COMMENT Barisan Nasional (BN) will not stop at just Penang chief minister’s bungalow deal in its attacks on both Selangor and Penang.

At the time of writing, Gerakan attacked Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, saying that Lim’s attempt to blame PKR for the cancelled snap election for the state has backfired. It appears that Penang BN chairperson Teng Chang Yeow has not been doing his homework.

A number of PKR leaders have praised Lim for his willingness to consider cancelling the snap election.

Voters can rest assured that the opposition in these two Pakatan states, along with those in the corridors of power at the federal level, will continue to attack both states, even if they have to use wild and baseless allegations.

They have been doing it since 2008. They paraded a cow’s head and protested in front of the Selangor state administrative office, accusing then-menteri besar of Selangor Khalid Ibrahim of siding with the Hindus when he relocated a Hindu temple.

When the then-home minister Hishammuddin Hussein claimed that there were also PAS members amongst the protesters, Khalid Samad, who was with Selangor PAS, then challenged Hishammuddin to produce the list of PAS members. Till today, Hishammuddin has failed to provide the list.

They also tried to do it to Taman Medan assemblyperson Haniza Mohd Talha, claiming that she did nothing about the cross that appeared on a façade of a church in Taman Medan.

Investigation clearly showed that the residents were members of Petaling Jaya Selatan (PJS) Umno branch, where the chief was none other than the elder brother of the current inspector-general of police, Abdullah Abu Bakar. The illegal assembly was held without even obtaining a police permit and Abdullah went scot-free.

Challenges ahead

In some cases like yesterday’s press conference, the Trojan horse was none other than a PKR member himself, Badrol Hisham Shaharin, who is better known as Chegubard. Badrol Hisham is also the founder of Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM).

He accused Selangor state executive councillor Elizabeth Wong of lying, after Wong responded to his earlier press conference in July, stating that the state government has not re-zoned the Paya Indah Wetlands.

Chegubard again called a press conference yesterday to harp on the same issue, but on further investigation, Badrol had apparently failed to do his homework.

“He had accused the state government of breaching the conditions under the Ramsar Convention, without even knowing that the Paya Indah Wetlands has never been listed under the convention,” Wong said.

“For this reason, members of the public should be fully aware that the information provided by Badrol is misleading, because they can easily check the list of six places in Malaysia that come under the Ramsar Convention. Paya Indah Wetlands is definitely not on the list!”

Besides that, Badrol Hisham said that the Paya Indah Wetlands is a World Heritage Forest, but again, he failed to carry out his own investigation.

The wetlands occupies two lots, 4827 and 3974, which cover an area of 450.76 acres, and it has been gazetted since 1998 by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) as a Wetlands Reserve under the National Land Code. It was never even a forest reserve or a World Heritage Forest.

Therefore, the land conversion issue does not rise, since the land earmarked Lot 68054 that he complained about, was outside the Paya Indah Wetlands, and privately owned.

Therefore, in my opinion, Chegubard’s accusations were wild at best and were meant to mislead the public. Surprisingly, Chegubard has not been actively speaking out against the corruption involving the Malaysian Official No 1 (MO1). Why?

Plastics and polystyrene

Hearing further from Wong, it is also obvious to me that certain media people are either too ignorant or trying to play up some issues, without even investigating further.

I once told someone working with The Star newspaper to stop using the word ‘hudud’ when it was never even a hudud issue per se.

Whatever happened in Kelantan just before the last general election is nothing unusual, that should two single persons hold hands at the Lake Gardens, even the Kuala Lumpur City Hall enforcement officers would issue them a summons. What hudud are we talking about?

But the people behind the press were happy to use the open and inverted comma, and calling holding of hands an offence as if punishable by the hudud.

Therefore, when the state government held a Hari Raya open house recently, it came as no surprise that two media - the Malay Mail and Sin Chew - highlighted that polystyrene was still being used extensively at the government function.

Wong immediately challenged the reporters to pinpoint which hawker was still using polystyrene despite being instructed never to use it any more. She said the state is serious about reducing the use of polystyrene, which is harmful to the environment in the long run.

After some investigation, it was clear that the reporters did not even know that the state had already issued a directive in black and white that all state-sponsored events had to stop using polystyrene. Instead, the hawkers were all using sugarcane-based containers that are slightly more expensive but are biodegradable.

According to Wong at her press conference yesterday, the cost of using such containers for food packaging depends on demand and supply. “If the demand is high, and volume justifies it, the price of the biodegradable containers will be lower than the polystyrene,” she said.

Looking back, I can see a trend in all the attacks that are levelled against both Selangor and Penang state governments. This is expected, because BN will want to seize the two richest states in the country, but I believe the rakyat would prefer to allow Pakatan for the moment to control these two states.

After all, there is still so much money in the Selangor state’s reserves that have been accumulating since Pakatan took over the state in 2008, and the money is being used to improve the infrastructure and facilities. I hope more of the money can be used to improve the standard of living for my fellow Selangorians.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.