Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat had managed to overcome the hurdles within Barisan Nasional to make public the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) audit report.

But he did not earn any brownie points for this. Instead Ong found himself under siege inside and outside the ruling coalition.

On one hand, Bintulu MP Tiong King Sing had threatened to take legal action against certain parties. On the other, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has been hammering the minister on a daily basis.

ong tee keat parliament pc 220609 05 Ong, who is also MCA president, found himself alone in the political storm as party comrades and BN allies distanced themselves from the scandal.

Therefore, it is not a surprise that Ong is venting his frustration on his blog.

The PKFZ controversy became an hot political issue as early as 2007 but the then transport minister Chan Kong Choy, who was also the former MCA deputy president, denied any irregularities.

A tight lid was put on the matter until Ong took over the Transport Ministry last March.

He commissioned an independent report by international audit film PricewaterhouseCoopers and gave the green light to make the report public last month.

The report revealed the involvement of prominent Umno politicians, two MCA former transport ministers and the Bintulu MP.

Reviving his outspoken image

Political observers saw Ong's persistence in releasing the report as an attempt to revive his outspoken image which had slowly diminished after he took over the reins in MCA and being forced to toe the BN line on numerous issues.

Unfortunately, soon after the report was released, and even before Ong could receive an applause, DAP's Lim hijacked the matter and painted the minister in a bad light.

Ong was left with no choice but to defend himself against the numerous allegations and questions raised by the opposition leader.

Reading between the lines of his blog postings, it is evident that the minister is not a happy camper.

"My boss has been in a bad mood recently," a close associate of Ong told Malaysiakini recently.

ong tee keat pkfz klang visit 060508 11 In a posting on June 19, Ong had described himself as someone "bold enough to take on the challenge to conduct an independent audit of the high profile debacle, followed by an unexpected release of the unedited report produced by PwC."

The same sentiment was expressed in another posting on June 22.

"Why would a person who commissioned an independent report by a reputable international accounting firm, and championed for the findings to be made public, make an inexplicable decision to hide facts?" he asked.

His latest posting on June 23 reiterated the same point. "I have made efforts to release the report in its entirety as well as explain the issues to the public in the media."

After the release of the report, the public were eager to see the culprits punished but this has yet to happen.

Addressing this concern in his latest posting, Ong said: "Although many of us are keen to bring the perpetrators to book, I would like to reiterate that the PwC, PKA (Port Klang Authority) taskforce and I cannot play the role of prosecutor, judge and executioner."

"A report has already been lodged with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). It is premature to comment on criminal investigations except to say that we will render our fullest support to MACC," he added.

'Lonely general without soldiers'

The crisis has also exposed the awkward situation faced by the MCA president as 'a general without soldiers'.

Since the release of the report, no MCA leader, apart from the party’s assigned official spokesperson Lee Wei Kiat, has defended the president.

ong tee kiat parliament pkfz port kelang 120609 Political observer Koh Kok Wee pointed out that the maverick politician, who is known as a lone ranger, had never created a team of his own since he was elected MCA Youth chief in 1999.

Koh observed that Ong’s combative nature may have helped build his outspoken image which is well received by the Chinese community, but it has alienated those in the party circles.

He also noted another major miscalculation by the MCA president which is to offend the nation’s largest Chinese media group just before the PKFZ imbroglio.

He had lodged a police report against Chinese magazine Special Weekly before the release of the PKFZ report.

This had ruffled the feathers of the Media Chinese International Ltd, which controls nearly all major Chinese dailies in the nation including Special Weekly .

"I believe initially Ong only targeted Special Weekly , trying to stop the magazine from publishing more damaging reports against him,” Koh said.

"But he underestimated Media Chinese's response. He didn't expect it to affect the PKFZ issue. This was his miscalculation," he added.