VIDEO l 5.18 min

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has accepted one of Teng Chang Yeow challenges to him that he contests only a state seat in the coming general election - provided Teng battles him in Padang Kota .

If Teng was agreeable to standing in the seat that the state BN chief had held for three terms, Lim said, he would convey to the top DAP leadership that he would not contest a parliamentary seat, as was required of him as party secretary-general.

lim guan eng 310313 01 Lim ( centre in photo ) made this announcement at the launch of the DAP Air Puteh branch GE13 operations centre today.

Lim said Teng, by setting new and ridiculous conditions before contesting against him, was clearly eating back his words of  “you must pick up from where you fall” and avoid a direct contest in Padang Kota.

Such promise of  “you must pick up where you fall” would be meaningless if Teng refused to show courage and ‘leadership by example’ by re-contesting in his old seat of Padang Kota and instead followed Umno’s dictates of where he should or should not contest.

Air Putih's Chow has agreed to switch seats

Lim said: “I will contest only one state seat if Teng Chang Yeow does not run away but re-contests in Padang Kota, which he held for three terms from 1995 to March 2008.

“Should Teng refuse to stand in Padang Kota, then I will not waste any more time with him because he has been exposed as a puppet of Umno, which is more interested in playing childish political games.

“I also fail to understand how my standing in a Parliament seat will affect the contest between both of us in a state seat. I am not asking him to come to my seat in Air Putih.”

NONE Lim added that Penang DAP chairperson and Padang Kota assemblyperson Chow Kon Yeow ( left ) has agreed to exchange Padang Kota with Air Putih to allow this contest between the top Pakatan Rakyat and BN leaders in Penang to proceed.                    

He also said the coming general election would be crucial because it would let the people make clear choices.

The contest would be about which party could provide better ideas and superior policies as well as the idealism, principles and values that would prepare a better future for Penang.

“Let the people of Penang decide whether PR has the policies and principles as well as possesses the courage and the idealism to prepare the future for our young and the young for the future,” Lim added.