GEORGE TOWN, July 11 — The DAP should appoint an acting Penang chief minister and instruct Lim Guan Eng to take leave instead of calling for a snap election, Penang Umno said today.
Penang Umno liaison chairman Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Osman said this was necessary if the DAP was serious in defending its transparency and integrity in running the state administration led by Lim, who was recently hit with two charges of corruption.
“If the state government is worried about the level of the people’s support after the corruption charges against the chief minister, the state can always instruct Penang Institute to conduct a survey on Penangites,” Zainal Abidin said in a statement.
Malay Mail Online reported earlier today that the DAP was mulling snap polls as a referendum on Lim’s corruption charges, which the party and Pakatan Harapan have maintained were politically motivated.
Zainal Abidin also suggested that the state government appoint other independent bodies to conduct the survey.
Zainal Abidin said there was no justification for the state government to consider dissolving the state legislative assembly due to the corruption charges against the DAP secretary-general.
“This is a proposal that is a waste of public funds and it is unreasonable to spend millions of ringgit on a referendum just because Lim Guan Eng refused to take leave or step down as chief minister despite facing two graft charges in court,” he said.
“Is it possible that Lim Guan Eng feels that he has lost the support of the majority of the state assemblymen from Pakatan that he needs to dissolve the assembly?” he added.
The Penang Umno head reminded Penangites that it was Lim who is facing corruption charges, not the state government, so there is no need for the state to purportedly drag the people into the case.
He claimed that the proposal for snap polls was a political ploy by DAP and Pakatan Harapan to divert public attention from Lim’s corruption charges.
Lim was charged with abuse of power and corruption at the Penang High Court last month over the alleged approval of a rezoning application by Magnificent Emblem to convert agricultural land to residential and over his purchase of his RM2.8 million house from businesswoman Phang Li Koon at below market value of RM4.27 million.
He is facing a jail term of not more than 20 years and a fine of five times the value of gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher, if convicted for the first charge and up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine and forfeiture of property upon conviction for the second charge.
