By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 30th April 1993:
Will the report into the second Subang International Airport Control Tower Fire last October only be ready after a third Subang International Airport fire?
Yesterday, the Deputy Transport Minister, Datin Paduka Zaleha Ismail, in answer to my question in Parliament, said that the report into the second Subang International Airport fire last October – the control tower fire – is in the final stages of preparation.
It is most shocking that the inquiry and report into the second Subang International Airport fire is still not ready after more than six months had passed. This is another example of the abysmal Ministerial indifference of the Transport Minister, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, although his Ministry is already leading all other Ministries in having the largest quota of Ministry scandals.
Liong Sik should explain whether the report into the second Subang International Airport fire would be ready after a third Subang Airport fir – just as the report into the first Subang Airport fire last April was only ready after the second Subang International Airport fire in October!
Liong Sik should also explain why he had failed to comply with the Cabinet directive that the report into the Subang International Airport control tower fire should be completed in a two-week time frame “without any postponement or delay”?
When the Deputy Prime Minister, Ghafar Baba, visited the Subang International Airport on the third day of the control tower fire on October 17 last year, he announced that the Cabinet wanted the report into the second Subang International Airport fire to be submitted as soon as possible.
He stressed:”We want the report to be submitted to us within a week or two and there is no such thing as a postponement or delay.”
The Malaysian public were very impressed at the time by the Cabinet’s seriousness and sense of urgency, but now, it would appear that “as soon as possible” does not mean “in a week or two” but “in a year or two” – and “no postponement or delay” has a special meaning for Cabinet Ministers not known to the ordinary people.