Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today took to task critics for making a big fuss on the state's Korean trade mission while being "strangely quiet" over the billion-ringgit scandals at the federal government level.

He said the critics, mainly Barisan Nasional politicians, should have instead saved their time and energy to scrutinise and criticise the RM23.7 billion wastage caused by three major scandals recently.

penang dap agm 021108 lim guan eng speech.jpg Lim was referring to the Maybank's overpriced RM10.8 billion purchase of two distressed foreign banks at twice their current value; the RM1.6 billion purchase of Eurochopter Cougar helicopters without flight tests or physical inspection; and RM11.3 billion for the High Speed Broadband project without open tender.

Government-linked company Maybank's purchases involved the RM8 billion acquisition of Bank Internasional Indonesia and the RM2.8 billion acquisition of 20 percent stake in Pakistan's MBC Bank.

Lim said BN politicians should have criticised those scandals if they were serious and sincere to wiping out wastage and leakages of public funds, instead of disapproving his Far East delegation, which had secured a RM100 million Korean investment to construct a golf course in the Batu Kawan parliamentary constituency.

52-person trip under fire

The state government came under fire from local BN leaders, especially from Umno and Gerakan, for allegedly wasting public funds in an unusually large 52-person trade delegation to South Korea for a five-day trip beginning Oct 27.

They also questioned the reasons for Lim to take along his wife, Betty Chew, Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin and parliamentarians Jeff Ooi, who is the state industrial relations coordinator and an InvestPenang director, Liew Chin Tong, to South Korea.

Speaking at the Penang DAP Ordinary Convention 2008 in Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel in Georgetown today, Lim returned fire at his critics, belittling them of trying to equate DAP-led state government with the previous BN government.

"They are criticising the current state government because they thought we were also like them.

"Just because they wasted public funds on foreign trips by going for sightseeing in the name of trade missions during their time, they thought we too would do the same," he told some 300 DAP leaders and members at the convention.

When asked by journalists later to divulge the budget for the trip, Lim, however said InvestPenang executive chairperson Lee Kah Choon would respond to such queries when he returns from China in next few days.

"He (Lee) will give a comprehensive reply," he said.

Jeff Ooi told Malaysiakini that the BN leaders had failed to realise that he was part of state government team on foreign investment, and was thus entitled to travel to South Korea to "sell Penang and lure investments".

Need for multi-language signages

The chief minister also took a swipe at BN politicians for criticising the state government in adding more languages to the existing Bahasa Malaysia on public signboards in Georgetown heritage zones.

He said the state government was not belittling the official status of Bahasa Malaysia as claimed by critics, but was adding other languages to cater for foreign visitors.

"We will add one more language - either English, Mandarin, Tamil or Arabic - on the signboards depending on the area, without deleting the official language in the signages," Lim.

The DAP secretary-general also stressed that his party constitution upholds Bahasa Malaysia's official status.

He ticked off critics for not making similar hue and cry when the government replaced Bahasa Malaysia with English to teach Science and Mathematics in schools some years back.

"Here the federal government replaced the official language with English.

"We didn't hear similar outcry from the same hypocrite politicians," he said, adding that Umno politicians should realise that racial politics was futile and no longer has majority appeal in Malaysia.