MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong has fired back at Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, accusing the latter of hypocrisy and avoiding Wee’s own questions on the Penang undersea tunnel project.

This is after Ramasamy had accused Wee of remaining silent over the tunnel contractor's letters of demand to an Umno politician and a businessperson for a total of RM 22 million.

"Don't accuse me of having a tail between my legs when you all have been hiding from my questions for the past two weeks - legs, tail and everything else," said Wee.

Wee said he had asked Ramasamy and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, several questions on the Penang undersea tunnel but had received no response so far.

"Are the questions really so difficult to answer that no one from the entire Penang government or DAP is able to answer for almost two weeks?" Wee asked.

The Air Hitam MP urged Ramasamy not to return to "hibernation mode" now that the latter had spoken up.

"Now that you have broken your silence to claim that I am silent, please do answer or ask your boss Lim Guan Eng to answer my last two statements as he and you have been conspicuously silent," Wee told Ramasamy.

On Feb 21, Wee had asked Lim why the tunnel's main contractor China Railway Construction Corporation was paid only five percent, or more than RM3 million, since the deal was signed in 2013, and has stopped worked already.

Six days later, Wee asked why the Penang government had awarded a mammoth tunnel project costing RM6.3 billion to a "small" company.

Meanwhile, the tunnel’s contractor Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd had sent letters of demand to Umno Baling MP Abdul Azeez Rahim and an unnamed businessperson on Feb 24.

The letters were sent to the duo for failing to fulfil their consultancy tasks as per an agreement signed between the parties in July 2017.

According to a source close to Zenith, the letters of demand show that the firm paid RM3 million to Azeez and RM19 million to the businessperson. 

While Azeez has strongly denied knowing Zenith or receiving money from the firm, the businessperson was detained by the MACC in Putrajaya yesterday.

‘I did not jump the gun’

Additionally, Wee expressed certainty that MACC would now have knowledge of the money flows and who had benefited from the Penang undersea tunnel.

"When or where there is a case, I reiterate my party’s stand from day one that anyone suspected to be involved in the case, whether he is from the ruling coalition or not, at state or federal level, irrespective of which political party he is a member of, MACC should conduct its investigation without fear or favour in a professional manner devoid of bias," said Wee.

"I have been consistent. Whoever MACC called – anyone, whether a Penang executive councillor or Umno leader, this is the prerogative and jurisdiction of MACC. I have never said a word nor interfered," he added.

"Similarly, on individuals to be investigated, I did not name anyone. I did not jump the gun, nor say a word," said the minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

"I trust MACC will question and investigate any person - Umno MP or not - at the appropriate time if there is indeed truth to such allegations," Wee said.