Cheap land for Umno: You're lying, Ng tells Shukor

Sekinchan assemblyperson Ng Suee Lim has accused Kuang assemblyperson Abdul Shukor Idrus of lying about how Umno used the state lands it had bought below market price during the party's reign in Selangor.

Ng (left) said instead of using the land forcommunity purposes as claimed, some of the land acquired had been used for commercial purposes or  sold off.

"The lands were (developed) under joint-ventures and some have already built shops, condominiums and other properties.

"There is no public hall, and even a pre-school is very far-fetched. The kindergarten is just an illusion, a mirage.

"This means the Kuang assemblyperson has made a big lie," Ng said at a press conference outside the Selangor state assembly today.

Previously, Ng claimed that 24 plots of land totaling 33.5 acres or 1,459,260 square feet were sold to Barisan Nasional component parties for RM1 per square foot.

However, Shukor, who is the Selangor Umno information chief, said the lands were only used for the community’s benefit, such as by building community halls and pre-schools.

"Umno is the people. Umno represents 400,000 people in Selangor and these people pay taxes. The (land) is for the people of Selangor,” he said.

However, in his counter-example, Ng said five lots of three-storey shophouses now stand on a 874.12 square metre plot that Umno bought in Pekan Sekinchan, selling for between RM800,000 to RM1 million each.

He also claimed that in Tanjung Karang, the local Umno division’s 4,370 square metre plot had changed hands to a private company and is earmarked as a “commercial building”. The land has yet to be developed.

As for his estimate that the lands are worth RM20 million in total on the market, he said this was only a preliminary estimate and he would announce a higher revised figure tomorrow.

“It means that the lands were bought for RM1 per square metre for what? It is only for profit, for Umno and for cronies,” he said.