Wednesday, October 22, 2008

No wrongdoing in construction of ‘Istana Mat Deros’

No wrongdoing in construction of ‘Istana Mat Deros’
22 Oct, 2008

By DHARMENDER SINGH and EDWARD RAJENDRA in The Star

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor Government has not initiated any action over the mansion belonging to the late Port Klang assemblyman Datuk Zakaria Md Deros as it has not found any proof of wrongdoing.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said soon after Pakatan Rakyat came into power, a study was carried out on the legal, social and political aspects related to the construction of the mansion in Pandamaran.

He said however until now it had not found any proof of fraud or abuse of power involving the construction of the mansion.

“Whether we agree with it or not, we have to accept that a title for the land (occupied by the mansion) was issued by the previous state government so the occupation of the land is legal.

“We have to study whether any offence was committed in the other aspects of the construction of the mansion before taking any action and we cannot act as we wish,” he told a press conference in the lobby at the Selangor state assembly.

Khalid said the state government also wanted to do the right thing and not act in haste even though it could have won political mileage by taking action.

He was answering to a challenge issued by former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo to the state government on Tuesday to take action since many Pakatan Rakyat leaders had then slammed the previous government for failing to act.

The controversy began when it was discovered that Zakaria had built his palatial home in a low-cost housing area without submitting building plans to the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) for approval.

Zakaria, who died just days after the general election in March, had also operated an unlicensed satay restaurant built illegally on government reserve land and had not paid assessment for another property for 12 years.

All these occurred while he was an MPK councillor.

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