Penang Chinese of Chamber of Commerce chief Tan Kok Ping (left) produced letters from Koh and Berjaya Land Berhad to show that the former Penang CM was mistaken in his recent statements about rejecting the project in the 1990s due to unfavourable EIA reports.
"Koh spoke without referring to what he had done before. Even though there are documents to prove what he actually said, he continues to say that the project was rejected," he told reporters in Penang yesterday.
According to Tan, Koh had told developers that the state government wanted to draft a local plan for Penang Hill and set up a Penang Hill Authority within six to eight months.
The state government then had also promised to give special consideration to the developer's application to carry out other projects once those were done, he added.
"We reached a mutual agreement that the memorandum of understanding for the development of Penang Hill and the privatisation of the hill railway would be allowed to lapse when it expired on May 31, 1992," he said.
"In 1993, we wrote a letter to ask about the progress of the matter but nothing came out of it. Even as he was leaving his office as CM, the Penang Hill Authority had yet to be set up. It was only done after Pakatan took over the state," he added.
Chong Eu's vision
Tan said the development of Bukit Bendera was Chong Eu's vision to turn the hill into a premier tourist attraction and he had invited developers to invest in the project.
However, when he retired in 1990, everything changed, lamented Tan.
Tan also criticised NGOs campaigning against the hill project for not considering that a developer would fulfil his social responsibility to protect the environment.
"It is not true to say we would simply chop down trees...a responsible developer does not like to be scolded by the people.
"For instance, in Langkawi, we constructed roads without removing the trees when we built our Berjaya Hotel there. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad himself insisted that the trees could not be touched," he added.
The spat between the duo began when Tan accused Koh of "not doing anything in the past 18 years".
Koh (left) fought back by describing Tan as "blind and senile", and implied that the latter was sore with him since 1993 for rejecting the Penang Hill project due to an unfavourable environmental impact assessment report.
Lately, Koh's political fate had taken a turn for the worse, with several quarters demanding his removal so much so he had to trumpet his record when he was CM of Penang.
However, Tan remains unconvinced about Koh and lambasted him further for becoming "a backdoor minister".
He slammed Koh for failing to quit his posts after Gerakan's defeat in the 2008 general election.
Koh was appointed federal minister despite his party's failure but Tan thinks that he should have resigned like his colleague - former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Tan noted that MIC's S Samy Vellu and MCA's Ong Ka Ting - had quit as presidents of their parties after BN lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament and five states to Pakatan Rakyat.
Tan heaped praises on first Penang chief minister, the late Lim Chong Eu (right), saying he had left behind a good legacy, unlike Koh, who led the state for 18 years.
"Histroy will judge whether he did anything worthwhile in his time," said Tan.
"He had said that I am not qualified to debatewith him unless I become DAP secretary general. Actually, I do not want to debate with a person who is politically bankrupt," he added.
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