GEORGE TOWN, Nov 27 ― The DAP has had a relatively easy time running Penang the last eight years, but political analysts said the repeated controversies concerning limited affordable housing and land reclamation projects will be more than just a road bump for the current administration under Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to cross.
Rather than continue blaming the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) state government for these issues, the analysts cautioned the DAP team to find workable solutions or these challenges may turn into handicaps when the next elections swing around by 2018, if not before.
“Their honeymoon period is over. DAP can't continue to harp on what the previous administration did, what's important now, they must show that they are not continuing with the policies put in place by the previous administration, otherwise, they are no different,” political scientist Faisal Hazis told Malay Mail Online in an interview this week.
The associate professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Institute of Malaysian and International Studies noted that Lim has repeatedly pointed out that BN had approved more land reclamation projects compared to his administration, but said the argument will not hold water for much longer.
“The size of the land reclamation projects approved then compared to now is immaterial, what's important is that are they continuing with what BN was doing by continuing to approve land reclamation projects,” he said.
He reminded DAP and its allies in Pakatan Harapan that the people had voted them in because they wanted change and because they wanted them to do things differently from the previous administration.
“The fact remains that they are still continuing with the old policies that BN had implemented which is not a change the people expected,” Faizal added.
BN had recently claimed the current administration is approving too many land reclamation projects that could damage the island state's environment but Lim had responded by pointing out that most of the ongoing projects were approved by the previous administration.
BN had also tried to table a motion over the land reclamation projects and this caused another controversy when a DAP backbencher supported the motion while five PKR backbenchers chose to abstain from voting instead of voting it down.
Even this controversy with the PKR five showed that the current administration is no different from BN’s tactics, especially with Lim pressing them to apologise for abstaining, Faisal said.
“They had criticised BN MPs in Parliament for refusing to vote in support of motions in the interest of the people by the opposition MPs. They are the ones to tell BN MPs to vote according to their conscience and yet now, they expect all of their own assemblymen to toe the line instead of voting according to their principles and conscience,” he said.
Universiti Utara Malaysia's associate professor Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani agreed that if DAP had promised a new type of politics to the people, then they should not be so worked up over the PKR five's decision to abstain from voting in an issue that they don't agree with.
“What they are doing now is similar to the previous state government, they don't allow dissent and expect everyone to do as they say so this is no different from BN,” he said.
He also believed that the current state administration can't continue to blame the previous state government's policies on everything, including the land reclamation projects.
“It's true they have to honour the previously approved projects, but they can do something to change it or come up with a different process to mitigate it instead of blaming the previous administration,” he said.
He also said the time has come for the incumbent administration to show how they are different and that they can lead by bringing actual changes in policies.
University of Tasmania's Asia Institute director, James Chin believes DAP has brought some positive changes to the state as compared to the previous administration, but also said it is time the party does something about the inflated housing prices.
According to Chin, the current inflated prices of housing in the state may just be the undoing of DAP if they are not careful in handling the issue.
“The big issue will be housing and this is linked to all the approvals for all these developers and if Lim cannot get the developers to build more affordable housing, this is a ready-made issue for BN,” he said.
Azizuddin also believed that the housing issue will be one that could be a deciding factor especially for young voters who could not afford to buy their own homes due to highly inflated prices.
“BN needed only to show that they can be an alternative choice to DAP and they might stand a chance,” he said.
Faisal said generally, the feelings in Penang showed that there has been positive changes in the state brought on by DAP.
“A lot of people may say it is difficult to unseat DAP in Penang, but then again, after some time of them doing the same old thing, people will stop and start to think,” he warned.
