The minister in the PM’s Department hits back at the Penang chief minister for calling him a 'despicable human being'.
GEORGE TOWN: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Wee Ka Siong has challenged Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to a public debate on the issues surrounding the tunnel-roads project.
The MCA deputy president made the challenge after Lim had called him a “despicable human being” yesterday.
Lim had accused Wee of running down an honest senior government civil servant, Penang state secretary Farizan Darus, with lies that Farizan knowingly chose the Zenith Consortium group of companies to carry out the project, despite Zenith not fulfilling the RM381 million minimum paid-up capital requirement.
“Wee is bullying and picking on Farizan because he knows that Farizan is helpless to reply.
“As a government officer under the Public Service Department, Farizan cannot refute a federal government minister like Wee even though Wee is dead wrong,” Lim was quoted as saying in his statement yesterday.
Wee, in his statement rebutting Lim today, said if Lim was still dissatisfied with him, “instead of cowardly calling me such names as ‘despicable human being’ via press statements, perhaps Guan Eng can be man enough to challenge me to a public debate on the Penang tunnel”.
“My statements have always been directed at the chief minister and never at the Penang state secretary. For Guan Eng to say I have been continuing to run down the state secretary is an outright lie.
“All my statements can be found in the media and posted on my Facebook page. You can check for yourself here: https://www.facebook.com/weekasiong/,” he said.
Wee said Lim appeared to be attempting to divert the blame for the scandal to Farizan and claiming that DAP politicians had no hand in approving the project.
He was referring to Lim’s reiteration numerous times that none of the Penang excos sit on the tender committee.
“Unfortunately for the chief minister, very few people will believe that DAP leaders had no hand in the awarding of the project as well as the management of the project.
“For one, the awarding of any project of this size must surely require the endorsement of the state executive council, of which Guan Eng is the head,” he said.
Wee also claimed that Lim was trying to wash his hands off the scandal by telling the press that the project’s special purpose vehicle (SPV) no longer communicates with him and that the press should refer questions on the SPV to Umno instead.
“Incredulously but unsurprisingly, the chief minister is now trying to divert the blame to Umno for the project’s SPV.
“No one can forget the numerous joint press conferences that Lim had with the SPV or the dozens of press statements that Lim had issued to defend the SPV over the years.
“He simply cannot wash his hands off the SPV and the severely lopsided project that will eventually cost the Penang people tens of billions of ringgit in losses,” he said.
Instead of coming up with illogical excuses, blaming others and making a fool of himself, Wee said Lim should just admit that the DAP state government had awarded a mega-billion project to an unqualified company that was just 82 days old at the time the project was awarded with heavily lopsided terms.
Lim and Wee have been engaged in arguments, back and forth, over the Penang undersea tunnel and three roads project.
The infrastructure project came under renewed scrutiny by the Barisan Nasional following a fresh probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Since then, the Penang government and BN had revived the issue, which was a hotly debated topic in Penang in 2013 and 2014.
The 7.2km undersea tunnel will connect George Town’s Pangkor Road and Bagan Ajam in Butterworth. It is scheduled to begin in 2023.
The “three main roads” stretch from Air Itam to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway (5.7km), Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang (10.53km), and Jalan Pangkor-Gurney Drive junction to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway (4.1km).
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