I would like to call upon Works Minister S Samy Vellu to give a detailed breakdown on the expenditure of the RM700 million Butterworth Outer Ring Road (Borr) project and explain the difference between the original price of RM410 million in 1998 and the increase of RM290 million.

In 1998, the DAP MP for Bagan Lim Hock Seng was told in Parliament that the cost of the Borr project was RM410 million. Now eight years later, the cost has risen by 71% to RM700 million and the public has a right to know the reasons for this increase.

In a press interview on Sunday, Samy Vellu denied he was a 'bad boy' and further said: 'Guan Eng does not realise that Borr is a total scheme. The privatisation part is only RM470 million. But the other part was done by the Public Works Department and it cost RM275 million'.

There were also other false allegations made by Samy, which I will respond to later.

What I wish to focus on now is on the need for Samy to come clean on the Borr project. I wish to remind Samy who once claimed that 'I have got the cleanest hands in the world' that he must not only be clean but he must also be seen to be clean. In the interests or accountability and transparency, he has a responsibility to justify every extra single sen of the RM700 million spent as well the amount of compensation paid by the government to the highway concessionaire for deferring collection of toll at Sungai Nyior toll plaza.

Like all concession contracts, the government has to pay a compensation for deferring collection or for reducing toll hikes. Samy's refusal to come clean shows he is a 'bad boy' who is only out to extract toll on behalf of toll concessionaires. Similarly, Samy's refusal to tear down the Sungai Nyior toll plaza along the Borr shows that the deferment of toll collection is only a temporary measure to appease the people and toll will be restored after the BN scores a thumping victory in the coming general elections.

We have pressed the government to not postpone but cancel outright toll collections at the Sungai Nyior toll plaza as it is part of an existing road freely used without any toll being paid by local motorists for the past 10 years. If Samy continues to deny them this and insist that the stretch of road leading to the Sungai Nyior toll plaza is part of the Borr project and not part of the old road, then why are there as many as four traffic lights and even a gazetted road with the name of Jalan Heng Choon Thean?

Probably, this is the first highway in Malaysia with traffic lights and the 'highway' even has a road name!

I reiterates my challenge to Samy to hold a dialogue with the affected residents to determine who is telling the truth and whether it is justifiable to collect toll. If he wants to come clean and prove that he is not out to suck any person's blood, then he should have the political courage to face DAP and the people of Butterworth.

The writer is DAP secretary-general.