Selangor Speaker in the soup

By NG SI HOOI
sihooi@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Selangor Speaker Teng Chang Khim’s tweet over the sacking of Klang DAP municipal councillor Tee Boon Hock has landed him in hot water.

Teng has been summoned by the DAP disciplinary committee for allegedly undermining the committee’s action.

He is probably the first person in the country to be hauled up for questioning by a political party over a tweet.

Committee chairman Tan Kok Wai said Teng would be asked to explain what he meant when he tweeted “OMG! Real culprit freed” on Saturday night.

Meeting the press: Tan reading a statement at the DAP headquarters in Petaling Jaya Sunday.

The hearing has been fixed for Aug 12.

“The statement is very clear. If he says the real culprit has been freed, it means that the innocent one has been punished.

“This is tantamount to questioning the credibility of the disciplinary committee. It means that the committee has acted unfairly and unprofessionally by prosecuting the innocent,” he told a press conference at the DAP headquarters here yesterday.

Teng sent the tweet after it was announced earlier on Saturday that Tee would be sacked from DAP with immediate effect.

Tee was sacked over allegations that he had misused Selangor exco member Ronnie Liu’s letterhead to secure contracts for his family and cronies.

Tan said as a party leader and chairman of the Selangor Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency, Teng had the responsibility to uphold the good name of the party.

“Teng could provide information to us and name the real culprit,” he said.

When contacted by The Star, Teng declined to comment, but later in the evening he tweeted, “Tweet in shiver, I think my days are numbered.”

Tan said Liu would also be hauled up by the committee on Aug 12, over Tee’s claims that he was fully aware of the recommendation letters to secure contracts.

Tee, during Saturday’s hearing, had claimed that the letters were issued under Liu’s order.

Tan also clarified that Tee was a councillor when he gave a recommendation letter to a company in which his son was a shareholder.

Tee was appointed councillor on July 1, 2008 and the earliest recommendation letter to the company was dated Aug 12, 2008.

He said the committee would also invite 15 contractors, who were given recommendation letters, to testify on Aug 12.

Meanwhile, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng claimed in his tweet yesterday that Teng was the hidden hand in the issue.

“I challenge him to reveal who the real culprit is,” he said when contacted.

Lim had tweeted “The camel cannot see the crookedness of its own neck or simply pot calling kettle black,” in reply to Teng’s “OMG” tweet.