Barisan Nasional’s motion on land reclamation at the Penang state assembly session last Friday has dug a huge hole in Pakatan Harapan’s backyard.
The motion was defeated by the DAP-dominated assembly in a 23-against-10 vote, but Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng has emerged as a battered victor.
The cracks in the Pakatan armour have become visible indeed.
The motion was backed by one of DAP’s own, Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu. Although he later apologised for his “political mistake,” the damage had been done.
But what frustrated Lim most was that five PKR assemblymen abstained from voting. Of PKR’s 10 assemblymen, only those holding government portfolios voted against the motion.
Lim indicated that the defiance demonstrated by the five PKR politicians gave an impression that PKR was with Umno.
In other words, anyone who doesn’t back DAP must be supporting Umno.
The accusation has angered Penang PKR Youth. The movement has demanded that Lim retract his statement and publicly apologise to the five PKR assemblymen. It reminded him that PKR’s elected representatives had backed him since 2008.
The BN motion was on the controversial land reclamation of 2,600 hectares of land, and PKR Youth said the PKR assemblymen had abstained from voting because their conscience did not allow them to support the project.
“It showed that they did not want to be mere puppets of the state administration,” the movement said in a press release.
Lim should now address the problem with the Pakatan coalition and stop using the routine political statement that anyone disagreeing with him “is working with Umno.”
He should realise that 16 out of 40 state lawmakers, including Pinang Tunggal’s Roslan Saidin, who was absent during the voting for the motion, have voiced out their opposition to his government’s reclamation projects.
The 16 are representatives of the people. Their strong stance on the issue should therefore be respected.
The DAP government should stop believing that all its development programmes are well received by the people. It must heed Penangites’ views and halt all reclamation projects until it has heard out the people.
Observers suggest that DAP has habitually tried to cover up its shortcomings, weaknesses and wrongdoings by demonising Umno. They say this is part of its political strategy to win over non-Malays.
FMT