Jasin parliamentarian Mohd Said Yusof today remained defiant amid the controversy that his company had handled a consignment of illegal timber seized by the authorities.

The MP who earlier in the day conceded that his company Binyu Sof Enterprise had handled the logs in question, sang a different tune later.

However, the Barisan Nasional (BN) politician was far from apologetic.

"I don't know whether my company was involved. Maybe yes, maybe no. If yes, so what?" he asked during a press conference at the Parliament House.

"I am an MP, (but) I am also allowed to do business," he said.

He was responding to a report in the News Straits Times today which drew a link between the MP and the company - Binyu Sof - based on the similarity of their names.

'Close one eye'

When met earlier, Mohd Said confirmed that he was the sole owner of the freight forwarding company but denied that the logs belonged to him.

"I am just an agent handling it (the logs)," he said when quizzed.

He claimed that only part of the seized timber belonged to his clients while the rest belonged to three other forwarding agencies operating from the same port.

He named one 'Ah Chooi' and one 'Daud' as the clients he had dealt with.

The spotlight fell on the MP when he admitted , following a news report last week, that he had asked the Melaka Customs and Excise Department to 'close one eye' in relation to the confiscated logs.

When bombarded with criticisms and calls for his head to roll, Mohd Said defended himself as merely trying to help a bumiputera company.

No regrets

At the press conference later, the MP released a nine-page statement and told reporters that he had no regrets.

After stating that MPs could indulge in business, Mohd Said broke into laughter when asked if this amounted to a conflict of interest.

"Maybe it is my interest or other people's interest [...] Why can't an MP take care of his own interest?" he replied.

When pointed out that even Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had termed his action as inappropriate, Mohd Said retorted: "Did he (PM) say going to the customs was inappropriate?"

In his statement, the Jasin MP revealed that he had 'interest' in Malacca's Sungai Rambai and Kuala Linggi barter trade ports as he operated his freight forwarding agency from these locations.

He said there were four forwarding agencies in Sungai Rambai and seven in Kuala Linggi.

He stated that when he met the custom officials on April 14, he had raised the grouses of the forwarding agencies in the state over the department's new rule to seize and compound illegal logs.

Industry's problem

Mohd Said argued that he was not raising a personal problem, but a problem faced by the entire industry in view of the plummeting business at both ports.

"In view of the huge investments by the government and private sector to develop the two ports, I appealed to (the custom officials) to just compound and not seize the logs," he added.

He said the authorities should be more lenient if the cross section of the logs was slightly more than the stipulated size.

The Malaysian Timber Industrial Board only allows the import of sawn timber with a cross-section of less than 60 inches.

Mohd Said also took offence with the statement by an unnamed senior customs officer quoted in the NST report, who said it was not proper for MPs to help smugglers.

"Smuggling means running away from the customs, but I went there to see them," he said.

The Jasin MP also revealed that the Umno Supreme Council, during its meeting on Monday, had rejected his request to make a statement in the Dewan Rakyat on the issue because it felt 'there was no case'.

"I have met the premier and told him that if I had done something wrong, I would apologise," he said.

'Contempt of Parliament'

Meanwhile, parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) described the controversy as a 'contempt of Parliament'.

"He had misled Parliament for the past one week and owes a full explanation. As long as he is not referred to the privileges committee, it is a shame for Parliament," he told a press conference.

Earlier, Lim failed again in his attempt to refer Mohd Said to the committee and in the process had ignited a heated exchange in the House

Also expressing disappointment was Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

She said the controversy had rendered Parliament into nothing more than a rubber stamp and the final victim was former Backbenchers Club head Shahrir Samad.

Shahrir had quit after failing to get the backbenchers to support a motion tabled by the opposition to refer the news report on the timber scandal to the privileges committee for investigation.

The controversy had also given rise to the debate on whether government MPs could vote based on conscience or toe the party line at all cost.