Seberang Perai municipal councillor Satees Muniandy, who lodged the report, said the MCA deputy president’s warning in the statement, published by an online news portal, could have led to Ramasamy’s questioning by the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Satees, in his police report, said Wee’s warning in his opinion piece, published by Malaysiakini on Jan 25, was in the following paragraph:
“Ramasamy should stay out of defending this increasingly serious Penang tunnel scandal if he does not know what he is talking about by only resorting to ‘I don’t think’ excuses and putting himself at risk of getting dragged down with the scandal.”
Satees said with Ramasamy having not been involved in the technical aspects of the tunnel-roads project but being called by MACC anyway, it could be seen as an “abuse of power” by Wee, who is a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
“The warning is serious. An element of abuse of power is apparent as the Prime Minister’s Department is in charge of MACC.
“I am making this report to investigate Wee for abusing his power by threatening the opposition by using MACC. Police must stop MACC from being used by Wee.”
Yesterday, Ramasamy had his statement recorded as a witness in the Penang tunnel-roads probe.
MACC said more than 100 statements had been taken so far as part of its investigations and five people had been arrested to date.
Ramasamy had spoken about the issue of whether a major Chinese construction firm was a shareholder or just the main contractor in the project.
“I don’t think the Penang state secretary said that the CRCC holds equity in the SPV.
“Zenith might be in partnership with three other companies in the SPV, but CRCC is definitely not involved,” Ramasamy had said, referring to the special-purpose vehicle (SPV) company appointed to develop the project.
Wee described Ramasamy’s comment piece as “a joke and is nothing more than a drowning man clutching at straws”.
When asked to comment on the police report lodged against him, Wee told FMT: “This is the biggest Chinese New Year gift from the CAT Penang government. I would like to wish them a (Chinese) happy new year!”
CAT refers to Penang’s often-touted “Competency, Accountability and Transparency” style of state government.