The High Chaparral fiasco continues as an upset Penang Gerakan chief Teng Hock Nan hit back at Lim Guan Eng that it was improper and uncultured of the Chief Minister to call one a thief.

"It's against the Malaysian culture for a person of his position to call the previous government as land thief or robber.

NONE "It's improper and unwarranted for a chief executive of the state government to resort to name calling," said Teng ( left ), who was a senior executive councillor in the previous Barisan Nasional state government.

He was responding to an earlier hard hitting statement from the Chief Minister pertaining to the controversial alienation and sales of Indian traditional enclave in Gelugor, the Kampung Buah Pala, which was once fondly called as Tamil High Chaparral by locals.

Instead of picking up petty political fights with others, Teng said Lim shall focus his resources in resolving basic prevailing problems such as flood, cleanliness, rubbish collections, traffic congestion, Penang Hill railway breakdowns and public transport.

Unlike the current DAP government, Teng said the previous state government had never shirk its responsibility to the people by "washing off its hands when goings get tough".

"The BN administrations had never washed their hands off over any issues. BN has always been hands on in resolving the people's problems even under hostile climate provoked by the opposition parties," he said.

Teng was criticising Lim's statement last month that his government was "washing its hand off" the Kampung Buah Pala issue when the villagers sought help from the federal government to end their predicament.

Last week Teng alleged that technically it was the DAP government, not the previous Gerakan administration, that finalised the village land deal and sold Kampung Buah Pala to the cooperative society - Koperasi Pegawai Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan

Earlier today Lim promptly returned fire by likening Teng's accusation as a classic case of ‘the thief shouting thief.'

Lim also described the previous BN government under Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon as land robbers.

BN was more responsible

Teng responded by saying that if at all it was a BN robbery, then given that Lim signed the documents, finalised the deal and transferred the land to the cooperative, "the chief minister had actually abetted the theft."

Although he admitted it was the previous government that alienated the village land, he said the Koh's administration had never denied it or passed the buck over to the current government.

"We also never had resorted to name calling like him," said Teng when he called Malaysiakini to give his response.

NONE He said Lim ( left ) could never deny that he had actually affected the transfer of the land title by overlooking the contractual clause that insisted that the cooperative and Oasis project developer Nusmetro Venture (P) Sdn Bhd to settle the villagers' compensation, relocation and resettlement issues beforehand.

He said the previous government inserted the clause as a contractual pre-condition to ensure that the interests, rights and benefits of the weaker party, the villagers, were safeguarded.

"The clause was inserted to ensure that no one was marginalised by the development programme," he said, adding that alienation exercise was done to bring about development to improve the living environment and quality of life in the area.

He said the previous BN government would never transfer the land title if the land owner and developer had not fulfilled the condition.

However, he said Lim's government had hastily and hurriedly transferred the land title before the land owner and developer had fulfilled the demands of the condition.

He also pointed that Lim had either conveniently forgot or swept under the carpet the election pledges made the Pakatan Rakyat leaders during last year's general election to save and preserve the Kampung Buah Pala as an Indian culture village.

"Lim owes a public explanation on all these," insisted Teng.

A distant chief minister

He also said Lim should not brag that he had brokered a better ‘double-storey terrace house' compensation for the villagers.

NONE He said the chief minister was forced to do so due to the pressure by the civil society movements and political parties.

He recalled before the intervention of the outside groups to help the villagers, Lim was least bothered about the issue and did not even want to talk about it.

"He transferred the land title and wanted to conveniently wash his hands off from the problem, something that a BN government will never do," he said.

Virtually all houses in Kampung Buah Pala have already been demolished and the developer is set to kick start its lucrative condominium project soon.