I am shocked by the unprovoked attack launched by PAS MP for Temerloh Nasrudin bin Hassan at Tantawi against me by relying on baseless claims and lies on my stewardship of the Penang state government’s finances and award of South-East Asia’s first under-seabed tunnel project from Gurney Drive in Penang island to Bagan Ajam in Seberang Perai. Nasrudin has 24 hours to unreservedly and unconditionally withdraw his lies and apologise to me. Nasrudin had questioned why I was not criticized within Pakatan Rakyat like Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim was getting over the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) project when I had also used direct negotiations to award the RM4.63 billion under seabed tunnel project to Construction Zenith BUCG Bhd. Nasruddin also claimed that Penangites opposed this project because of my conduct of Penang government’s finances had resulted in 6 years of budget deficits. Let me state here that I had never made any public comments on the Kidex project or its direct negotiation award. Neither has Nasrudin communicated with me on Penang state government matters. I have no interest in playing along with Nasrudin’s political games of supporting Kidex, but am making this rebuttal because of the lies by a fellow PR MP that has severely tarnished my reputation and my state government’s standing. Nasrudin has lied because the under seabed tunnel project was awarded by an open tender, not direct negotiation and costs RM 3.6 billion not RM4.63 billion as claimed. Nasrudin lied further because the Penang state government under PR had never recorded a single year of budget deficit but recorded budgetary surpluses instead. The budget surpluses were certified not by me but by the yearly Auditor-General’s Report as follows:- 2008 RM 88,020,470.73 2009 RM 77,343,325.77 2010 RM 33,539,016.31 2011 RM 138,317,374.24 2012 RM 114,475,442.86 As for end 2013, the Penang state government is expected to record a small surplus. Before the preliminary agreement for the under seabed tunnel project was signed in 2013, an unprecedented exercise of public feedback and consultation was carried out before the May 2013 general elections. Three town hall meetings with the public were held, two on the island and one on the mainland. Effectively, the people of Penang were given a rare opportunity to support or reject this project by voting to retain or replace the PR state government in the May 2013 general elections. The PR state government was returned to power in the 2013 general elections with the highest electoral mandate in history with 68% of the popular vote. Clearly the lies made by Nasrudin are the same as that made by pro-BN and pro-UMNO social media cyber-troopers. If Nasrudin claims to be a good Muslim who is not a munafik(hypocrite), then he should withdraw his lies and apologise to me within 24 hours. Should he fail to do so, he is behaving dishonourably and no different from UMNO. I will be left with no choice but to treat him like a BN opponent, by instructing my lawyers here to take legal action for defamation against him for spreading blatant slander and lies against me and the Penang state government. LIM GUAN ENG
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 04:51:14 +0000
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