Debate on Land Issues

Picture by The Star

After watching the extraordinary debate between the past and present Chief Minister of Pulau Pinang last night, I must say that it is outright clear that, the losing side is YAB LGE.

His insistence on punishment should be leashed out by the past BN on the erronous official spoilt his show. In fact, this gave his opponent many chances to clarify on the issue, of which Tan Sri KTK elegantly did. LGE keep on harping that there is elements of corruption(rasuah) in the so-called 'land scam', yet he is unable put forward concrete description of the crime committed.

On the other hand, KTK had ample of opportunities and space, courtesy of the un-wise tactics of his opponent, to explain the whole picture of the issue, right from historical background more than 40 years ago, up until the actions he took personally which include investigations by the ACA at least twice, which found no elements of crime and the past state government on-going litigation with the parties concerned.One thing KTK made very clear that his government never conceded defeat in the on-going court case, whilst his successor seem to harbour the idea of dishing out the RM 40 million compensation.

KTK later took charge on LGE's attitude of 'Semak Sebelum Tembak' and the latter inclination of sensationalsing every issue that crop up and not putting focused attention in solving the issues at hand. What a good lesson a past CM gave to the present CM.

He also lamented about the 'half true' approach by the present government in the those so-called exposes. I think KTK fell short of calling LGE a liar.

Overall, I think KTK did put up a good show, despite the language flow that at time crampy. He did took this opportunities to make clear a few issues that bugging the BN, putting up by the PR government.

On LGE, he is so stick to his prepared strategy on criminalsing the whole issue, abeit some clever maneuvres by KTK to dodge his attack, that make him a joker at end stage of the debate, he fails to hit the home base despite numerous futile attacks. He failed to categorically listed out the criminal elements of its, although he alleged time over time of 'rasuah'. This gave KTK a chance of fighting back by explaining that it is merely documentation mistakes that happened more than 40 years ago coupled with some careless clerical mistakes 40 years later.

Frankly speaking, I don't know who should be blamed for all this mistakes, but surely I don't see nobody deserved to thrown into jail.

I think LGE should start put his effort in managing the state, and show results to Penangites, what he had done in 'memajukan Pulau Pinang'?

As KTK put it in the beginning of the debate, LGE seem to be more fond of being the 'Pembangkang'.

I start to miss the old days when KTK is helming the state.

Maybe it can never take a Malaccan to appreciate the flavours of Penang.

Can a Malaccan truly loves Penang? Or Penang is just part of the bounties of his war-chest?

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Debate On Penang Land Issue Falls Short

Whether is he sincere or not?

It is ever sickening to read in newspaper on various delays of Penang's important development projects. I can't help but wonder, Chief Minister Lim is truthfully sincere in bringing betterment for the Penangites. Instead of try to implement those project skillfully, he seem, to me, more enthuastic in creating causes for delay.

As in today Star, he seem to be indulge in delaying the Penang's Monorail project, firstly he want the monorail to be scrapped and replaced by a underground rail system, which eventually get rebuffed for excessive cost concern, now he is proposing to overhaul the monorail's network to cover Seberang Prai area, citing mainland resident should enjoy the spill over effect of the state development.

“It will not be fair for the people on the mainland if they don’t get the spillover effects of the development implemented in the state. They too should enjoy the monorail project. We want to ensure everyone benefited from this, not just the islanders,” he is reported to be said.

But do he realised that, by bringing the monorail's project back to drawing board, it is as good as scrapping it because, later on, the cost of project will escalated to a point the Federal government will not be able to fund it anymore.
Could it be that certain parties are not happy with the members of monorail consortium?

In the same newspaper report, he is having a different tone, as compare to the time of election campaign, on the issue of of job opportunities.

“Workers who were retrenched were being absorbed into other factories that required skilled workers,” he said. “It is not right to say the manufacturing sector is facing a hard time based on a few retrenchment cases.”

“The fact that many jobs were being advertised in the newspapers reflected that the economic situation was good,” he said.

Why are he and blogger Jeff restlessly attacking Koh Tsu Koon on the same issue during the GE12 campaign, and yet now he is sound so BN-rish?

What Penangites really want .....

..... is certainly not this one, read on and this one.

全国大选，霹州华人是输家

纵眼望去，本届大选的输家是马华及民政，但是近日的变化，最吃亏的莫不过于霹州华人。州政府迟迟不能成立，整个州行政半天吊，商人做生意无所适从，不知跟哪个官老爷打交道。一个不留神，州务大臣是极端回教主义奉行者，整个州顿时陷入宗教恐慌。现在才梦醒惊觉他们也不过是一群乌合之众。虽说我们痛痛快快掴了负心汉一巴掌，但是也发觉现在的伴侣也不是可托付终生。

霹州华人这一次可说是得不偿失。

Not ready for Penang

Penang first family not ready for Penang yet!

This is not what I simply puffed out from the wind, but this is what the Star reported.

Picture from The Star

From what is reported in the newspaper, Lim family is happily having a 'family visit' to the Chief Minister office at KOMTAR, you can see everyone is grinning 'inspecting the bounties' their proud son had captured. This not a good example, Guan Eng. You don't let your aunties and sisters and sons messed around the CM offices.

Back to our original topic, to put thing in context, let read the Star,

Wednesday March 12, 2008

A post that not even Lim’s family expected

By LIM AI LEE and ZARINAH DAUD

JUST like many Penangites, Lim Guan Eng's family members never expected that he would one day be the Chief Minister of the state.

His mother Neo Yok Tee, 67, said it never crossed her mind that her son would be a chief minister although he was a very serious and committed politician.

“Just like any mother, I am happy for him after such a long struggle and hard work.

“He should meet the people’s expectations as they have placed their trust in him and the party when they voted the DAP and other opposition parties to run the state government,” she said while accompanying Guan Eng to his Level 28 office in Komtar yesterday.

Neo said since her son became a VIP, an endless stream of visitors had been calling at their family home in Island Park, Penang.

“No more laidback lifestyle for me as I have to entertain the visitors. I hope my life will return to normal when Guan Eng moves in to the official residence.”

Neo’s advice to her son is to remain humble and do his best as Chief Minister and “I’m confident that he can do it.”

His father, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, said it was his birthday wish come true.

Kit Siang, who celebrated his 67th birthday on Feb 20, said he had secretly wished for DAP to capture Penang although the party’s target was to deny the Barisan Nasional of two-thirds majority in the state assembly.

Guan Eng’s wife Betty Chew, who is also newly elected Kota Laksamana state assemblyman in Malacca, said she was shocked when her husband told her that he would be Chief Minister of Penang on Saturday night.

“I did not believe him but he told me that he was serious. I did not expect it at all because the DAP’s objective was to have a strong opposition in Penang.”

On whether she would shift to Penang now that she was the chief minister's wife, Chew said they were still deliberating on the matter as three of the couple’s four children were studying in Malacca.

Their eldest daughter Rachel Lim, 17, said she never expected her father to be elevated to the head of the Penang Government.

Rachel was reluctant to move to Penang at the moment, saying she would be sitting for her SPM at the end of the year.

“My three other siblings may shift to Penang but I will remain in Malacca until my exams are over,” she added.

Apart from Rachel, the couple have three other children – Clint, 16, Marcus, 13, and Ethan, 14 months.

See, this is what I mean, you don't let a Malaccan head a Penang government.

Another example of public fund wastage

Not another deputy CM, please.

The Star had reported on 12/3/08 that, Lim Guan Eng is introducing another extra DCM post for his coalition state government. It used to has a DCM for the UMNO after the 1990 DAP onslaught on Gerakan/MCA. Now in 2008, DAP, in power, create another DCM just for the sake of appeasing the Indian minority. Let me just say that, Penang is not a big state, we actually don't need any DCM. With these 'white-elephant' positions, it means the state need to cough out more money for their allowances, lavish cars and other expenditure.

Now, there is a problem here. Guan Eng just scrapped those summonses yesterday and today he is announcing extra expenditure, second day into the government, the state financial situation already run into deficits. While Dato' Seri Anwar is urging the ruling opposition to be prudent, we see people spending state's coffer like his grandfather money here in Penang.

Here is the Star reporting,

Wednesday March 12, 2008
MYT 12:18:02 PM

Two deputy CMs for Penang

PENANG: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has announced the appointment of two Deputy Chief Ministers for the state.

They are the Prai assemblyman from DAP, Prof. P. Ramasamy, and Penanti assemblyman from PKR, Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin.

Lim has not yet named the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the state assembly, but said the two posts would be filled by representatives from PKR.

DAP Penang first governance policy

Scrap those summonses!
This is the way Penang newly elected government gratifying it people for bringing them into the power.

Hours after Lim Guan Eng sworn in as the forth Penang CM of 11/3/08, he announced his first 'people friendly' governance policy that is to scrapped all local government summonses pertaining to hawker license and public parking. On first glimpse, it is indeed a good news, but on second thought if the new government has this kind of mentality, it will disastrous for the state. First of all, although this is those monies not collected, as according to Guan Eng, but still the money eventually collected belong to the people. It can be used to upgrade the living conditions of many Penangites around the island and on mainland. Without consultations to the rakyat, he just made a proposal that going to make state coffer poorer, but gain political mileage for himself.

I call this mis-appropriation of public funds.

Such ruling will also inculcate a negative mentality on the rakyat, in future the rakyat will simply be indifferent to the many laws in the state, thinking that the government will waived it eventually to gain popularity. Can you imagine the chaotic consequences?

I think DAP has to take heeds that, now you are in the government, scrutinise yourselves with the highest standard of transparency and good public governance.

On a side-note, look at the picture above, why is Lim Kit Siang, not an office bearer in the state and not an elected representative in the state, can seated in the front row together with Koh Tsu Koon? Is this a new state protocol to have the father of the CM ranked among the state VVIP?

Something about 12GE

The dust had settled. BN was denied 2/3 majority by the people. On top of that, Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor are not in their grips. Gerakan and MCA were completely wiped out of Penang, the power-base of Chinese in Malaysia.

On my way back to Penang to cast my vote, I was quite optimistic about a BN win in Penang, in fact my mind is guessing around what Cabinet portfolio will Koh Tsu Koon be given. My sole purpose of casting my vote is to ensure non-Penangites are kick out from Penang's politics, Penang is for Penangites. The moment I stepped into my home that particular noon on that faithful day, my father conveyed me a rather 'alien' message, he said the Opposition will gonna capture Penang. I don't believe it and just simply shrug off it. To an 'outsider' like me who work at the nation capital, I cannot sensed the strong Opposition wind, unlike my father who can received first hand information on the ground. True to his says, Penang is gone by midnight. In fact, at around 8:30pm when I heard over radio that no BN supporters are appearing in Batu Kawan counting centre, I told myself to brace for the worst.

Not only in Penang, other states fell like dominos. Even Nik Aziz called it a 'tsunami'. A tsunami is a natural disaster that usually caught everyone unprepared. Not only BN is unprepared, neither is the Oppositions. I can vouch that Rakyat is not going to let an unprepared team to govern them. Sadly, now this is what had happened. Political analysts said that this is protest vote strategy that gone overboard. People vote for Oppositions not because they like them, just because they want to give the government a 'lesson'. They do not want 'rocket' to govern the state, the voters' 'teach-them-a-lesson' euphoria, quickly turned into cold sweat. Will them, the 'rocket', bring disaster? How is our livelihood be affected. These question will remain unanswered for a long period of time. Let just pray that when the answers to these questions arise, it is not too late to make a change.