MCA vice-president Tan Teik Cheng took aim at former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, saying that the latter sidelined the state's development during his stint as finance minister.
"It was Lim who sidelined Penang when he was finance minister, and now he has the audacity to play the sympathy card by playing victim regarding funds for Penang," said Tan, who is also MCA Penang state liaison committee chairperson.
In a statement released early this morning, he told Lim not to feign ignorance to 'hoodwink and rile' the public.
"The Covid-19 outbreak has wrought bundles of challenges to the Malaysian economy. Therefore, the federal government has no choice but to temporarily shelve or postpone some infrastructure projects.
"Leveraging on this scenario, Lim stooped to politicise the decision and accused Putrajaya of 'political vengeance'. Such an outburst is unreasonable," he said.
Lim has taken the Perikatan Nasional's administration to task for cancelling development programmes in Penang such as the RM800 million Penang International Airport (PIA) and RM100 million Penang Hill Cable Car (PHCC) expansion projects. He added that PN would be rejected by Penang voters in the next general election.
The former finance minister also had a war of words with Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong over the cessation of Penang's iconic vehicular ferries.
"If anyone wishes to speak about who sidelined the Pearl of the Orient, then Lim stands out the most because, even current Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow has personally conceded that even if Pakatan Harapan were to govern Putrajaya, Penang would still be sidelined in securing more allocations.
"Penangites will not forget the ingratitude of the Bagan MP against Penang when he took office as the finance minister," said Tan.
"He would rather allocate RM3.2 billion to Kedah to develop large-scale infrastructure projects than to spend on Penang, resulting in the Penang state government appealing to different quarters to borrow funds for the Penang Transport Master Plan," said Tan.
"Who is Guan Eng to slam the PN government now? Does he even know the meaning of the word 'shame?'", he asked, going on to call Lim an empty vessel that was making the most noise.
Tan said there were a number of reasons that the projects were impacted and Lim should be well aware of this.
"Chow Kon Yeow once said that Putrajaya had withdrawn funding for the RM100 million Penang Hill cable car project due to the country's difficult financial situation as the government believed that this project was not a priority.
"Why does Lim now sing a different tune by saying that this is deliberate political vengeance by the PN government?"
Tan also said that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the aviation industry has been badly affected and is not expected to recover for another three years.
"The government is studying the expansion of all airports through the National Airport Strategic Plan (NASP), which is expected to be completed in 2023. Until this research report is released, the expansion and development of all airports will be temporarily put on hold, not just the Penang International Airport.
"Moreover, when Lim was Penang Chief Minister, he repeatedly opposed the construction of Kulim International Airport (KXP) claiming it would threaten the status of the Penang International Airport but when he was the finance minister, he did a U-turn and supported KXP," claimed Tan.
He also said that current Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz revealed that when Lim was finance minister, he never asked for a Penang LRT loan guarantee from the Harapan cabinet, so the current PN federal government should not be accused of cancelling it.
"Finally, the iconic Penang ferries have not vanished! A request for proposal will be announced in future to convert the historical uses other than for public transport, including repurposing them to be a floating restaurant, sightseeing ferry for tourists to visit and other purposes.
"Replacing the old ferry with safer, speedier and more comfortable water buses as a means of public transport, yet retaining the old ferries as a tourist attraction, these were plans initiated during Harapan's era!" said Tan.
He added his belief that if DAP secretary-general Lim truly cared for Penang, he should refrain from engaging in political manoeuvres by playing the pity card to attack the PN government. - Mkini
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