Zairil: Deputy minister missing the point on laptops

DAP leader Zairil Khir Johari has criticised Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan over his response to concerns about the cost of government’s purchase of Chromebooks. 

In a press statement today, the DAP MP said Kamalanthan (left) had entirely missed the point during an interview earlier this week in which he defended the purchase of the school laptops from YTL Communications Sdn Bhd.

"It is very unfortunate that he appears to have missed the forest for the trees," said Zairil. 

Kalamantan said in the interview that the purchase was more cost-effective, and added: “Why would we ask two or three people to do the job when we can have only one person to do it?”

Zairil (right), however, retorted: "I am not against the best supplier winning the job, but my contention is whether the supplier who won is indeed the best available option considering the scale of the project and the billions of public funds involved."

Zairil  had previously raised questions as to why the government was purchasing the laptops through YTL for RM1,255 each when the individual retail price was much lower. 

He also went on to question the contract to YTL to build communication towers for high-speed broadband as a part of the government’s 1BestariNet programme because the company would also use the towers to provide commercial broadband access to the surrounding areas. 

"There is an obvious conflict of interest, taxpayers and public schools are effectively funding the commercial expansion of YTL's YES 4G network in the name of promoting E-Learning," he said.