Wee: Lim, where are you?
Penang CM fails to turn up at talk on undersea tunnel issue
BUTTERWORTH: The atmosphere in the hall packed with Barisan Nasional supporters was charged when they realised that neither Lim Guan Eng nor his father was going to show up for a talk on the Penang undersea tunnel.
Two front row seats were reserved for Guan Eng and Kit Siang but they did not show up.
“Where are you? Why are you ignoring us?
“We are Penangites suffering from your actions,” state MCA chief Datuk Tan Teik Cheng called out on stage to cheers from the audience.
Tan, in his speech at the political talk held at the Tan Sri Eng Chuan Tong Association hall in Jalan Kampung Paya, expressed disappointment that the Chief Minister would not engage in a public debate with MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
“We only wanted a clear explanation because of all the discrepancies that Dr Wee discovered.
“And now, even when we hold this talk and invite him, he does not show up,” he said.
The talk titled “Political Talks on Penang’s Truth” is part of a series of talks organised by Penang MCA to highlight problematic issues in the state.
Dr Wee took to the stage to a standing ovation before outlining the controversies he had discovered.
“Do not feel overwhelmed by the complexity. When I first discovered these issues, I was also stunned by how complicated the tunnel project had become.
“But I have developed a way for Penangites to understand how they have been fooled and how they have lost so much because of the project,” he said.
Dr Wee stressed that the discrepancies and anomalies he discovered were only from information provided by the state.
“We didn’t go searching for information.
“Everything was from official statements of the state and from the Penang Public Accounts Committee report on the project,” he said.
In his hour-long presentation, Dr Wee showed the crowd a long list of contradicting facts and figures on the tunnel project.
He called on Penangites not to be taken in by the glowing accounts offered by the state since the project was announced in 2013.
“The state claimed that the special purpose vehicle of the project had a paid-up capital of over RM549bil.
“But as of January, the SPV’s paidup was only RM26.4mil,” he told the crowd.
Since the start of the year, Dr Wee has been on a crusade to educate Penangites about his findings on the tunnel project.
Last night’s talk was the high point of his efforts because it was held in Guan Eng’s parliamentary constituency of Bagan.
Dr Wee earlier urged Guan Eng to engage in a public debate with him to clear the air on the tunnel project but the latter refused, saying that Dr Wee was MCA’s number two while he was DAP’s number one.
The packed hall at the talk comprised mostly locals.
Barisan Nasional strategic communications deputy director Datuk Eric See-To also spoke at the event.