GEORGE TOWN, April 10 — Penang Umno can file any motion at next month's state legislative assembly, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.
The Penang lawmaker said Penang practises a democracy, so the state Opposition can file any motions even if it is against him.
“Even though our motion to ask for the prime minister's resignation was rejected in Parliament, we will allow them to move their motion in Penang because we practise a democracy,” he said in a press conference at his office today.
He was responding to a statement by Penang Umno Liaison chairman Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Osman who said state Opposition Leader Datuk Jahara Hamid will be filing a motion calling for Lim's resignation due to his ongoing corruption case in court.
“So far we have no objection to them filing the motion, but it is up to the Speaker to decide,” he said.
He said there have been instances where motions filed by the state Opposition were also allowed to be debated.
Zainal had also accused Lim of seeking “revenge” on Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Shabudin Yahaya after Lim said the state will move a motion against the Umno MP to condemn him over his remarks on rape victims and rapists.
“If they want to talk about political revenge, the case against me is a political conspiracy to divert attention from their 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) scandal and to character assassinate me,” Lim responded.
He said if he had wanted to take “revenge” against Shabudin, he would have brought up the alleged Perda land sale case by Shabudin.
“Perda sold land in Seberang Perai at a RM15.2 million loss and no action was taken against Shabudin so if we are seeking revenge, we should be raising a motion on this but we didn't,” he claimed.
Perda is the Penang Regional Development Authority, a federal development agency.
Lim stressed that the Penang state government's motion against Shabudin was to counter the latter’s attacks on women, on rape victims and against his alleged defence of rapists.
“What is Umno Wanita doing? They should be defending women and rape victims, instead they are defending him,” he said.
Last week, Shabudin came under fire after he suggested that statutory rape victims be allowed to marry their rapists as a remedy to social problems.
He later claimed his remarks were twisted by the media and threatened to sue any media that continued to misreport the issue.
