Where is the list of businesses where Lim Guan Eng is alleged to have embarrassed or given preferential treatment to that was promised but was not handed over by New Straits Times Penang bureau chief Sharanjit Singh?

Disparaging opinion pieces and columns by the NST editorial staff on the Penang Pakatan Rakyat government in general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in particular are nothing new.

However the Penang chief minister considers it offensive that Sharanjit has chosen to adopt a gross partisan stance to the extent of attacking Lim's personal integrity. Starting with an article on March 9 entitled, ‘The March 8, 2008 watershed: Guan Eng trait that's difficult to swallow’, Lim was accused by the NST of giving preferential treatment to certain businesses.

‘Some businessmen have also been lamenting how certain personalities and projects are being given preference by Lim. Others, or the less favoured ones, are made to withstand public embarrassment and are exposed during media briefings,’alleged the article.

When Lim remonstrated Sharanjit, he was promised to be given a list of businesses that Lim had allegedly given preferential treatment to. Sharanjit also told Lim that he had never requested for a special interview with Lim as his bosses in KL will never publish the interview.

Lim was also told that this attack against him was done partly by NST ’s Kuala Lumpur editors who had an agenda to conduct a hatchet job on the PR government as their BN masters could not find any traction in attacking his administration.

Lim can only wait for the promised list to determine which businesses he had favoured and who he had embarrassed. If there is any business group that is unhappy, it is probably the RM25 billion Penang Global City Centre project by Abad Naluri Sdn Bhd which Lim has declared is ‘as good as dead’. Was Sharanjit referring to the PGCC ‘as good as dead’ RM 25 billion project?

However, instead of providing the promised list, Sharanjit went on the attack by repeating his allegations of preferential treatment to certain businesses in another column piece on March 13, entitled ‘Sharanjit Singh: What's your beef, Guan Eng?’

Again Sharanjit did not provide the list the involved businesses as promised. If these attacks originated from NST ’s political masters and owners in Umno and BN, Sharanjit has done no wrong as he was only doing his job as a journalist.

However, he had crossed the partisan line between a professional journalist and a professional politician when he took it upon himself to launch these attacks on Lim's integrity.

To equate his actions with the detention under ISA of Sin Chew reporter Tan Hoon Cheng misses the point completely as Tan was detained merely for reporting the racist and seditious utterances of extremist Umno politicians. One can only say that, ‘Sharanjit, You are no Tan Hoon Cheng!’

Lim believes passionately in freedom of the press but not in the freedom to lie. The Penang chief minister wishes to make it clear that he has no issues with NST reporters who have conducted themselves professionally under the difficult constraints of working for an Umno paper.

The issue lies with NST editoral staff like Sharanjit who are behaving more Umno than Umno against Lim and his PR state government.

The question to Sharanjit and NST is this, ‘Where is the list?’

The writer is press secretary to the chief minister of Penang.