I’m MCA chief, Guan Eng can’t avoid debating me now, says Wee

Wee Ka Siong, who became MCA president last November.

PETALING JAYA: MCA president Wee Ka Siong has renewed his challenge to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to a debate on issues concerning the Penang tunnel.

Speaking to FMT, Wee said Lim’s reason for rejecting the challenge when it was first made was no longer relevant because he had now become his party’s president.

Last March, Lim said political protocol dictated that he could debate only the MCA president, who was then Liow Tiong Lai.

“I am now the president of MCA and, according to Lim, he can now debate me,” Wee said.

“However, if Lim continues to chicken out by giving other excuses, I do not mind debating Chow Kon Yeow in his capacity as the Penang chief minister.”

Wee then trained his guns on Chow, who said yesterday that the cost of the undersea tunnel and three-roads project would remain at RM6.3 billion and not shoot to “over RM20 billion” as Wee had estimated.

He questioned how anyone could believe that a project costing RM6.3 billion six years ago would not have seen a price increase by now and would cost the same even in 2026, when construction is scheduled to start.

He said it was as if inflation and land prices in Penang had stood still since 2013 and would “remain at zero until the year 2026”.

The Penang government once said construction work on the undersea tunnel portion would begin in 2023, but according to a recent news report, the work will commence only in 2026.

Wee recalled that one of Chow’s deputies, P Ramasamy, once tried to show that he was wrong in estimating the project cost at RM20 billion.

Ramasamy said the price of the land was RM475 per sq ft and not RM1,300 per sq ft, as Wee assumed in his calculation.

Wee noted a report in The Edge on Wednesday that said Maybank was helping to sell the land at RM1,300 per sq ft.

“This proves I was correct and Ramasamy was wrong.”

He said he wanted a debate instead of “pointlessly arguing” through the media.

The construction of the tunnel and the three roads is to be paid through rights to 110 acres of land on Seri Tanjung Pinang 2, which is still being reclaimed. - FMT