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ON SUNDAY, the Terengganu mentri besar left for Guangzhou in China leading a 177-member trade delegation, huge by any standard. The visit is to coincide with a trade exposition in the Chinese city during the course of which the mentri besar will meet the governor to tell him and other Chinese officials as well as businessmen what Terengganu has to offer in terms of business opportunities.
Among the members of the delegation are some swiftlet industry traders who would be meeting bird’s nest distributors in Guangzhou. On the cards are discussions on the possibility of making Terengganu a global hub for high quality bird’s nest.
Terengganu exports about 100kg of bird’s nest to Guangzhou a month. The total export of bird’s nests a year averages 1,200kg – at RM25,000 a kilo – and is worth RM30 million. And that is only one item of trade. There would probably be many other items.
Still the question that the state assembly, to which the Terengganu state government is responsible to, should ask would be whether the total Guangzhou-Terengganu annual trade justifies the size of the delegation that is now in China.
The mentri besar needs to be asked to explain the details of the delegation and the costs involved when he returns. After all it is an official delegation and therefore the costs would be invariably always be under-written by the state.
Being an oil rich state the government can easily pay the costs involved. Still the people would like to know just as the people of Negri Sembilan were told in the state assembly yesterday the total cost incurred by the mentri besar when travelling on official business in 2008 and 2009.
He went on two trips only, one to Kuala Terengganu with his aide-de-camp (ADC) and the other to Kuching accompanied by his wife and his ADC. The cost for the two trips came to RM13,000, covering air tickets and hotel accommodation.
The State Assembly of Terengganu, therefore, has to be told just as the Negri Sembilan legislature was told about the purpose of the visit, the identities of the members of the delegation and an explanation of why they were included, the costs involved and the projected benefits from the trip. Public funds are involved and therefore a full accounting must be made.
If it is not made, it is the duty of the state legislature to call for the accounting. After all, the legislature is made up of representatives of the rakyat who put them there.
It should not wait for the auditor-general to expose the abuses and to censure the government. It should act first as otherwise it may be accused of being complicit in the affair with the government. Far too many abuses have been allowed to go unchecked. Therefore, Parliament and the other legislatures must play their part diligently to vet the governments that are responsible to them.-The Sun
