Smelling a dead rat ahead, Penang BN has decided to go against the plan
to privatize the Penang port to Umno-linked tycoon Syed Mokhtar
al-Bukhary as proposed by Prime Minister Najib Razak and MCA president
Chua Soi Lek.
Unlike the Johor-based Soi Lek, who is also the Penang Port Commission
chief, Penang BN chairman Teng Chang Yeow was quick to distance himself
from the plan that has angered Penangites, who mostly see it as a slap
in the face as well as a further example of the ruling coalition's
notorious corruption.
Teng urged Najib to review the deal, which has not been inked yet.
"We will send a delegation to the prime minister to express our views collected from the people," Teng told reporters.
However, he stopped short at joining DAP's "Return the Port to Penang"
campaign launched by the Pakatan Rakyat on Sunday. And when asked
whether there had been any open tender for the privatisation of the port
and if that was good practice, Teng replied he did not want to discuss
"technicalities".
"I don't know how it works, I am not in the federal government," said Teng.
Politically more savvy than Soi Lek but as mousy as Tsu Koon?
Recently
appointed the Penang BN chairman to replace the timid Koh Tsu Koon, it
looks like Teng will also be written off by Penang voters soon if he
does not make a clear stand against perceived corruption or publicly
call out for transparency even for deals that may have been directly
brokered by Najib and other BN colleagues.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and his state executive council had
last week rejected the federal government's decision to privatize the
port to Mokhtar's Johor-based Seaport Terminal. They reiterated their
request for the federal government to dredge the port instead of using
the excuse that the privatization was to enable the dredging to be done
by the tycoon's firm.
Several Pakatan Rakyat leaders had also slammed Soi Lek for trying to
sideline Penang port's growth so as to boost the ports in his own Johor
home-state.
"Dr
Chua, you have sold out the rights of the people of Penang. Of course,
they can go ahead and carry out the port operations without consulting
the state but do not forget — some of the pieces of land there are owned
and belong to the state government," Guan Eng said on Friday.
Soi Lek has however stuck to his guns, warning that to resist the deal was to "sabotage" Penang's own growth.
“The
privatisation is not to sabotage but to improve the efficiency of the
port. They can fight the federal government or try to derail it but if
they refuse to cooperate they will be sabotaging themselves,” said the MCA president.
Malaysia Chronicle
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