PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli apologised to Pico Integrated Exhibit Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Raslan Dahlan today, after accusing the latter getting a contract by virtue of being Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan's brother.
Rafizi had said that Rahman had awarded Raslan the contract to organise Expo Negaraku, an exposition on Putrajaya's achievements.
"I apologise to Raslan (Dahlan), but not Rahman Dahlan.
"Rahman is the one who owes an apology to the rakyat because he does not do his job; the price of things are going up but he's busy organising Expo Negaraku.
"To Raslan Dahlan, (CEO of) Pico Integrated, I am sorry," the Pandan MP told a press conference at his NGO Invoke's office in Sungai Besi this afternoon.
Yesterday, Rafizi uploaded a blog post claiming that Rahman, who is in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and oversaw the organising of Expo Negaraku, awarded the contract to his brother Raslan.
This was quickly pointed out as a lie by Rahman, who threatened to sue "serial liar" Rafizi over the allegations. The minister also urged the opposition to gag Rafizi.
The blog post and an FB live session on the matter were also "killed," but not before earning the wrath of pro-BN netizens.
Elaborating on the slip-up today, Rafizi said he is willing to face a possible lawsuit from Rahman, adding that he was merely asking a question to the minister, and not making an allegation.
"It's his wish, why does he want to sue? If he thinks that my question yesterday on whether Raslan Dahlan was his brother, as told to me by an informant in the EPU, is slander, go on and sue.
"I have already won my last case, which set a precedent in Malaysian law, which said that if reasonable questions were asked to initiate any probe, they are not considered slander.
"In this case, I asked him, is it true that as per information from within EPU, Raslan Dahlan was his brother. That's not slander. If he (Rahman) can't answer a question like that, he does not need to be a minister."
'How much did it cost?'
Rafizi later questioned the cost involved in organising the expo, which is being held from Nov 15 to Dec 15 at the Dataran Merdeka to showcase Putrajaya's achievements.
He said that checks on the EPU's website did not return any records on the costs incurred by the government to organise the expo.
"Based on multiple searches in the website, there are no records on the organisation of the expo, nor are there on the appointment of Pico Integrated having gone through a tender process or direct negotiations," he said.
Rafizi then urged Rahman to reveal which government agency will foot the bill for the expo, which he estimated to be around RM34 million.
"The organising of the Expo Negaraku is a bid by Rahman to distract the rakyat's attention from the wastage of funds plaguing the country, while it is the rakyat themselves who have to tighten their belts.
"How much was spent on this expo, who is paying for it, as there are no records of it in the ministry level," he said, adding that Rahman hardly did his task of being the minister in charge of the economy, but put in more effort to apple-polish Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Meanwhile, Rahman told the Dewan Negara this morning that the Expo Negaraku cost RM37 million to organise.
He said it was a "fair" amount, given the location and the duration of the programme.
Rahman compared the expo to the six-month-long Expo Milano, organised by the Italian government in 2015, which cost RM21 million (upon conversion into ringgit).
He said the contents and the items displayed in Expo Negaraku was four-times more than the Italian one. Malaysia attended the Italian expo, which went on from May 1 to Oct 30, 2015, and was attended by 2.4 million people.
"The RM37 million spent on Expo Negaraku is only 0.08 percent of the RM46 billion of funds managed by the EPU," he said.
When met at the PKR headquarters today, party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail came to Rafizi's defence.
"We all make mistakes, but he admitted (the mistakes) and that's important. He said it, admitted it and withdrew it," she said.
Wan Azizah, however, added that the matter would not have any impact on PKR and Pakatan Harapan.- Mkini
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