police it was the first time
she had sewed opium into the
handicraft on the instructions
Press Digest
by Kong See Hoh
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
ers from the underworld”
that, “If you vanish from this
world one day, you know
what had happened”.
Ong stressed he had in-
sisted that PwC be commis-
sioned to carry out an audit
on PKFZ simply because of
the huge sum involved and
also because he did not want
“our children to inherit the
massive debt”.
He admitted the PKFZ
case cost Barisan Nasional
(BN) and MCA dearly in the
general election on March 8
last year.
“Since there’s no way it
can be erased from the mem-
ories of the public by evading
the issue, why not conduct a
thorough investigation and
let the truth be told?”
Ong said the PKFZ issue
had struck the political nerve
of MCA, and politico-busi-
ness forces took the chance
to infiltrate the party, and
even vowed to bring him
down at all costs.
He said that these forces
were trying to convey the
message that the people
girl, had told him she was
single when they met in the
internet chatroom in 2006.
He admitted having
posted pictures of her in sexy
poses on some websites but
not nude pictures as claimed
by her.
He also said he emailed
her some nude pictures of her
which he grabbed on screen
when she bared herself in
front of the webcam.
He denied her claim that
he had doctored the pictures
by superimposing her face
of her husband Tongpor, who
is at large.
But police major general
Kittikhun Khunchum said an
investigation revealed that the
couple had exported opium-
laced hats to their relatives
in the US on several previous
occasions. – dpa
Freemasons held
over sorcery
AUCKLAND: A New Zealand
man spent a “wretched”
night in a Fiji jail after po-
lice raided his Freemasons
meeting when frightened
residents suspected witch-
craft, the New Zealand
Herald reported yesterday.
The man, who did not
wish to be identified,
blamed “dopey village
people” for the raid on the
island of Denerau in which
14 members of the Freema-
sons Lodge of Lautoka were
herded into police cars and
jailed for the night.
œ9
pursuing the case
are worse than those
directly involved in
it; and to project the
moral value that cre-
ating a false sense of
peace and harmony
is far more important than
seeking the truth. Ong said
some people had also con-
veyed the message that what
he was doing was on his own
accord, without the blessings
of either BN or the cabinet,
and so not condoned within
the BN government.
“All that I have done was
done according to proce-
dures. I’m doing this not to
please the powers that be,
and I don’t depend on any
external force to consolidate
my leadership.
“I believe the truth must
be told and a solution be
sought to remove the gloom
hanging over PKFZ.”
The MCA chief said if
what he had done was wrong,
and had left the country in
trouble, or brought shame
to the BN, he was ready to
make way for someone more
capable.
“If what I’m doing is con-
trary to the political culture
of BN or MCA, I can go any
time, and will not have any
regret,” he said.
on nude images.
He explained he emailed
the picture to her after she
ended the relationship to re-
mind her of the promises that
she made, but had no idea
how the pictures were later
circulated in the internet.
Wheelchair-bound Phang
also said Ah Yen had used
harsh words on him includ-
ing calling him a eunuch
after quitting on him because
according to her, he wasn’t
able to satisfy her physically
and materialistically.
Police also seized lodge
paraphernalia, including
wands, compasses and a
skull. – dpa
Quake off Papua
New Guinea
PORT MORESBY: A 6.1-
magnitude earthquake struck
off the coast of Papua New
Guinea’s remote New Ireland
area yesterday, seismologists
said, but there were no im-
mediate reports of casualties
or damage.
The epicentre of the strong
quake, which hit at 6.10am
(2010 GMT Wednesday), was
located 103km south-south-
west of the town of Kavieng,
New Ireland, the US Geological
Survey said. It took place at a
shallow depth of 19km.
There was no tsunami
warning issued.
Papua New Guinea sits
on the so-called Pacific “Ring
of Fire”, where continental
plates meet. – AFP