THE Selangor government’s declassification of the Bukit Antrabangsa landslide report yesterday received wide support but questions are now being raised as to whether Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim had the authority to declassify confidential documents.

And while Khalid said that the declassification was in accordance with Section 2C of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong, said the Menteri Besar may have acted beyond his jurisdiction.

“Since the document was prepared by the Public Works Department (PWD), it is likely that the report had been classified by the Works Ministry. Only the person who classified the document can declassify it later,” Liew said.

“Although Section 2C gives the Menteri Besar the power to declassify documents, his power pertaining to this report is not absolute,” he said.

Khalid said the report had been obtained by the State government from the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council which received it from the PWD in September.

Malay Mail also learnt that a hazardous map report that would show possible landslide areas had been submitted to the council.

Liew said the process of declassifying a document was a simple administrative one.

“However, the consent of the minister must first be obtained," he said. He also said that Khalid may have breached provisions under the OSA when he decided to declassify the document.

He said the two possible sections under the OSA were Section 8(2) and Section 30(A)(f). Section 8(2) reads:

“If any person receives any official secret or any secret official code word or password knowing or having reasonable ground to believe at the time when he receives it, that the official secret, code word, countersign
or password is communicated to him in contravention of this Act, he shall unless he proves that the communication to him of the official secret, code word, countersign or password was contrary to his desire, be guilty of an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term not less than one year but not exceeding seven years.

Section 30(A)(f) states: “The Minister may make regulations to carry out the purposes of this Act and, without prejudice may provide for offences and penalities not exceeding a fine of five thousand ringgit or imprisonment not exceeding one year for the contravention of any provision of the regulations.

“This means that it is more likely that when this document was classified under the OSA, the minister may have likely made such a regulation as per subsection (f) and it is likely that an action against the Menteri Besar would be under this section.”

Lawyer Derek Fernandez said while Liew’s interpretation of Section 2C of the OSA could be correct, in that only a minister or officer who classified the confidential report can declassify it later, the Menteri Besar may have also acted within his power when he declassified the Bukit Antarabangsa report.

“While it is true that the report was prepared by the PWD which is under the Works Ministry, it should also be noted that the report was later handed over to the council which comes under the purview of the Selangor government.”

This would give the Menteri Besar the jurisdiction to declassify the report without first obtaining the consent of the Federal government, he said.

“My interpretation of the OSA on this is that only matters relating to national security and Cabinet papers should be declassified by the relevant ministries. In this case, it is a mere report that does not fall under the two categories, and there is no issue on whether the MB had the authority to declassify it,” Fernandez said.

Malay Mail reported on Tuesday plans by the Selangor government to declassify the Bukit Antrabangsa report.

The State government felt it was a matter of public interest and the people, especially residents in the area, had the right to know the contents of the report.

While a four-page summary report was released to the Press yesterday, the State government said it planned to make the full report available to the public next week.

“The report can be obtained from the council on Monday at a cost. However, a summary of the report will be distributed by the council for free,” Khalid said in a statement.

“We hope that this report can help us overcome problems related to slopes,” he said.

Khalid said that the state government would be going through the report and would be meeting residents of Bukit Antarabangsa in early January.

Factors that contributed to the tragedy

A summary of the report pertaining to the investigations on the landslide tragedy in Taman Bukit Mewah, Bukit Antarabangsa, Hulu Kelang on Dec 6, 2008.

Based on the study, the landslide was caused by a combination of:

• Loose soil structure on the slope during development;
• Lack of maintenance, maintenance/ faulty drainage system on slopes and surrounding areas;
• High rainfall in October and November 2008 before the landslide occured;
• Continuous cracks in soil causing present cracks to enlarge resulting in new cracks appearing; and
• Leaks in water pipes due to cracks in soil at active water pipe lines near abandoned houses. Based on a combination of the above factors, the technical committee decided that the main cause of the landslide was due to leaking pipes from active water pipe lines where it had increased the content of water in the soil in weakened slope areas.

The technical committee’s recommendations:

• Identify other locations where the physical condition is the same as the landslide area;
• To carry out remedial work in areas with faulty drainage system and to increase the size of small drains throughout the entire Bukit Antarabangsa area;
• To fix a sub-soil drain for water absorption and where water retention in the soil is high;
• To fix detection and monitoring equipment at high risk areas;
• To carry out research and complete monitoring of existing slopes that showed signs of cracks. Preventive
measures and scheduled monitoring should be done;
• There should not be underground pipes at slope areas;
• Pipe lines and sewage pipes in slope areas have to be monitored and maintenance work carried out periodically to detect early signs of leakage; and
• All development projects on high land areas have to abide fully to all fixed guidelines.