I wish to refer to the statements in the press by MCA Youth Young Professionals Bureau chairperson Eric Choo Wei Sern and Gerakan Legal and Human Rights Bureau chairperson Baljit Singh and many other Barisan Nasional leaders.

First of all, let me clarify that as a purchaser of a property there is no need for the purchaser to challenge a valuation of a property especially if the value of the property is reasonable, if the seller has agreed to sell the said property for the sum stated in the Sale and Purchase Agreement which is also agreed to by the buyer and finally if the valuation was by a professional valuer.

Further, there is no way a purchaser, especially a layman, who wishes to purchase a said property would know the value of the said property based on the stamp duty to be paid. Generally, in all Sale and Purchase transactions the stamp duty to be paid cannot be determined until and unless the stamp duty assessment notice is issued by the Stamp Duty Office because the value of the said property fluctuates.

Until then the purchaser would be required to pay to the legal firm carrying out the transaction an approximate amount of money into the client’s account of the legal firm until the stamp duty assessment notice is issued by the Stamp Duty Office.

It is very misleading to suggest that the chief minister should have known the value of the bungalow purchased simply because of the assessment amount paid to the Stamp Duty Office. Please remember that in this case it was willing-seller and willing-buyer and the seller has now signed a statutory declaration that she sold the bungalow to the chief minister at her own free will and that she was a willing seller at all material times.

I condemn the incessant attacks on the chief minister by all the Barisan Nasional leaders which smack of clear double standards and I hereby implore them to look at the situation objectively and the very least allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to conduct and complete their investigations without further attempting to have a trial by media.

As the chairperson of the government backbenchers, the question of the chief minister going on leave pending the outcome of the investigations in my opinion does not arise at all as we are firmly in support of the chief minister and will continue to defend the chief minister as we have no doubt in our mind that he has done nothing wrong in the purchase of the said bungalow, being a chief minister you don’t expect him to live in a two-room flat.

RSN RAYER is the state assemblyperson for Seri Delima.