by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Monday, 2nd March 1992:
The MPPP is not only ‘decadent and impotent’ according to Lim Kenq Yaik, but is also ‘inefficient’ according to Anwar Ibrahim.
The Majilis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang (MPPP) is not only ‘decadent and impotent’ according to the Gerakan President, Datuk, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, but is also ‘incompetent’ according to the Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim, yesterday.
Anwar Ibrahim’s statement has again raised the question as to how the Penang State Government could re-appoint the 20 of the 24 former MPPP Councillors to be MPPP Councillors again, this year, when they must bear the greatest responsibility for the triple defects of the MPPP – ‘decadence, impotence and inefficiency’.
Didn’t the re-appointment of the 20 of the 24 MPPP Councillors responsible for the MPPP’s decadence, impotence, and inefficiency’ also reflect poorly on appointing authority, the Penang State Government and the Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, as well?
The ‘decadence, impotence and inefficiency’ of the MPPP is reflected by the MPPP’s response to two matters raised by the DAP last week.
The first matter was the DAP demand that the MPPP change its ‘secretive and undemocratic’ ways and open its meetings to the public and the press as required by the Local Government Act, Penang DAP announced the formation of a MPPP Monitoring Committee and that DAP Assemblymen would attend the first MPPP meeting being chaired by new MPPP President, Tan Ghim Hwa, on Thursday, DAP also warned that if the DAP Assemblymen are denied access to the MPPP meetings, the DAP Assemblymen would move a motion in the next Penang Assembly meeting to dismiss the 24 MPPP Councillors.
After the warning, one MPPP Councillor said that the MPPP Council was always open to the public. This MPPP Councillor clearly did not know what he was talking about – which is not surprising, considering the MPPP’s triple defects of ‘decadence, impotence and inefficiency’
In 1988, DAP Assemblymen wanted to attend the MPPP Council meeting but was stopped by the MPPP Secretary, Lakhbir Singh, who said that the MPPP meetings was closed to the public.
In fact, I issued the warning that the DAP would move a motion in the next Penang Assembly meeting to dismiss the 24 MPPP Councillors if the DAP Assemblymen are denied access to the MPPP meetings precisely because Lakhbir Singh had told the press earlier that DAP Assemblymen would continue to be barred from the MPPP meet¬ings.
This is also why at a press conference last Wednesday, I raised the question as to whether Lakbhir Singh was running the MPPP Council, or the MPPP Council running Lakhbir Singh, when I learnt about Lakhbir Singh’s position.
Since the MPPP has seen the light, and is now opening its meeting to the public and the press, I will not press or quibble, over the issue, provided that no MPPP Councillor tries to make misleading statements falsely claiming that the public had always been allowed access to MPPP meetings in the past.
Is the MPPP ‘incompetent’ or ‘decadent’ in the MPPP scandal of the two demolished Thean Teik dwellings?
The second matter refers to the MPPP’s breach of its legal, moral and political responsibility to rebuild and reinstate the two demolished Thean Teik Estate dwellings to their original condition after the completion of the sewerage construction works.
The same MPPP Councillor has explained to one local press that the reason why the MPPP had not honoured its legal duty to re¬build and reinstate the two demolished Thean Teik dwellings was be-cause the owner had agreed to the ‘postpenment’ of the rebuilding.
This is completely untrue. I am shocked that MPPP Council¬lors dare to comment on MPPP matters when they are so ignorant and misinformed, and I am not surprised that two Ministers should publicly condemn the MPPP for being ‘decadent, impotent and inefficient’.
This MPPP Councillor gave another reason. He said that the two Thean Teik dwellings stand on road-reserved land, and that the dwellings would be ‘demolished’ again after they had been rebuilt and reinstated.
Is this MPPP Councillor saying that the MPPP did not know about this when the MPPP gave a commitment in the Penang High Court and the Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, gave an undertaking in the Penang State Assembly last December that the two-dwellings would be rebuilt?
If the MPPP had not known until now, then the MPPP is indeed ‘inefficient’; if the MPPP had known earlier, and is now using it to evade its legal, political and moral commitments, then the MPPP is indeed ‘decadent’!
Let the MPPP declare itself whether it is ‘inefficient’ or ‘decadent’ in the MPPP scandal of the two demolished Thean Teik dwell¬ings.
Furthermore, what is the excuse or justification for the MPPP, through its agents, to demolish the rest of the remaining struc¬tures of one of the dwellings on February 15?
The MPPP should not look for excuses, and without any delay, ensure that the commitment it had given to the Penanq High Court and the undertaking given by Dr. Koh Tsu Koon in the Penang Assembly last December are honoured, and that the two Thean Teik dwellings are rebuilt and reinstated to their original condition.