'Speed up probe on Ramasamy or face street protest'

By Athi Shankar

EXCLUSIVE GEORGE TOWN: The complainants behind the graft accusations against Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy want the DAP leadership to expedite its internal investigation into their case.

They have given the party leadership until the end of January to conduct a transparent probe and reveal its findings publicly to uphold the principles of competency, accountability and transparency (CAT).

Otherwise, they warned they could take the matter to the streets and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Two of the three complainants, S Deventhiran, 34, and T Manogaran, 38, insisted that they have not lodged the complaints to ”pass our time”.

They demanded the party leadership, especially its secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, take serious note and probe into their genuine complaints.

“We are DAP members, staunch supporters and diehard voters all these years. We demand that the leadership speed up investigation against Ramasamy.

“We are prepared to testify and provide evidence to back our allegations,” the duo said.

The other complainant, M Mahenthiran, 35, could not attend the FMT interview due to his work commitment.

However, he had agreed that Deventhiran and Manogaran would talk on his behalf.

Accompanied by several DAP voters from Batu Kawan constituency, Deventhiran and Manogaran said they planned to hold a demonstration outside Komtar to demand an investigation if the DAP leadership failed to heed to their call.

“If the party leadership continues to play a deaf and dumb game after our street protest, we would then lodge an official complaint to the MACC,” they warned.

'2,000 supporters backed trio'

They claimed that their allegations were more serious than accusations made against sacked Klang municipal councillor Tee Boon Hock.

Deventhiran, Manogaran and Mahenthiran wrote a two-page letter dated Nov 25 containing allegations of nepotism and cronism against Ramasamy.

The letter was sent to Lim, national party chairman Karpal Singh, state DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow, Bukit Mertajam MP Chong Eng and Datuk Keramat assemblyman Jagdeep Singh Deo.

Although they were proponents of the letter, they claimed that their complaint was backed by at least 2,000 Batu Kawan constituents.

“We will bring these people during our street protest,” claimed the duo.

In their letter, the trio alleged that Ramasamy's cronies were awarded many state contracts.

The contracts include Tamil school development and computer supply, and Penang Water Supply Corporation and Penang Hindu Endowments Board tenders.

They listed 16 people as Ramasamy's cronies, including his personal aides Jayabalan and M Satees.

The trio alleged that since being appointed as the DCM II, Ramasamy has deliberately sidelined and isolated existing long-serving Indian members of the party.

They claimed that Ramasamy had fenced himself with a group of cronies, largely from Barisan Nasional and strangers.

Karpal said the allegations raised by the trio warranted a thorough probe by the party leadership.

“We must investigate them and clear the air once and for all. Otherwise, it will tarnish the party's image and credibility,” he had told FMT.

Karpal had also said that he planned to talk to Lim soon on the issue.

Deventhiran, Manogaran and Mahenthiran welcomed Karpal's initiative to probe their complaints.

Who said letter was anonymous?

Ramasamy, meanwhile, claimed that the complainants were fractious and not genuine DAP members.

He had even challenged his detractors to lodge their complaints with the MACC.

However, in a move to quash his claims, the complainants have come out in the open today and repeated their charge against the DAP leader.

Deventhiran and Manogaran brushed aside Ramasamy's claims that their letter of complaint sent last month to the party leadership was an “anonymous poison-pen letter”.

“Who said it was written by anonymous persons? We wrote and sent the letter to the party leadership.

“We furnished our true personal details in the letter,” the duo openly declared.

Ramasamy claimed that the anonymous letter was maliciously designed and timed to tarnish his image and undermine his campaign during the Penang DAP election on Dec 12.

The Batu Kawan MP and Prai assemblyman won in the polls and was subsequently appointed as new state DAP deputy chairman.

He said he was prepared to face any investigation into the allegations since he has nothing to hide.

“All these contracts were awarded based on merits through open tenders.

“I don't sit in the state tender board anyway,” Ramasamy had repotedly said in response to the allegations.