Previous bungalow owner mulls legal action

Phang Li Koon, who sold her bungalow on Jalan Pinhorn to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has signed a statutory declaration, reserving her right to take legal action against any party that makes unnecessary connection to complicate the matter and drag her into controversy.

Phang declared that she is not a director nor shareholder of KLDIC, which won the bid for the Taman Manggis land under an open tender committee chaired by the state secretary.

She said she is also not involved in the management of the company.

“I do not understand why my agreement to selling the house to the CM has been blown up to such big national issue when I have no business dealings with the state government,” Phang said in the SD, which was read out by state executive councillor Phee Boon Poh.

“Neither have I obtained any benefit from the state government by selling the house to him. It is my decision at what price I want to sell to him,” she said.

“I stress that I was not pressured or forced or under any influence by the CM or any party to sell the house to CM at RM2.8 million. I sold at my own free will on a willing buyer and willing seller basis.”

Phee (photo), the assemblyperson for Sungai Puyu in Butterworth, is a distant relative of Phang. He said he is also an adviser to the Phang association.

Lim is under attack for buying the bungalow at far below the market price, which was raised in the Parliament on March 17 by Umno Tasek Gelugor MP Shabudin Yahaya.

Lim denied the allegation, saying the purchase of the bungalow, which he had previously been renting, was above board.

Phang said she got to know Lim’s family after becoming a close friend of his wife, Betty Chew, in 2008.

That year, she had also bought the house at No 25, Jalan Pinhorn, for RM2.5 million, where Lim and his family now reside.

She had initially wanted her brother to stay there but offered the house to the CM after hearing from his wife that there were termite problems in their official residence.

'CM and his family very good tenants'

Phang said a tenancy agreement was entered into and signed on July 1, 2009, with three years tenure at at rental of RM5,000 a month, and it was later extended to another three years until June 30, 2015.

“The CM and his family have been very good tenants for the last six years. To me, he is a respectable leader and I feel honoured to sell my property to him,” she said.

“I think Penang has done well under his administration, and most importantly, I have sold my property to the person I respect.

“I have no regret selling my property at RM2.8 million, and I have cleared myself of unnecessary headache and stress,” she added.

However, Phang said renting the house to them had caused her much distress and stress from the BN and NGOs alleging untrue stories about her.

There were also more incidents, in the later years, with demonstrations, a funeral rite held in front of the house and Molotov cocktail bombs thrown into compound, which made the house “so exposed and unsafe”, Phang added.

She said there were endless news on the house, with its address and photos splashed all over the newspapers.

“I felt very uncomfortable that if my relatives or I ever decide to stay there in future, I will not feel safe and secure to stay in such an overly exposed and much publicised house,” Phang said.

“So by early 2012, I had verbally let Chew know that if they were ready and willing to buy, I would sell them the house at RM2.8 million.

“Chew told me they were interested in buying but the CM was worried that he could not afford to buy the house if he was not re-elected as the chief minister,” she said.

Phang said Chew had asked if she were willing to sell them the house at the same price of RM2.8 million after the general election of May 2013.

In 2014, she said, she and Lim executed an agreement dated June 23, under which she agreed to grant him a five-year option tenure to purchase the said property at RM2.8 million.

This was done in consideration of Lim paying her RM100,000, and she would allow him and his family to continue renting the place.

Phang said before the extension tenancy was up in June 30, 2015, she had made up her mind to dispose of the property for good.

She said she did not survey the market when she decided to sell the house to the CM in 2015 because she did not think it was necessary as she already had him as a buyer and there was an agreement signed in 2014 on the sale price.

Based on her records, the sale and purchase agreement was signed on July 28 last year and the bank released the full loan sum in October. -Mkini