Deputy Foreign Minister Joseph Salang is the last of the five deputy ministers from Sarawak to publicly deny any involvement in the reported probe by the Anti-Corruption Agency.

"I am not aware of any investigation by the ACA against me nor have I been approached by the agency," he told malaysiakini this afternoon.

The other four, namely Dr Tiki Lafe (Rural and Regional Development), Douglas Uggah (Transport), Robert Lau (Housing and Local Government) and Joseph Entulu (Prime Minister's Department) have all denied over the past two days that they were under investigation by the ACA for allegedly taking bribe.

On Tuesday, outgoing Sarawak director Mohd Jamidan Abdullah said a federal deputy minister from Sarawak was being investigated by the agency after a report was lodged against him.

Salang said that the ACA statement was totally unfair to the five deputy ministers from Sarawak.

"It is unfair to the one being investigated and it is also unfair to the other four who are not being investigated," he said.

Yesterday, Jamidan was said to have told Douglas Uggah that he made the statement after being 'cornered' by the press in Kuching.

Name him, Pak Lah

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement today (issued before Salang's denial to malaysiakini) that "if Joseph Salang denies he is under ACA probe, then we are back to square one, as it would render completely useless the first round of denials by the five Sarawak deputy ministers - raising a new issue of one of the five Sarawak deputy ministers telling a public lie, unless the ACA had misled the people and country about a deputy minister from Sarawak under ACA investigation.

"Whatever the real picture, such merry-go-round can do the nation's reputation and the government's commitment to a system of national integrity no good," he stressed.

Lim called on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to cut the Gordan knot and announce the identity of the deputy minister under ACA probe.

"The prime minister must also announce what he proposes to do with the deputy minister concerned until he could be cleared of corruption by the ACA," he added.