The director of the companywhich was set up to develop the controversial Taman Manggis had been ticked off for saying that the land would be used for affordable housing.

"I have censured him. I told him, it is not for him to decide but for us to decide what kind of housing will be there," said state BN chief Teng Chang Yeow.

NONE "The proposal to build affordable housing in Taman Manggis came from the director himself which was not presented to me or our committee," Teng( left) added.

Teng, who is Gerakan secretary general, insisted that the BN was still holding to the original proposal to build low cost housing on the 1.1 acre plot along Jalan Zainal Abidin.

He added that Khoo Boo Soon, director of Taman Manggis Phase II Development, had been told to issue a statement to clarify the matter.

Teng, a former state executive councillor, was responding  Khoo's  shocking announcement who said that the sole purpose of the company was to build affordable housing.

The announcement which came 30 minutes before state BN Youth held its press conference, also on Taman Manggis, caught the latter off guard as its leaders were unaware of the matter.

No interest in politics

NONE Khoo ( right ), the former town planning director, said that the company was a private entity and not interested in playing politics.

His statement was in major conflict with the state BN's campaign to acquire the land for public housing.

Later, when pressed by journalists to explain the matter, State BN Youth chief Oh Tong Keong simply said "it was probably a proposal", vowing to thresh out the matter with Khoo.

However, the confusion cast a negative impression on the cooperation between the two entities, as it was state BN - with the aid of the public and developers - which had paid the one percent earnest money to acquire the prime land.

When asked about the Dec 4 deadline f or BN to make good the remaining RM22 million, Teng said the state must come clean about selling the plot twice, to two different entities.

Tiitle not transferred stand firm

'Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who is also DAP secretary-general, continues to maintain that the land is still owned by the state government, that the title had not been transferred to the Kuala Lumpur International Dental Centre (KLIDC).

Initially earmarked for a specialist centre, KLIDC won the bid to develop the land in an open tender but is now willing to dispose of the land to the BN, and had asked the state to compensate the company for whatever cost incurred during the deal.

"Who is the rightful owner of the land? Who is selling the land to who? How can you sell a land which does not belong to you?" queried Teng.

"The state government must comply by the national land code and land rules, not according to their whims and fancies," he added.

"We are asking our lawyers to look into this first from a legal point of view. We want the state to send their Legal Advisor to talk to our lawyer, and not some small time politician," Teng stressed.