Who says Penang BN never sold state land?
After being battered with allegations of selling state land, the Penang DAP is fighting back with its own accusations of a "complot" involving senior Umno leaders doing the same when BN was in government prior to 2008.
After being battered with allegations of selling state land, the Penang DAP is fighting back with its own accusations of a "complot" involving senior Umno leaders doing the same when BN was in government prior to 2008.
State DAP Youth chief Ng Wei Aik revealed that the complot involved the near sale of a parcel of agricultural land in Relau - a neighbourhood located in the south-central part of the island.
Ng claimed that the previous BN administration had planned to sell the plot to two Umno leaders and urged state BN chief Teng Chang Yeow (
right
) to reveal who they were.
"Teng should tell the people who were involved as the two leaders are his good friends, part of his team," Ng said of the Gerakan secretary-general.
"Fortunately, they failed to sell the land," he told a press conference at the site yesterday. He said the sale did not materialise after the Gerakan-led BN lost power in the 2008 general election.
Ng admitted that the current government does sell plots of state land, but these only involved plots without any development plan.
The plots are also disposed of via open tenders, with only the highest bidders winning.
More exposes to come
The state land named by Ng, a 25-acre plot managed by the Agriculture Ministry since 1973, was recently renamed 'Relau Agro-Tourism Centre".
About 17.5 acres of the land comprise fruit trees and forest, the Komtar assemblyperson said, adding that the offer price for the land was far less than the market price and the sale was done without an open tender.
Ng, who is also political secretary to the chief minister, warned BN that this episode was just one of the many cases of the previous BN government selling off state land that would be revealed in the coming days.
He pointed to another controversial case - the sale of the former
Kampung Buah Pala land
for RM10 per square foot when it was valued at RM50psf.
He said the MIC had pledged to purchase the land for RM3.2 million but eventually did not do it.
In the case of the long-drawn controversy of the Taman Manggis land , Ng said, "I wonder if state BN Youth chief Oh Tong Keong ( left ) can actually find the money to buy it for RM450psf?".
Oh, who is also state Gerakan Youth chief, had said BN supporters were willing to buy the land - sold to a private company and earmarked for a medical centre - to build low medium-cost houses on it.
"They (state BN Youth) want to collect money from the public - but is this another plot to grab the land for some crony developers?" Ng asked.
"If you want to buy the land, ask BN for the money, don't collect it from the people to help you grab the land," Ng told Oh, who is in the forefront of several 'revelations' of land deals involving the state.
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