Penang Gerakan accused Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng of practicing double standards with his move to declassify minutes on a land conversion issue, but refused to do so in the Kampung Buah Pala case.

The movement's chief Oh Tong Keong said Lim had cited bureaucratic red tape as the main stumbling block in the way of him releasing the Kampung Buah Pala minutes.

oh tong keong penang gerakan youth sec He said Lim, however, exposed himself as a hypocrite when he willingly proposed to declassify exco and land committee minutes on the controversial seafront land status conversion case.

"Why the double standards? If Lim can release the exco minutes on the land issue, he could do the same in the Kampung Buah Pala case as well.

"Isn't that the principles of his CAT government - competency, accountability and transaparency? What he is hiding?" asked Oh ( right ).

Oh was responding to a statement by Lim on Monday that he planned to release the government's official minutes pertaining to the status of a seafront land in Farquhar Street in George Town.

Opposition representatives from BN accused Lim of misleading the assembly sitting in August on the conversion of 3.5 acres of land from leasehold to freehold for a commercial company

dap 2010 budget rocket cafe 071009 lim guan eng 01 The seafront land adjacent to the E & O Hotel on Farquhar Street is earmarked for a project by PDC Heritage Hotel Sdn Bhd - a joint venture between the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and YTL Hotels & Properties Sdn Bhd - for luxurious condominiums.

BN leaders accused Lim ( left ) of misleading and lying in the assembly in August when he said the state government had not approved any conversion of land from leasehold to freehold.

Lim said, in a written reply, that the state government would bring up the matter with the National Land Council at the year's end.

Lim was then replying to a written question by Umno's Pulau Betong assemblyperson Muhammad Farid Saad.

'People's right to know '

Following the criticisms, Lim said on Monday that he would propose to the exco at tomorrow's meeting to declassify the exco and state land committee minutes over the matter.

PHH is jointly owned by Penang Development Corporation (PDC) (49%) and YTL Hotels & Properties Sdn Bhd (51%).

However, Oh pointed out that Lim failed to uphold his CAT motto when former chief minister Koh Tsu Koon demanded declassification of the official minutes of Kampung Buah Pala as a pre-condition for a proposed televised debate between them on the village issue.

NONE Lim had said then that since his government was not responsible in alienating the village land for development, there was no necessity to declassify the minutes.

Kampung Buah Pala, once known as Tamil High Chaparral, was demolished in September to pave way for a lucrative condominium project called "The Oasis".

Oh demanded that Lim explain fully the controversial land conversion for PHH in the city's Unesco heritage zone.

"The people have the right to know whether the said piece of land has been converted from a 99-year-old lease to freehold status.

"A public property has been converted to a private commercial property. If it is so, when and why was it done?" asked Oh.

Lim's political secretary Ng Wei Aik said yesterday the fact that the declassification of minutes is being made without any pressure from the opposition clearly showed that the "state government upheld transparency and had nothing to hide."