QUESTION TIME The issue is about whether his behaviour has been beyond reproach.
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
- Abraham Lincoln
Merely raising the question of whether Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng should step down is anathema to some. Why, given the context in which Lim is widely referred to in Penang as “tokong”, roughly translated as deity, it might even be blasphemy, considering the consistent vehemence of the reaction by some of his supporters.
My thoughts on this are reflected in this article which was written before he was charged in court on two counts of corruption. And they pretty much remain unchanged.
The most common argument made for Lim to stay on in his position pending the outcome of the trial is that he is being selectively prosecuted, that others have committed crimes thousands of times larger, and have not been charged, brought to account or have stepped down.
His supporters try to wash away his alleged impropriety of buying a property at below market price from a businesswoman as a “willing buyer, willing seller” deal ignoring the substantial benefit he may get by doing that and compromising his influential position as chief minister, a position which makes many want to curry favour with him by any means possible.
One thing is not refuted by all parties - he bought the bungalow at below market price.
The bungalow is at 25, Jalan Pinhorn, in upmarket Green Lane. Lim bought the 10,161 sq ft property in July 28 last year for RM2.8 million, at about RM276 per square foot. The previous owner, Phang Li Koon, bought it at RM2.5 million, or RM246 psf, on Sept 27, 2008.
She had renovated the property and later rented it to Lim for six years at RM5,000 a month. Lim agreed that he knew that the stamp duty valuation for the house was RM4.2 million. Using RM4.27 million as the value of the bungalow, Lim underpaid by RM1.47 million, a significant sum. If we use a RM7.3 million valuation (using alleged new land values), the underpayment works out to about three times at RM4.5 million.
I am not sure about the law but this is the question I have: Is it okay for a public official to take gratification/donation/undervaluation/whatever-other-name-you-call-it even if it is not tied to a particular event? I say no. It is not an insignificant sum - at least RM1.47 million perhaps as much as RM4.5 million.
But yes, there is selective prosecution, yes, more should be done about that RM2.6 billion - subsequently raised to RM4.2 billion donation - and many other cases of lesser amounts, and yes, Lim seems to be singled out. But does all that absolve him from any wrong that he may have done? No. If his behaviour has been improper, he should step down.
Right thing for Lim to do
What if he steps down? Will that be a disaster and mean that he is falling into a Umno/BN trap to get rid of him or will it be something that enhances the reputation of the opposition, in particular the DAP, and what they stand for?
His supporters will no doubt be disappointed. Many of them will feel that he has let them down. The omnipresent and combustible anger over his selective prosecution and persecution will reach new heights - for a while. But on calmer reflection, it will be seen as the right thing for him to do under the circumstances he has himself to blame for.
He has compromised himself already when he paid a significantly lower price for his bungalow than the prevailing market price. Now there is, on top of that, criminal charges that he faces in court over this and other matters. He has to defend himself against these charges and he will take the case right to the highest court in the land - a process which might take a few years.
It is only reasonable to expect that much of his time and energy is going to be devoted to his defence. He is going to be distracted from playing his proper role as chief minister. It would be better for him to step down.
If Lim steps down, someone else from the DAP will become chief minister and if the party has depth and breadth, they should be able to find someone who can do the job without the albatross of criminal charges hanging around his neck to impede him from giving the full focus and attention that a chief minister’s task deserves and entails.
If Lim steps down, then he shows that the DAP is not a party which is centred on a few personalities but one that is rooted in ideology and practice that disavows any form of corruption and impropriety among its leaders no matter who they are and that the party expects its leaders to take the necessary action when their behaviour has not been the best.
If Lim steps down, then the DAP regains some moral standing for urging the resignation of leaders who have compromised their positions terribly in the 1MDB scandal instead of now having to fight a rearguard action to defend a leader who a section of the public feels may not have the moral ground any longer to be running a clean, efficient and trustworthy administration in Penang.
DAP or the Penang people at large, if social media comments are a reflection, will not ask Lim to step down - they love him too much and love often can be startlingly blind when not tempered with dispassionate evaluation. It is not about whether people support him or not at this stage.
It’s about whether Lim’s behaviour has been upright and beyond reproach and whether he holds himself to a higher degree of accountability - much higher than Najib Razak or BN or Umno. It’s about morality, governance and appropriate behaviour for a person in power - the highest servant of the people in Penang.
The only way Lim will go is if he steps down on his own accord and spares the party and the state a long, needless wrangle pending trial and its outcome with all its attendant costs of a chief ministership which will descend into neglect in the meantime. If he is found not guilty, he can perhaps return to his position after a renewed mandate from the people and having learnt his lesson that power comes with responsibility and any apparent abuse of that power, however trivial it may seem, will affect his standing.
If Lim does not step down, he shows that he is bigger than the party he represents, that his own personal interests and glory loom larger than that of his party even if they could be on the wrong side of morality and perhaps even the law, and ultimately that his party the DAP does not have the guts and moral rectitude to remove an alleged errant leader who refuses to go.
P GUNASEGARAM hopes there is room for informed, intelligent and reasoned debate on this topic and that over-exuberant Guan Eng supporters do not become the exasperating, foul-mouthed extremists they so regularly love to decry over and over again in these columns and elsewhere. - Mkini
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