Dr Teng: Lim playing ‘twist and blame game’ again

PENANG: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was again taken to task for playing a fact-twisting and blame-shifting game on the conversion of a 1.4ha plot adjacent to the Eastern and Oriental (E&O) Hotel in Lebuh Farquhar, here from leasehold to freehold.

Penang Gerakan chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said the undisputed fact was that Lim and his exco had approved the land conversion on June 3, 2009.

"Yet at the State Legislative Assembly sitting in August, Lim had openly said there were no such conversion between April 2008 and June this year. Thus, he has misled the House and the people," he said in a statement released here on Nov 23. 

He said documents on minutes of the State Exco, State Land Committee and Penang Development Corp on the subject declassified by the state government on Nov 21 clearly proved beyond an iota of doubt that Lim and his Exco had approved the conversion.  

Dr Teng said Lim was now trying to divert the issue and cover up his lie at the assembly by trying to put the blame on former Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

"Whatever he claimed, the fact is that the conversion was not approved during Dr Koh’s time. Lim’s statement was actually an admission that he and his Exco had approved the conversion in June and he had misled the State Legislative Assembly, the media and the people.

 "This episode again exposed the true colour of Lim Guan Eng's administration, that it is unaccountable and non-transparent but an expert in twisting facts and playing the blame game," added Dr Teng.

Pulau Betong assemblyman Muhammad Farid Saad had said earlier that Lim had misled the state assembly at the last sitting in August when he said there was no such conversion between April last year and June this year.

Farid was referring to the question he posed to Lim on whether there had been any land conversion for development purposes during that period. 

In his written reply, Lim had said the state government was waiting to present the matter to the National Land Council, scheduled to meet at the end of the year and the state government had yet to approve any application for land conversion.

Earlier, Lim said he had never misled the state assembly when he said there had been no conversion of land status in the state during that period.

He stressed that the land did not belong to the state government and there had been no conversion of any state land status during the period. -- Bernama