Penang MCA slams Guan Eng for flip-flop on reclamation works

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Penang MCA has hit out at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for allowing reclamation works on the island, although the DAP had strongly disagreed with road projects like the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR), proposed by the previous BN state government.

The party’s state liaison committee deputy chairman Tan Teik Cheng said today with the commencement of reclamation works, the Penang Third Link-Seberang Prai Undersea Tunnel project will start soon as well but the tunnel is actually 'just new packaging for PORR'.

Other than the undersea tunnel, which will be built on reclamation land, there are three more outer ring road projects, Tan said.

These include an alternative road from Tanjung Bungah leading to Batu Ferringhi, Air Itam to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway, and from Gurney Drive to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway.

"I can't imagine that the DAP which opposed the Penang Outer Ring Road has become the executor today. Did they really understand how the voters feel about being cheated?” Tan asked in a statement.

He recalled that in 2005, the Penang DAP annual general meeting adopted the resolution 'To oppose the Penang Outer Ring Road and Butterworth Outer Ring Road'.

“DAP should actually celebrate when the federal government did not support the building of PORR. Why then does the DAP criticise the federal government for marginalising Penang?

“Did DAP come to an epiphany after becoming Penang state government?

“Did it suddenly understand the BN government's good intentions? So, DAP should apologise to BN for its previous superficial misjudgement,” Tan said.

Opposed by NGOs

Meanwhile, Tan noted that reclamation works in Seri Tanjung 1 and 2 have been opposed by various NGOs including the Consumer's Association of Penang and Friends of Nature Malaysia.

These NGOs have produced a variety of evidence to show that the project will destroy the marine ecosystem, the livelihood of fishermen and produce mud and sludge along Gurney Drive, Tan said.

“The NGOs want the state government to cancel the plan but Lim turned a deaf ear.. Meanwhile, DAP must also apologise to the voters because it only opposed for the sake of opposing in the past, and today the DAP-led government is marginalising the interests of voters,” he said.



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