I refer to the Malaysiakini report Dr M poser on Scomi-RapidKL bus deal .

On Aug 7, 2006, in an arranged interview on TV3 with Bernama chairman Annuar Zaini, the premier said this:

Q: You are known as Mr Clean and Mr Nice Guy. Sometimes that intention is disrupted because of business interests. Besides KJ (Khairy Jamaluddin, his son-in-law), your son, Kamaluddin, is also in business and has he misused or taken advantage of his relationship with you to excel in his business?

A: Kamal has never used his relationship with me to advance in business. His business is in a field which only has two companies in the world. Of the two integrated oil companies, one is in the US and the other is his. He is not involved in many other companies and he operates overseas. Sometimes people ask, why is he overseas?

He tells them that since his father has become the Prime Minister, it is difficult for him to make a living here. That is why he opted to do it overseas. Eighty percent of his contracts are from overseas and that is where he gets his rezeki (sustenance).

Petronas usually participates in international open tenders. Any tender he gets is too small compared to what he gets overseas and he also has to compete for the tenders with other companies.

He usually gets tenders from companies like Shell and Esso because it is related with oil and gas. He has never asked for help from the government. There is also no bail out. None.

Q: In your capacity as the finance minister, has his company obtained government tenders?

A: No, not at all. To my knowledge, he has not received any.. He does not manage the business and is only the major shareholder and had made a move to buy a Singapore company with 188 ships to transport coal.

Q: Some say that the Penang monorail is reserved for Kamal. Is that true?

A: Siapa cakap? (Who says?) I tell you, it is hard to be nice.

That was on Monday, Aug 7, 2006. Nine days later (August15, 2006) there was this letter which said:

‘In March 2006, The Malay Mail reported that KTM had in 2005 awarded a five-year RM50

million contract to Scomi Group (Kamaluddin’s company) ‘to overhaul and maintain’ as many as 1,000 wagons. Also in March, Business Times reported that Scomi Group was going to submit a

bid for a RM120 million contract ‘to make body parts for about 400 buses for the state-owned Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd’.

‘Then in April, The Edge reported that Scomi Engineering Bhd is acquiring a 51% stake in MTrans Transportation Systems Sdn Bhd for RM30 million to provide it a platform to be a key player in urban transportation.

‘Scomi Engineering had on April 28 signed an agreement with Kiara Kilau Sdn Bhd, which owns 100% stake in MTrans, to acquire the 51% stake. MTrans owns bus manufacturer MTRans Bus Sdn Bhd and MTRans Technology Bhd, which specialises in monorail systems and technology. This is, of course, for the Penang monorail project.

‘So the five-time hike in petroleum prices over the last year on the pretext of improving public transportation is certainly benefiting some parties - your son's Scomi Engineering, to be specific.

‘What have you done to improve the public transportation in Kuala Lumpur since then? The LRT is still madly congested and the city buses are still breaking down in the middle of already congested roads.

‘The pieces fall into place nicely…’, the writer wrote possibly fully aware the end of the story was still a long way from where he was looking.

Scomi, the flagship of the premier’s son, after taking over M-Trans Sdn Bhd, which is the bus and monorail builder, has now been supplying the GLC, Rapid KL, with new buses, some it built itself in the M-Trans yard and others it bought from China, which must be pretty convenient, of course.

What does Rapid KL intend to do with more than a thousand buses it now keeps in a yard at Sungai Chua, Kajang, which it paid for in its takeover of City Liner and Intrakota? Surely these buses could be repaired or refurbished and be taken back on the road or sold?

Why on earth were they replaced by new buses from China in the first place, when public transport in the Klang Valley and surrounding areas are appalling and can do with the extra buses?

And, of course, in Rapid Penang, isn’t the monorail given to Scomi’s subsidiary to build?

How much of corruption, nepotism and poor governance will it take for Umno members to demand for Pak Lah to retire? Pak Lah’s ‘nice guy and ‘Mr Clean’ images could all well be Dorian Gray of sorts, a magic of art or an artifice of magic, which, in a single word is a lie.