Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has accused Gerakan leader Koh Tsu Koon of allegedly making a false announcement about an American company investing in the state.

Lim said Koh should prove that he has the courage to own up to his own mistake of making the alleged false claim instead of trying to mask his failure with another lie.

"Koh must fully account to Malaysians what is the extraordinary investment for a global center from an American company which he claimed on May 16 that he had played a role in bringing to Penang," said the DAP national secretary general in Penang today.

NONE "Koh claims that he had never announced that Motorola was investing RM4 billion in Penang. However Koh is not being honest," he added.

"Can Koh please stand up and own up to his mistake so that he can learn from it and improve his performance in his new job as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department?" Lim ( left ) queried sarcastically.

He was responding to news reports on May 16 and 17 quoting Koh as saying that Prime Minister Najib Razak would be announcing an extraordinary investment to set up a global center by an American firm during his visit to United States.

Local journalists made to look silly

He had said that he had played a role as an adviser to the US company in coming to its decision, which was to have been announced by Najib in New York.

On May 19, Najib announced the new investment by Motorola to set up a global excellence center  in Penang which was widely reported in the media.

Lim said Koh now claims that this new RM4 billion investment was a mistake by Reuters .

"If so then why was this mistake not corrected by all the mainstream news media including Bernama?" he asked

.

"No one in Malaysia was aware that Najib and Reuters had made a mistake as not a single correction was reported in the Malaysian news media," he added.

"Were the official Malaysian media accompanying Najib so incompetent that they did not correct the RM 4 billion mistake? This cannot be so," stressed Lim.

He added that Najib's announcement had "delighted" Penangites and Malaysians so much so even the state government was willing to thank Koh for his role in the matter.

However, this "empty boast" by Koh had not only deeply disappointed Malaysians and Penangites but also shamed Najib for making a false announcement in front of the foreign audience in US, said Lim.

If Motorola is not the extraordinary investment of a US company in Penang, then Koh should explain what is the amount and from which American company is that extraordinary investment coming to Penang, he added.