Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has told critics to question the previous administration, not him, if they want answers about the conversion of a valuable piece of state land to freehold status.

lim guan eng pkr penang media journalist attacked by pkr security pc 050808 01 “It was not my administration which converted the land, it was the previous Barisan Nasional state government,” he told journalists, referring to predecessor and Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon.

“If one wants to know whether or not the particular land conversion was merited or not, ... question your good friend, not me.”

Lim said his government has only been following through a previous decision.

The site is where the Queensbay Mall is located along the Bayan Lepas coastal highway near the Free Industrial Zone.

Questions were raised by several quarters - including PKR leaders - as to how the 99-year leasehold land belonging to the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) was made into a freehold concern and sold to a private firm.

Lim was criticised for overlooking Section 76 of the National Land Code (NLC)1965, which stipulates that the state cannot dispose of any part of the foreshore or sea-bed for a period exceeding 99 years - when his administration approved the conversion in April.

The criticism has continued since Lim explained to the state assembly that it was the state’s prerogative to grant freehold status to certain reclaimed lands, including the 28ha Queensbay site.

‘Rules not breached’

Today he offered a thorough explanation, detailing that the state executive council was legally bound to abide by the previous decision. He insisted that it does not breach the rules.

koh tsu khoon penang The NLC clearly stipulates that foreshore lands are areas between shoreline and, low and high tide water marks. By this definition, Queensbay is not in this category, said Lim

“It was a matter of state policy to alienate, convert and re-convert reclaimed land. Whether the conversion of Queenbay land was merited or not, one should ask the previous government (led by Koh, right) , not the current one,” Lim said.

The reclaimed area was never considered foreshore land and was duly gazetted as state land, a conversion sanctioned by a High Court order.

The court arrangement was made after the project’s original developer, Eternal Resources Sdn Bhd, was affected adversely by the financial crisis in the late 1990s. PDC passed the project to CP Landmark Sdn Bhd as part of a rescue bid.

It is learnt the freehold status was offered as an incentive to CP Landmark to complete the commercial-cum-residential project.