We visited the wrong shopping mall, admits PKR

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli has apologised for naming the wrong location in Singapore for a premier supermarket that the family of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil is said to be developing.

Contacted today, he said the shopping mall - where the supermarket will be an anchor tenant - is Rochester Mall located in Rochester Drive and not Star Vista Mall, as he had claimed yesterday.

Rafizi explained that the two malls are next to each other, causing his staff who had gone to view the site, to make a mistake.

"Our men who went to recce made a mistake. They went to the wrong shopping mall. We have checked again. They found the location of supermarket in another shopping mall - Rochester Mall," he said.

In a statement issued later, Rafizi said a fresh check this morning with Malaysians living in Singapore had confirmed the correct shopping mall.

However he defended other allegations made at a press conference yesterday, during which he had revealed his suspicion that Shahrizat's family members had misused the RM250 million government soft loan to the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), to open the supermarket in their personal names.

‘No denial from NFC’

Farmhouse Supermarkets Pte Ltd, owned by Shahrizat's husband and two children, has rented 28 units on the second floor of the mall. The project, developed by UE One-North Developments Pte Ltd, consists of Rochester Mall and luxurious condominiums..

The website of Rochester Mall lists Farmhouse Supermarket as its biggest tenant on the second floor.

“I'm of the view that since Rochester Mall is just next to Star Vista, the estimated rental made by me yesterday based on the report of Competition Commission of Singapore should not differ much," Rafizi commented.

He cited a report published by English daily The Malay Mail today, in which NFC chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail did not deny the existence of the supermarket project.

"I openly apologise to (the owner of Star Vista Mall) CapitalMall and NFC for the factual mistake, but it does not dismiss the various questions arising from the involvement of NFC in operating a luxury supermarket in Singapore," he added.