The public spat between Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat and Bintulu member of parliament Tiong King Sing over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) financial fiasco has tarnished the image of the government and the Barisan Nasional (BN).

muhyiddin yassin universiti malaya 020609 Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said today the two leaders must understand this fact before coming out with statements against each other in the media.

"At the moment, everything is made public. Both of them are talking. I will leave the issue to them. They have both made allegations and have lodged police reports," he said.

This, he said, had not helped improve the image of the government and they should stop washing dirty linen in public as there were various other avenues for them to clear the air on the issue.

"As leaders they should know better. They should lead by example and let the public make the assessment. It is important for them to understand the situation...they should understand the implications of such a spat on the government," Muhyiddin added.

The two leaders have been involved in a public spat on the PKFZ issue with Tiong alleging that Ong, who is also MCA president, had received RM10 million from Tiong, who is the chief executive officer of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd, the turnkey contractor of the PKFZ.

Ong responded to this allegation by lodging a police report against Tiong yesterday and later revealed to the media that he had also instructed his lawyers to send Tiong a letter of demand.

Tiong made the allegation Wednesday, saying that the payment of the money was done in three instalments last year for MCA activities.

-Bernama