Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy (above) flayed a PAS leader for accusing him of being "over-emotional and self-exposing" about the Kulim International Airport (KXP).
Ramasamy said the state PAS liaison secretary Iszuree Ibrahim has shown "Not a glaring absence of knowledge but opportunism on the part of PAS leaders".
"If anyone is emotional, blind to reality and easily succumb to racism and religious extremism, then that someone must be in PAS or Umno," Ramasamy told Malaysiakini.
"In recent years by learning much from Umno, some PAS leaders have perfected the art of racism and interchangeably religious extremism," argued the DAP Prai assemblyperson.
"Yet, if there is an opportunity, they are quick to pounce on others to label them as emotional or racists," he added.
On May 7, Iszuree said in a statement that Ramasamy's objection to the KXP is "clearly emotional in tone".
Ramasamy had claimed there were attempts to reduce the significance of Penang’s attraction and punish Penang for its success, Iszuree said.
"But it is excessive when Ramasamy continues to attribute the federal backing of the project to Malay dominance, and Penang being an 'odd' state in terms of racial composition and achievements in urban development and commercialisation," he added.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow himself had expressed concern over the project, saying it would bring "negative impact" to Penang.
Ramasamy said there was "nothing emotional or racial" in his recent article that requested the federal government to consult Penang on the proposed Kulim airport.
He said he merely advised the government not to get entrapped into a BN-kind of racial narrative that sought to manage politics on racial grounds.
"What is surprising is that this Penang PAS leader seems not well informed about the information on the airport matter as though the feasibility study had been completed," Ramasamy said.
"Furthermore, he naively poses the question whether projects in Penang have undergone feasibility studies.
"Really I would like him to reveal the projects in Penang that escaped regulatory compliance," Ramasamy challenged.
Ramasamy then went on to accuse Iszuree of "glaring ignorance", finding his "sheer hypocrisy in shedding crocodile tears" in support of Kedah amusing.
"If Iszuree can shed so much crocodile tears for Kedah, can he tell me that he was not aware of how Penang was treated by the BN for the last ten years or so.
"Why was Penang despite its financial contributions in taxes to the federal government was given such shabby treatment?" Ramasamy asked.
Ramasamy said major development projects such as airports and seaports - whether in Malaysia or elsewhere - cannot be conceptualised on parochialism or on the basis of provincial or state nationalism, but from a regional perspective.
The setting up of the Northern Corridor Implementation Agency that was to bring about a regional perspective to developments in the northern regions of Peninsular Malaysia, he said, has been "a major let-down".
"NCIA, by mechanically endorsing the Kulim airport without even an independent study, has proven to be another bureaucratic federal agency that has failed bring about regional perspective to development." - Mkini
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