Khairuddin: No reason for me to resign, I didn't do wrong, it's only an error

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Khairuddin Aman Razali said there was no reason for him to resign over the home quarantine controversy involving him as he did not do anything wrong regarding his job.

The Kuala Nerus MP has been under the spotlight for his failure to comply with the Covid-19 mandatory quarantine order upon returning from Turkey last month.

"I did not do anything wrong in regard to my job, it only involved an error over the issue of the SOPs.

"I have my own view but I let the police (to probe). The Health Ministry had also issued a statement. For me, it's solved, although I have my own view," he told the media in Slim River today.

Khairuddin also confirmed that the police had recorded his statement as a witness at Bukit Aman yesterday for two hours from 8.45 pm.

The police also recorded statements from three of his family members on the matter, he said.

Khairuddin said he had explained to the police that he went to Turkey on a semi-official trip.

"One (purpose) was for a project negotiation involving Terengganu which had yet to be solved when I took over as minister and the rest was regarding palm oil," he said.

He added that yesterday was the first time the police recorded his statement and not the second time as published by the media.

For the record, Bernama had reported that the police had recorded Khairuddin's statement at Parliament on Aug 26.

When asked whether he was satisfied with the investigation, Khairuddin said: "I have been satisfied from the get-go (because) I had apologised for the error and said I would return my salaries from the month of March to August to the people.

"What is more important is that I do my work as usual," he said.

Asked whether the issue had affected his work, he said: "No. As a human, who doesn't commit mistakes? It's normal."

Khairuddin said in Turkey, he had met with several key figures to negotiate on exporting palm oil to Greece and Balkan countries.

Commenting further, he said he was in the midst of preparing to meet his Indian counterpart to increase the export of Malaysian palm oil to that country.

"I had a video conference with a minister who is in charge of palm oil in Telangana, India.

"We negotiated to send the palm oil seeds to them and in return, they purchase palm oil from us," he said.

- Mkini