The letter from PKNS, sent by its public relations officer, Mohd Wazir Abdul Gani, says: We refer to your comments under the heading "It’s Our money, Not yours" published on April 25. We thank you the [teguran] admonishment. We wish to inform you that contributions from PKNS to Balkis are meant for its activities in line with its objectives. We wish to reiterate that Balkis is an organisation that is fully-supported by the Selangor government."

Saudara, you have let the cat out of the bag and vindicated my view that Balkis cannot be anything else but a government-supported body for wives of assemblymen and assemblywomen and not restricted to those belonging to the Barisan Nasional. If it is fully-supported by the state, then how come a few of them dissolved the organisation, albeit, illegally, unethically and immorally and treat it as a sendirian berhad without following procedures and complying with the law of the land?

Coming back to the letter, I did not tegur PKNS. My column was centred on the previous mentri besar’s wrongly-held belief that PKNS is a private company and outlined the sumbangan (contributions) made by the corporation. No, I never tegur-ed you. So, why has PKNS suddenly woken from its slumber to reply to something that does not concern it? In the same column, I made more than a teguran and PKNS chose to ignore it. Saudara, was it a case of selective memory or choosing what you want to read? To refresh your memory, let me produce verbatim what I (also) wrote:

On a larger scale, PKNS built what was termed as a public golf course, which has since been privatised. Since it was built with people’s money running into millions, why should the rakyat pay commercial rates at the Seri Selangor Golf Club? Were open tenders called for the privatisation deal or was it handed on a platter to some uncle or brother-in-law’s sister’s son?

Saudara Wazir, what about answers to these comments? It will be utterly wrong and
contemptuous if I referred to you as incompetent, but since you have decided to open a channel with this writer, I will keep it open so that the public can be kept informed.

For starters, can I ask if any kind of departmental action has been taken against those who cleared the land without the "semuanya ok" from the Shah Alam City Council? Surely, this must have been approved by someone in authority, and who is this someone? Then, according to government regulations (yes, you are a government body and not a private company as asserted by your former chairman, Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo), PKNS is required to recoup the financial losses caused by the officer(s)’ actions. Has this been done or is the RM330,000 fine locked-in as "expenses" in your statement of accounts?

Thirdly, let’s look at the Seri Selangor Golf Course. It was built on state land with people’s money and it is supposed to be a public course for use by taxpayers. It is now in private hands and green fees are higher than what private clubs charge. My question is: Was an open tender called when this "piratisation" was carried out or was it handed to people with connections? Before I am accused of making false allegations, this is only my perception because there was no publication of a tender notice or anything like that.

And finally, why should the people pay for the special number plates of cars driven by PKNS officers? I can’t go wrong on that because when I went to book my number at the Selangor Road Transport Department in Padang Jawa four years ago, among the names of the successful tenderers for special number plates was PKNS.

Saudara, I know you are just an officer yang menurut perintah. It is perfectly understandable. Your response to my column came in a jiffy – a day after it was published. Can we expect the reply in the same speedy manner or will we have to wait for an unemployed dentist to give you the cue?

R. Nadeswaran cannot but chuckle at the speed in which PKNS has responded. He hopes this would be its benchmark under new bosses. He can be reached at citizen-nades@thesundaily.com