The Cost of a Flighty Ong Tee Keat

The costs of four flights made by Ong Tee Keat could buy you - at the very least - twenty-one trips around the world.

In The Malaysian Insider's article entitled KDSB calls Tee Keat a 'freeloader' with their jets:

"Asked about the costs to make a trip on a private jet, Faizal replied that it was between RM10,500 to RM17,500 per hour, excluding landing charges and crew allowances.

He estimated that the total cost for the four trips made by Ong amounted to between RM105,000 and RM140,000.

He also confirmed that there were other politicians, including from MCA, who had used Wijaya Baru jets but stressed that Ong was the only one who had not paid."

A round-trip flight to the United States - halfway around the world, and back - costs less than RM4,000 if you know how to book your tickets. Even at the higher estimate of RM5K - and not taking into account frequent flyer miles - and the lowest estimate of Ong's flight costs, that's 21 times around the globe. If he can afford that out of his own pocket, I'd ask how he got that wealthy. If he's (literally) passing the buck, well, I'd ask if the definition of Transport Minister means that he costs the most to transport.

Readers of this blog may have noticed that I've been rather critical of Penang's new chief minister Lim Guan Eng in issues of Kampung Buah Pala and Lee Kuan Yew... nonetheless, one can't help but draw a particular comparison...

...when one remembers he flys commercial, economy-class.