Day: September 2, 2016

The Penang DAP sounds more like a broken record nowadays. When Penang DAP voters dumped Koh Tsu Koon-led Gerakan for DAP, they genuinely believed that DAP could bring about the changes they were all looking forward to.  DAP, together with their Pakatan Rakyat partners threw in a manifesto that everyone thought was Utopian that even they did not think that they would wrestle any of the states from the Barisan Nasional.  However, thank you (or no thank you) to Mahathir whose personal attacks on the then-Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the Pakatan Rakyat was caught with their pants off when they actually won.  They had to now live up to the manifesto and promises they had made.

No thank you to Mahathir as the current problems faced by the Penang people are all started by his attacks on Abdullah, but thanks to him voters get to see the real face of the DAP.

In 2008, the DAP-led state government quickly introduced the principles of Competent, Accountability and Transparency (CAT) to the people of Penang.  This was repeated in the manifesto for the 2013 General Elections as shows above.  In the first bullet it stated that the administration of the CAT would be improved; all state assemblymen would be transparent and declare their assets; strengthen the freedom of information enactment; forbid family members of assemblymen from conducting businesses.  What has been going on in real life has far digressed from the “clean government” manifesto.

The Penang state government is far from being competent, accountable and transparent.  Its Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was charged in court for two counts of corruption cum abuse of position; the only declaration of assets to the public was by Lim Guan Eng when he invited the press into his controversial bungalow on Jalan Pinhorn to show them that there is no swimming pool; according to FreedomInfo.org, a global network of freedom of information advocates, Penang’s Freedom of Information policy does not comply to international definitions and is restrictive; family members of Penang’s state assemblymen especially the office holders are found to be conducting businesses like nobody’s business.  The latest involves Lim Kiat Seong, father of State Assemblyman Lim Siew Khim.

In a video that was made public by Penang Gerakan’s Oh Tong Keong, Kiat Seong, 68 years old was seen with a middleman and a complainant who argued that he had made a RM260 payment to bypass the Low-Cost Housing process but had yet to receive an offer letter.

In her defence, Lim Siew Khim who is also Wanita DAP Chief said that her father’s business has nothing to do with her, and that she has never heard anyone compaining about the issue in her constituency.  She even claimed to not have any knowledge of the issue.  I can only make the following deductions about Siew Khim:

1. She never goes down to the ground to care about the grassroots;
2. She does not care about the goings-on in her constituency;
3. She does not think what her father did is wrong;
4. She thinks the voters are stupid and would just accept her explanation at face value.

Lim Kiat Seong went missing immediately after the video was made public.  The MACC later found him and arrested him, and after being grilled for five hours, led the MACC to two properties where documents related to the case were seized.  Lim Siew Khim arrived at the MACC’s office on Jalan Northam at 10am for questioning.

Ironically, Lim Kiat Seong and Lim Kit Siang, father of charged-for-corruption Lim Guan Eng, share the same Chinese characters in their name (林吉祥).  Lim Kiat Seong is how the name is pronounced in Hokkien while Lim Kit Siang is Southern Min Chinese!

DAP loves to point to the mistakes made by others, the Barisan Nasional in particular.  It would go on and on about any issues brought forth that implicates anyone from the Barisan Nasional that they begin to sound like a broken heavy metal record that unfortunately repeats the shrieks instead of the strums. And the DAP has also chosen to not see that it has perhaps broken records for having the most number of corruption or corrupted-practices cases in slightly less than two terms.

I would be very amused if come GE14, the voters in Penang prove Lim Siew Khim’s Point Number Four right.