Penang BN has decried the 30 days to pay up requirement imposed by the state government for the Taman Manggis land, saying it was discriminatory as a private concern was allowed to settle their payment for another land sale in five years.

State Umno Youth chief Shaik Hussein Mydin said the strict requirement by the state makes it seem like Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng never had the intention to sell the land for public housing and would still prefer the plot to be used by a private hospital.

NONE Shaik Hussein ( right ) accused Lim of corruption when he said Lim had “received bribes” from the company - Kuala Lumpur International Dental Centre - which won the bid to develop the land into a medical centre.

“What is his intention then to impose such a short time for us to pay the money? It is normal for any transaction to pay one percent first, then the remaining nine percent. The rest is to be settled at a given time,” said Shaik Hussein during a press conference today.

Shaik Hussein, an engineer by profession, pointed out that in the sale of a piece of land in Bayan Mutiara belonging to the Penang Development Corporation - the state development agency - to a private developer - the company was allowed to settle their payment in five years.

“That is for a private concern and they have five years to settle the payment. We want to build public housing and we were asked to pay in 30 days. This is not Lim’s family land, it does not belong to Lim Kit Siang. This land belongs to the state government,” he added.

“It would have been better for Lim to admit earlier that he does not want to sell the land to build public housing. We would have considered the case closed then,” he quipped.

Shaik Hussein also asked if the state executive council had agreed to the sale of the 1.1 acre piece of land along Jalan Zainal Abidin to Penang BN.

He stressed that the BN was serious about the matter and was prepared to spend RM50 million for the entire public housing project, of which RM25 million would go into the construction.

‘Ng best broker in the world’

State BN Youth chief Oh Tong Keong, who first raised the Taman Manggis issue, also criticised Lim for his special treatment of developers, citing the Bayan Mutiara case .

Oh, who is state Gerakan Youth chief, also questioned why Lim’s political secretary Ng Wei Aik was handling the case and not the state secretariat.

“It seems the state government is being handled by two persons only - Lim and Ng,” said Oh, at the same press conference with Shaik Hussein.

“We want to congratulate Ng, the Komtar assemblyperson, for being the best land broker in the world,” he joked.

He continue to insist on a sales and purchase agreement from the state government, adding that a lawyer’s letter had been sent to Lim to request for a meeting to discuss the matter instead of talking through the press.

NONE When asked, Lim ( left ) explained that the Bayan Mutiara deal was already an improvement from the 10-year installment period accorded by the previous BN administration under Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon to the developers of the Jelutong Expressway, prior to 2008.

He added that the Bayan Mutiara deal also included reclamation of the land.

Lim explained that the reason why the state BN is asked to make good the payment in 30 days is because he is unable to trust whether they would honour the deal.

“They said they wanted to build public housing on the land, can we trust them?” asked Lim at a press conference today, adding that he expected them to pay in full (100 percent) when they had made such a big fuss over the issue.

On the sale and purchase agreement, Lim criticised the BN for acting as if they had never been in government.

“This is government land, not private land, so there would not be an S&P agreement. We would alienate the land to them, and give them the title if they pay up in 30 days. Once they do that, we will proceed from there,” he said.