The top brass at Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) has made some serious allegations against Transport Minister and MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat.

Ong has to clear his name. But it must be emphasised that this should not derail nor stop the ongoing investigations into the multi-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) fiasco, in which KDSB is a central player.

The two issues are clearly related. KDSB CEO Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing and deputy CEO Datuk Faizal Abdullah would not have come out in the open with their allegations if Ong had not supported efforts by the current Port Klang Authority (PKA) Board, led by its chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng, to get to the bottom of the country’s biggest scandal involving taxpayers’ money.

Ong must be given credit and support for doing what he has done. No other Cabinet minister in recent memory has dared to do what he has done, that is, to relentlessly pursue something involving very powerful Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, past and current. At times, it does appear that other government leaders have no interest in supporting what Ong is doing.

Nonetheless, Ong now has no choice but to clear his name because these are serious allegations made against him.

The allegations have cast a dark cloud over Ong. But they have also raised questions about Tiong and Faizal — how money seems to come by so easily for them since they claim to regularly contribute millions of ringgit to people. It would be also good for them to explain how they and their companies accumulate that kind of money to have private jets like the Gulfstream and Learjet that Ong (and which other VIPs?) had used.

Tiong is also Member of Parliament for Bintulu, chairman of the BN Backbenchers Club in Parliament and treasurer of the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party. Faizal is deputy head of the Umno Kapar division in Selangor.

The PKFZ project — as the findings of PriceWaterhouseCoopers Malaysia, Special Task Force reports and the ongoing Public Accounts Committee inquiry have shown — was carried out in a questionable manner.

Action must be taken against the wrong-doers, and we cannot believe that after all that had been unearthed no one did anything wrong. Efforts must also be made to recover money that should not have been paid. Remember, over RM12 billion of taxpayers’ money could go down the tube.