KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today sought to fend off criticism over a 21-man delegation to China that included officials’ spouses by pointing out his administration’s travel costs were only 35 per cent of that from the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

Lim said since Pakatan Rakyat (PR) took over Penang in 2008, its accumulated travel expenses for a term amounted to slightly over RM600,000, compared to BN’s total of RM1.76 million for the same duration.

MCA Penang Secretary Lau Chiek Tuan had accused Lim of double standards for accusing BN of excessive spending for their trips abroad, pointing out that the Penang chief minister had done the same when he, his wife and a delegation of 19 others went to China for a five-day investment trip earlier this month.

“It is clear that the overseas trip expenses for five years under PR is RM618,000 and only 35 per cent of the BN’s expenses of RM1.76 million from the previous five years,” Lim, who is also DAP’s secretary-general, said in a statement

The Penang chief minister also dismissed Lau’s allegation that the China trip bore no results.

“The state government had succeeded in attracting foreign direct investments as much as RM24.98 billion from the trip, that is RM5.09 billion for 2008, RM1.44 billion in 2009, RM10.45 billion in 2010, RM10.45 billion in 2011.

“And of course Penang took the country’s first spot in 2011 and 2013 for FDIs,” he said.

Lim also listed the companies which have invested in Penang, among them being electronic giant Western Digital which placed investments worth RM3.72 billion there.

Lau cited a report by news portal Malaysiakini as saying questions had been raised about the delegation to China and suggested that Lim had been evasive with his reply and that his silence on the success of the trip in securing investments proved he was guilty.

“Worse of all was that when he was questioned about it by the media, he could only retort, ‘It is not a new law, but one that has been there from the very beginning, during BN’s time’ as a means to justify his double standards.

“Malaysiakini had reported that ‘questions have been raised as to why a large delegation of Penang government officers, their spouses and business representatives visited China from November 4-9, given the silence since their return as to what they had accomplished’,” he said.

Lau then said Lim’s reply was not surprising as the Penang chief minister is known for “promoting himself while vilifying others in public”.

Following this, he categorised the Penang PR administration’s motto of Competency, Accountability and Transparency as “mere political tricks”.

Liau’s comment came after the DAP launched attacks against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin following a revelation by Parliament that the utility bills of their official residences, as well as their overseas trips cost, were exorbitantly high.

In a Parliamentary reply to a query by DAP Seremban MP Anthony Loke, it was revealed that the utility bill for the two complexes cost taxpayers close to RM1 million.

The news came amid the Najib administration’s call for the public to embrace subsidy cuts on basic goods.

The opposition lamented that while the average Malaysians are forced to tighten their belts, government leaders lived lavishly.

Liau said since Lim was also allegedly guilty of the same sin, he urged the Penang chief minister from pointing fingers at others.

“In view of this, I urge Guan Eng and his DAP comrades to not point fingers at others if they themselves are not so clean.

“It has become ever clearer that ever since power has gotten into their heads, they have started to practise biasness and double standards by saying one thing yet doing another,” he said.