Rafizi threatens to reveal MCA-Talam links

PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli today threatened to "throw files" at MCA deputy minister Chua Tee Yong on the BN party's links to Talam Corporation if he continued attacking the Selangor government.

"Talam is linked to MCA. We have files of transactions involving Talam and MCA leaders. If he continues to prolong this, next week I'll call another press conference to show who exactly benefited from Talam," Rafizi said.

He said that it was beneath the Selangor MB to be doing such "digging" but he would gladly "dig up every single file of each joint-venture and show every single MCA leader who benefited" from Talam.

He said that in trying to paint dirt on Selangor with figures that did not add up, Chua had forgotten that it was during BN's rule that Talam had made hundreds of millions of ringgit at the state's expense.
He added that while Chua has chosen to ignore this, MCA leaders were on the Selangor executive council (exco) when 4259 acres were given to Talam for nothing.

Rafizi, who resigned as CEO of the Selangor economic adviser's office last month, added that not only did Talam get land for free, it also neglected to pay the land premiums.

He said when Pakatan Rakyat took over, close to RM12 million in assessment fees were owed for two parcels of Bukit Beruntung land.

"And that only for two parcels of land," he said.

He said Talam also entered into a joint venture with the state for many projects, which later ended up being abandoned, resulting in the corporation owing RM392 million to state subsidiaries.

Talam had also charged the state lands to the bank, with the amount owing reaching RM292 million by the time settlement was reached.

"We inherited this mess when we came into power... We were in a conundrum.

"We had every right to confiscate the land but Chua's friends in MCA had allowed it to be charged to the bank...and we can't just tell the bank, sorry, good luck, we want to take the land," he said.

He said the debt settlement exercise had seen the state obtain RM684 worth of land from Talam, out of which RM292 was used to pay off  Talam's bankers.

"This is the big picture. I don't want to answer on the nitty gritty because he picks one small thing and ignores the root cause of the problem.

"I will stick to this maths until the end of the world. I will not change (my numbers) like Chua," Rafizi added.
Chua (left) had said that the Selangor government and Talam are involved in a questionable RM1 billion deal.

He also claimed that Selangor had "overpaid" for some of the land disposed of by Talam in the debt offset deal.

Selangor said it will sue MCA over the matter while Talam shot back that Chua had ignored its disclosures to Bursa Malaysia, proving he was completely off the mark.