Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong should practice what he preaches when he said that the Pakatan Harapan had been selling ‘false hopes’ to Penangites.

The tone of Mah’s speech is the usual rhetoric of BN’s hypocritical style of criticisms. Mah himself does not seem to understand what Penang is all about though. First of all, the Pakatan Harapan government under Lim Guan Eng has had only a little over eight years of being in government in Penang but the Gerakan has had 39 years.

I had already spoken and compared the affordable housing of the present Pakatan Harapan government as compared to the previous BN administration and facts are facts. The Pakatan Harapan Penang state government is one that works hard to ensure that our human capital do not have to leave their family and friends to make a living elsewhere. In fact, this is what a real government should be doing in the first place.

Within eight years of being government in Penang, we had reduced our debts by 90 percent and had recorded an investment of RM8.2 billion in 2014, an increase of 110 percent compared to RM3.9 billion in 2013. For the eight years between 2008-2015, Penang had recorded a total investment of RM55 billion which is a 90 percent increase compared to the eight years under the Gerakan-led BN government between 2000-2007 totaling RM29 billion.

So tell me, which government do the investors have more confidence in?

The fact of the matter is, Mah Siew Keong should instead be talking about helping the economy of his constituency of Teluk Intan. Understand this, the success of a government is whether it has done enough to keep their human capital.

What has Gerakan or the BN done to create new jobs in Teluk Intan? If the youth of Teluk Intan are forced to leave their families and friends behind for Ipoh or Selangor to earn a living, then Gerakan should admit that they have failed in representing them.

Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong should be reminded that Gerakan is part of the Barisan Nasional ruling coalition at the state and federal levels. He should be able to bring development and progress as well as jobs to Teluk Intan as they have federal as well as state power.

The people of Teluk Intan should have no reason to see a lack of priority in their town’s welfare unless of course, you have just confirmed everyone’s perception that Gerakan is nothing more than allegedly a mere slave to their Umno masters.

CHRIS LEE CHUN KIT is a city councillor with the Penang Island City Council (Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang) representing the DAP.