by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, September 4, 1994:
Samy Vellu’s directive for a total check on wiring at the KLIA most appropriate and commendable.
I have never been in greater agreement with the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts,
Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu in my life when he ordered a total check on wiring at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at Subang.
Samy Vellu said yesterday that everytime there was a fire at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the cause given would be ‘short-circuit’.
Samy Vellu said he had directed the Electricity supply Department to inspect the electrical wiring of the KLIA and threatened that “in future, if anybody says short circuit is the cause, we will take over the building immediately, for inspection”.
There had been three fires at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in less than a month since the Subang radar station fire on August 13, and the cause given for the three fires at the radar station, Terminal One Kentucky Fried Chicken toilet and Terminal One money-changer counter had been the same – short-circuit!
This is completely unacceptable as the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik had announced in October 1992 that there would be a complete re-wiring of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport by the end of 1992 involving expenditures of over RM4 million.
Samy Vellu had previously offered to take over and operate the Kuala Lumpur International Airport radar station for the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), and he now directs a full check, of the wiring at the KLIA.
Samy Vellu will definitely do a better job than Liong Sik to restore the credibility and international reputation of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport as a reliable and dependable aviation centre.
The post of DCA Director-General is now described as a ‘hot seat’. Why should the post of DCA Director-General in Malaysia be a ‘hot seat’ when there is no such ‘obsession’ in other countries with bigger and busier international airports like Singapore and Hong Kong?
It is a big shame to the Minister of Transport and the entire public service that things have reached such a sorry state at the DCA and Transport Ministry that it is now seriously pro¬posed that the DCA should seek the help of the Defence Ministry for the secondment of a senior RMAF officer to act as the DCA Director-General.
On this ground alone, Liong Sik should tender his resignation as Transport Minister!