The verbal war between Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong over the undersea tunnel project in the northern state took a technological turn this afternoon.

During a presentation of an educational robot by Cytron Technologies, a question was posed to the chief minister, in jest, if he would use the robot to respond to Wee, since Lim had said he was tired of doing so.

Lim replied that the “robot's fuse would burn” if tasked with responding to the MCA leader's queries.

"I am not that tired yet," he added, with laughter.

Earlier, Lim told reporters he has grown tired of answering Wee and also dismissed a report in the MCA-owned newspaper The Star yesterday, bearing the headline, “Wee asks Penang govt tough questions”.

"Is this tough, ah? This is trivial and petty,” he retorted.

"He doesn't ask tough questions, and I am tired of responding to him because all the answers are already there in my video clips.

"But my state executive councillors told me to reply to him, so I am doing it," he added.

Prior to this, the tit-for-tat between the two leaders had taken a scholastic twist after Lim said if he was Wee's lecturer, the latter would surely fail his examination.

The MCA leader then responded that he was glad for not having a lecturer like Lim.

Commenting on this, Lim said at his press conference this afternoon: "Any lecturer would vomit blood if they have him as a student."

The RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel that is to link Penang Island with Butterworth on the mainland is now the subject of an MACC investigation.

Lim has insisted that the project was above board and that it was awarded via an open tender process headed by state secretary Farizan Darus.

Last week, mainstream media reports quoted MACC sources as claiming there were kickbacks paid to state political leaders in the awarding of the project.