The Malacca state government has included Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam's three school-going children and his wife as 'official delegates' in a RM1 million working visit to the United States.

The names of his wife, two sons and daughter have been found to be listed among the 23 official delegates who are currently touring the United States. The 15-day working visit commenced on Jan 4.

Other members of the delegation, headed by Malacca governor Khalil Yaakob, include the chief minister, state secretary Ahmad Rusli Joharie, executive councillor Poh Ah Tiam and their wives.

The rest are made up of other state government officials, two contractors and two reporters from the national news agency, Bernama .

The contractors are senior officials with a company that won a multi-million ringgit project to develop the Malacca river for tourism.

One 'official' function

According to a copy of their itinerary, the 23 delegates will visit Hawaii, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans and Miami before transiting in London and Dubai to return to Malaysia.

Throughout the 'working visit', the delegation only has one confirmed official function with the Lt Governor of the Hawaii state, James R Alona Jr.

Other scheduled 'official visits' are to Pearl Harbour, the San Antonio riverwalk, the French Quarters, Millionaires Row in New Orleans, Everglades National Park in Miami and the Houston Medical Centre.

However, Ali Rustam - who was recently elected Umno vice-president - flew back to Malaysia on Wednesday to attend an official visit by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday. He then flew to Dubai to rejoin the delegation.

The itinerary also showed that last Wednesday, the third day of the visit, the Malacca governor was scheduled and allocated six hours to play golf at the Oahu Golf Country Club in Honolulu.

While Khalil was playing golf, the rest of the delegation were scheduled to have meetings - both unconfirmed as stated in the itinerary - with the Hawaii Tourism Authority and Hawaii Integrated Development Groups.

And those who were not involved in the meetings went on an escorted tour.

After the meetings and Khalil's golf session, the delegation visited other tourism spots such as the Waikiki beach, Hanauma Bay Lookout and Hawaii's famous landmark, the Diamond Head.

Instead of a direct flight back to Malaysia, the delegation will instead transit at Dubai and spend about two and half days (Jan 16 and 17) although no official function is scheduled.

On the first day at the UAE capital, the delegation will go on a city tour. On the second day, they will visit three popular places - the Internet City, Media City and the Palm Island.

According to the itinerary, their 'mission' in these three places have 'yet to be confirmed'.

Throughout their two weeks in the US and Dubai, the 23 delegates are arranged to stay in posh hotels like Hilton Hawaii Village Beach and Spa, as well as Hotel Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa.

RM60,000 per head

A copy of the itinerary was obtained by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng through a source recently.

The opposition leader questioned the purpose of the visit and the inclusion of spouses and children.

He said the cost for the two-week trip is estimated at RM60,000 per person.

"Is it proper for the exco members, their wives and children to be part of the official delegation?" he asked.

In view of this, Lim said the chief minister should furnish a full explanation.

"He must justify this. Is this deemed as an abuse of power? What is the benefit of this junket to the people of Malacca?" he added.

Lim, who is the former Kota Melaka parliamentarian, also questioned why two state exco members in charge of tourism were excluded from the visit if the trip was related to the tourism industry in the state.

Malacca tourism and culture committee chairperson Amid Nordin and his deputy Chua Peng Siong were not included in the working visit.

"The Malacca state government now is a 'headless' government, all senior officials have gone on this holiday trip," he claimed.

Malaysiakini also tried in vain to reach state government officials for comment this afternoon. Even, Amid, who was dropped from the trip, could not be contacted.

None of the six phone lines in the chief minister's and state secretary's office were answered when dialed between 2.40pm and 3.40pm.

On the possibility of lodging a report with the Anti-Corruption Agency, Lim said it would be an option but added that he would wait for Ali Rustam's personal explanation first.

In Dec 2003, Lim had exposed the plans of Malacca's Alor Gajah Municipal Council to organise a study tour, which he described as a "vacation", to Australia.

However, the RM100,000 tour was canceled after the issue was raised in the media.