Selangor Mentri Besar asked to explain clearly what he meant when he said yesterday that the government was not aware of the fireworks factory in Sungai Buloh

by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary- General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Thursday, May 9, 1991:

Selangor Mentri Besar asked to explain clearly what he meant when he said yesterday that the government was not aware of the fireworks factory in Sungai Buloh.

I am astounded to read in the press today of a statement by the Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Muhammed Haji Muhammad Taib, after chairing the Selangor State Executive Council meeting yesterday that the State Government ‘was not aware of such a factory in Sungai Buloh’ when referring to the Sungai Buloh fireworks factory explosion disaster causing 100 dead or injured and destruction of numerous houses in Sungai Buloh new village.

Tan Sri Muhammed should explain clearly what he meant when he said that the State Government was not aware of The Bright Sparklers Sdn. Bhd. fireworks factory in Sungai Buloh.

To say that Sungai Buloh fireworks factory is illegal and unlicensed is a very different thing from saying that the Selangor State Government was not aware of its existence.

If the Sungai Buloh fireworks factory is illegal and unlicensed, but is still allowed to operate for 17 years despite repeated fires, deaths and public protests by the Sungai Buloh new villagers, then the Selangor State Government must bear its full share of responsibility for Tuesdays’ fireworks factory explosion disaster, causing 100 dead or injured, or destruction of numerous houses in the new village.

If the Selangor State Government had not been aware of the Sungai Buloh fireworks factory in the last 17 years, then the Selangor State Government cannot be blamed whatsoever.

Is the Selangor Mentri Besar suggesting the latter – that the Selangor State Government never knew anything about the existence of the Sungai Buloh fireworks factory?

In the Malacca water shortage crisis, the Malacca Chief Minister, Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Cik, claimed that he never knew anything about the water shortage until there was no more water in the Durian Tunggal dam. Is the Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Muhammad resorting to the same excuse and claiming that he and the Selangor State Government never knew anything about the Sungai Buloh fireworks factory until the explosions and the disaster on Tuesday?