VIDEO | 16.36 min

INTERVIEW While incumbent Pandan MP Ong Tee Keat and his rival Rafizi Ramli share one thing in common - whistleblowing - the two cannot be compared.

According to Ong, who was instrumental in exposing the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, this was because his exposés implicated his own party members, whereas Rafizi's exposés targeted his political opponents.

NONE "His (Rafizi) strategy might not be the same as mine because in my case, the issue that I expose is from within.

"It is not that I was there to pinpoint others' fault, others' shortcomings, or others' scandals, but rather, I was doing my own house cleaning when serving as a minister," he said.

He said this when asked during an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini whether he would be competing against Rafizi on their respective track records of exposing corruption.

Rafizi has already been announced as PKR's candidate for Pandan, while Ong says he is hopeful that he would be given the opportunity to defend the seat.

"To me, it is not my intention to take this (PKFZ expose) as one of my future legacies. Having said that, I am guided by my conscience even when I served as a minister and when I served as party president," he replied.

The RM12.5 billion PKFZ was meant to be an international trading hub, but it had been plagued with allegations of power abuse and cost overruns soon after its completion in 2007.

Ong launched a probe into the megaproject upon assuming office as transport minister in 2008. However, this alienated him from his party leaders.

New S'gor gov't no different

MCA has close ties with Port Klang Authority (PKA), which owns PKFZ. All PKA chairpersons since 1989 have been MCA leaders.

Ong lost his party presidency in 2010, and his cabinet position three months later. Shortly after his downfall as the MCA boss, he told Malaysiakini in March that year that the PKFZ exposé was his undoing .

NONE Rafizi ( left ), on the other hand, has several exposés to his name, most notably the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal implicating the family of former Women's Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil in alleged abuse of power.

They have denied any wrongdoing and criminal proceedings are underway in court, while Shahrizat has sued Rafizi for defamation.

Meanwhile, Ong said the new Selangor government following the 2008 general election has merely been a "change of guard", with old practices remaining intact.

He said the quality of road surfaces are poor while contractors that replaced waste management company Alam Flora were not up to the task.

"The system, especially in selecting contractors, I see no difference compared to the BN days. The same old practice seems to be deeply entrenched, but (carried out by) a different batch of people," he said.

Stiff challenge for S'gor BN

In addition, he said NGOs had suffered when the state repossessed community halls that were built on state land. This was following outrage over BN for occupying the halls for party purposes.

He claims that the halls - whether occupied by BN or NGOs - were locked up and left abandoned after they were repossessed, and halls used by NGOs were not spared this.

azlan One example was a hall built by the NGO Yayasan Bakri Nusa that he helped establish, funded entirely with money raised by the NGO.

"Ultimately, the whole lot has been chased out, they locked it, and the disabled persons have been displaced. That was their training ground.

"Now what we could see is a hollow community hall with signage that says ‘for rent'. That is a mockery to what they have been preaching. This is something that rubs my raw nerve," he said.

However, he said BN had served as a ruling party for ‘too long a time' and would be finding it difficult to adapt to its new role as state opposition and convince the people that it can reform itself.

"At the federal level or even at the state level, the leadership may have this or that idea and tried very hard to translate it into action.

"But when you want to convince the people, we need to prove one point - all levels of your machinery are on the same page and they can move forward with one voice and one direction.

"I think that itself is a real challenge," he said.

Tomorrow: Is MCA an Umno stooge?

Interview jointly conducted by Sumisha Naidu, Lee Way Loon, Salhan K Ahmad and Koh Jun Lin.