Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s speech in the Dewan Rakyat today was a lively affair, after he tried to entrap his predecessor Najib Abdul Razak over the sale of a building in Hong Kong.
It is believed that this had to do with Najib’s recent social media posting about Putrajaya’s efforts to sell off the Malaysia Building at 48 Gloucester Road, Wanchai.
The former premier had also relayed his concerns about the sale of the 28-storey office tower to the press yesterday.
During the debate on the motion of thanks for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s speech today, Lim accused Najib of attempting to sell the building in the first half of 2018.
“I want to inform Najib (BN-Pekan) that the decision to sell the consulate building in Hong Kong was done under him during the BN administration.”
“The decision was done by him before May 9 (2018)… but the decision made was for a direct negotiation at the price of RM1.1 billion.
“When Pakatan Harapan took over, we received an offer when we did open tender. The offer was RM1.6 billion, which is RM500 million more than what BN agreed to,” he said.
‘Right to reply’
At this point, there was still tension in the Dewan because of an earlier shouting match over the 1MDB scandal and the national debt, which featured prominently in Lim’s speech.
The finance minister allowed several interjections before offering Najib (BN-Pekan) the opportunity to explain why the latter’s administration tried to sell Malaysia Building.
“Don’t try to go around this fact because this was your own decision. Harapan cancelled the sale, which was decided through direct negotiations, and we will sell it through open tender.
“I am willing to give Pekan the chance to reply,” he said.
Instead, Najib shot back: “Was the Penang underground tunnel done through open tender? Explain the tunnel first.”
Lim tried to press Najib again, but the former premier again talked about Penang.
At this point, opposition lawmakers joined in with chants of “Terowong! Terowong!” (Tunnel! Tunnel!).
When deputy speaker Nga Kor Ming finally restored order, Chow Kon Yeow (Harapan-Tanjong) interjected during Lim’s speech with a question that started out innocently enough.
“Does the finance minister agree that those who claim that the tunnel (project) was done without open tender are bodoh (stupid)?” the Penang chief minister asked, emphasising the word “bodoh.”
This led to another round of pandemonium as opposition lawmakers demanded that Chow retract his remark.
Nga ruled that no apology was needed, since Chow did not address anyone in particular.
When order was restored, Chow asked Lim again if he agreed, to which the finance minister only responded with a knowing smile before continuing with his speech.
At a later point, Shahidan Kassim (BN-Arau) said that those who do not conduct the Dewan Rakyat session fairly are “bodoh.”
It was previously reported in February that the Penang tunnel project is still in the feasibility study stage.
There has been no indication as to when construction on the project will commence.
Najib’s query leads to shouting match when Guan Eng raises 1MDB
Pandemonium erupted in the Dewan Rakyat during Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s winding-up speech on the royal address when former premier Najib Abdul Razak asked him about the latest national debt figures.
Najib had earlier asked the minister to respond to Bank Negara’s report that the national debt had increased by RM87.1 billion since 2017 to RM773.1 billion this year.
“I want to inform Najib (BN-Pekan) that the Pakatan Harapan government, since taking over on May 9, has not had any new mega-projects and any loans we made were because of development projects which were approved earlier … under Budget 2018.
“When Harapan took over as the government, we had to follow the Budget 2018 which was approved in the previous year,” Lim replied.
He said the projects were continued on the condition of being free of corruption and with reduced cost.
The minister added that if the cost of the projects were not reduced, the loans would have been much higher.
The shouting match started when Lim brought up the issue of 1MDB, claiming that the previous administration had hidden the debts of 1MBD by not including it in the official numbers.
Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) demanded to know who “hid” the figures, while Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) said the government is attempting to make it seem like the supposed RM1 trillion national debt is mostly due to the 1MDB scandal when it is related to other development projects such as the Pan-Borneo Highway.
Lim tried to respond to Khairy, but was constantly drowned out by interruptions from the opposition, including Najib himself, who said the country’s deficit decreased every year while he was prime minister.
“Because the debt was hidden. It was hidden, do you understand,” shouted Tony Pua (Harapan-Damansara) in response to Najib.
The Dewan Rakyat erupted into chaotic shouting again after this, forcing deputy speaker Nga Kor Ming to chide opposition lawmakers for interrupting Lim.
“The minister is trying to answer, but you are not giving him a chance to answer. It seems like this is being done on purpose,” he said.
He called for everyone to stop interrupting and for those who were not interested in listening to Lim to leave the chambers.
With only four minutes left on the clock for Lim’s winding-up speech, Nga ruled out any more questions.
When Lim eventually managed to continue his speech, another shouting match erupted over the sale of the Malaysia Building in Hong Kong.
MKINI
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