KL mayor the 'frequent flyer'

Kuala Lumpur mayor Abdul Hakim Borhan has gone on overseas trips amounting to RM1.329 million - all paid for by Malaysian taxpayers.

KL mayor the 'frequent flyer'

Kuala Lumpur mayor Abdul Hakim Borhan is sure to be among the airlines' top 'frequent flyers' for his official trips overseas.

In a written reply to Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, the Federal Territories Ministry said Abdul Hakim has gone on 11 trips overseas - almost one trip every two months - since taking over the post

of mayor in late 2006.

Of these, the transportation costs of only two trips were borne by foreign governments - the rest, amounting to RM1.329 million were paid for by Malaysian taxpayers.

The allowances, meanwhile, provided to Abdul Hakim and the handful of officials who usually accompanied him on the trips - mostly to destinations in Asia - came up to RM133,490.

"The trip that was most criticised by my constituents was the one taken by Abdul Hakim and four other Kuala Lumpur City Hall officials to Canada, UK and Germany.

"Though the trip took only five days, it cost slightly more than RM390,000 in transportation costs and allowances," Tan told reporters at the Parliament today.

Zahid: Vote-buying does not happen to me

Umno supreme council member Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who is vying for vice-presidency in the upcoming party polls said that vote-buying has never occurred in his experience.

Responding to another candidate for the same post, Dr Rais Yatim who yesterday claimed that he was asked to pay for his votes, Zahid said: "What he said could be based on his personal experience.

"But most of the Umno delegates are rational delegates and do not use money as a main factor to give support to the candidates," he told a press conference in Parliament today.

Zahid, who is also the minister in the prime minister's department, said that vote-buying never happened to him as he stuck to his principle of "friendship and not just reward."

Kit Siang: Syed Hamid should have done his homework

DAP leader Lim Kit Siang expressed his disappointment over Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar's recent statement regarding the country's crime rate that scared off Taiwanese inventors.

According to Lim, the home minister's statement that the crime rate "has not reached red danger alert" is "unresponsive and irresponsible" as he should have first referred to the 2005 Royal Police Commission Report.

"Let me advise Syed Hamid to do his homework by reading the report, or he would not have committed another faux pax like his earlier ridiculous statement that the Sin Chew Daily journalist was arrested under the Internal Security Act for her own protection and safety," he

stressed.

Speaking to reporters in the Parliament lobby today, the Ipoh Timur MP also said the report had referred to the "alarming" and "dramatic increase" in the crime index from 121,176 cases in 1997 to 156,455 cases in 2004, an increase of 29 percent in eight years.

However, in the past four years, the crime index had worsened from 156,315 cases in 2003 to 224,298 cases in 2007 - a sharp rise of some 45 percent when it should have gone down as recommended by the Royal Police Commission which proposed a 20 percent drop in the crime index in the first12 months of its report.