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Media Statement        
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Tuesday) : Public constructions and buildings have become a national scandal, with burst-pipes, collapsing celings, faulty air-conds in brand-new government buildings almost a daily shame. 

As a result of we have the following two reports: 

• "I have spoken until my mouth is dry" – PM tired of talking about Terengganu airport maintenance problem” (Sin Chew Daily).
• “Judge loses his cool over faulty air-con” (New Straits Times).

The former referred to the cancellation of all night flights for two nights at the Sultan Mahmud Airport in Kuala Terengganu following a power glitch that caused the runway navigation lights to be switched off. The two-day closure affected six commercial flights and some 335 passengers were stranded on the first day. The Yang di Pertuan Agong and his entourage, who were to have left for Kuala Lumpur on Sunday night, were also grounded. 

The latter referred to spanking new  RM290 million largest court complex in the world in Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur which have earned notoriety as the most mishap-prone – not only with collapsed ceiling, cracks on the walls, defective lift and toilet, and yesterday, High Court judge Datuk Mohamed Apandi Ali lost his cool with the frequent breakdown of the air-conditioning system in the new court complex as he was forced to postpone an appeal hearing. 

A construction project manager with 30 years experience who inspected the court complex in Jalan Duta yesterday was of the view that it suffers from structural defects, contradicting the earlier claim by the Works Minister, Datuk Seri Datuk Seri Samy Vellu that  the cracks were merely in the cement and that the “structural integrity of the building is not compromised”. 

Clearly a completely independent study must be made as to whether the court complex suffers from structural defects. 

With all these defects, the question uppermost in the minds of Malaysians is whether Samy Vellu can give an iron-clad guarantee that the RM1.9 billion SMART Tunnel will be completely trouble-free when it is open to traffic next Monday?

(8/5/2007)