Gerakan wants DAP's Pulau Tikus assemblywoman Yap Soo Huey to show proof that Kampung Siam (or Lot 2103) was for religious use before 1996.
 
The party's state secretary Oh Tong Keong said that Yap (left) should do this instead of "pointing figures" at the previous state government.
 
"This is not fair to Gerakan and the former state government," Oh said in a press conference yesterday.
 
"Pakatan Rakyat has governed Penang for six years and should be well experienced in administration. However, they still avoid responsibility when facing problems.
 
"This should not happen to a government that often insists they are practising CAT (competency, accountability and transparency)," Oh stressed.
 
Yap had held a press conference at the village yesterday saying she would be applying to the National Heritage Department for the land to be gazetted as a heritage village.

'Rezoned from religious use'

 

Its residents have been asked to vacate the 0.64ha of land situated in Pulau Tikus by the developer - Five Star Heritage - who intends to build a hotel. They are now facing court action for staying put.
 
Yap claimed, and this was stated in a petition to save the village, that the land which houses 11 residential homes and 10 shophouses, was rezoned from religious use to commercial purposes back in 1996, when BN was in power.
 
Yap urged BN leaders, especially from Gerakan, to assist her efforts to make Kampung Siam a heritage village as the heritage department is under the federal government.
 
Oh added the Penang government should preserve historical buildings and places by taking the appropriate steps. However in the case of Kampung Siam, it had not done so, he claimed.
 
"If the state was truly interested to save Kampung Siam, why didn't it ask the Penang Municipal Council to take the necessary action?
 
"We do not want to politicise the issue but hope that the state government will do what is necessary and for the good for the villagers," he stressed.
 
Meanwhile Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has said the developer will not be issued a commencement  of work order until the problem is resolved.