The alleged telephone call to newspaper editors urging them to block reports of DAP's confrontation with MCA over the pig farmers' compensation fund came straight from Deputy Home Affairs Minister Chor Chee Heung's office, an opposition leader said today.

"This information came from my sources, so I was telling [Deputy Home Minister] Zainal [Abidin Zin] the truth," DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock told malaysiakini .

In Parliament yesterday, a war of words broke out between Zainal and Kerk, culminating in Kerk accusing Zainal of being a "big liar" when the deputy home affairs minister denied any knowledge of such a call being made to newspaper editors.

The Home Ministry has two deputy ministers Zainal and Chor.

Kerk urged Zainal to investigate this "very serious allegation" made against his office.

"How difficult will it be for him to call up Telekom to trace the call?" queried the Kota Melaka member of parliament.

Kerk also defended himself against Zainal's accusation that this was just another bid by the opposition leader to seek political mileage, retorting that he had "always been very serious about this matter".

"Normally, the Chinese papers would be the first to report if DAP paid any visit to MCA, especially concerning such an important issue. But they didn't. Only Utusan [ Malaysia ] and NST [ New Straits Times ] had the guts to defy that call," added Kerk.

According to Kerk, it is "very irresponsible of the government to adopt this kind of attitude" towards the whole matter, and reiterated that his allegations were "100 percent true".

When asked if he intended to pursue the matter further, Kerk said that he would be raising the matter directly to the Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also home affairs minister, as this was "not the first time the matter had been brought to light".

Phantom recipients

The controversy over the pig farmers' compensation fund first arose in October 2000 when allegations surfaced that the list of 4,426 recipients had included names of people who were not entitled to any aid from the RM15 million fund amassed by MCA to help victims and their families of the Nipah virus.

According to MCA, a party in which Chor is a central committee member, the fund was meant solely for members, residents and workers of the farming community that were affected by the deadly Nipah virus outbreak in 1999.

More than 100 people died as a result of the outbreak that also saw more than one million pigs culled.

DAP lodged a report yesterday calling for an investigation as it said the recipient list included 706 Malay names, far more than the estimated 100 Malays who were affected.

It also alleged that some legitimate recipients did not receive any of the monies due to them, as well as the possibility of 'phantom' recipients.