The Sun
GEORGE TOWN (April 7, 2009) : The Penang Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister II were questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in the course of its investigations into alleged graft involving Deputy Chief Minister I Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said his statement was recorded by a team of MACC officers led by the Penang director Latifah Md Yatim at his office yesterday evening.
"When they came to record my statement, I readily gave them my full cooperation," he said, adding that the session lasted for about an hour.
GEORGE TOWN (April 7, 2009) : The Penang Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister II were questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in the course of its investigations into alleged graft involving Deputy Chief Minister I Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin.Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said his statement was recorded by a team of MACC officers led by the Penang director Latifah Md Yatim at his office yesterday evening.
"When they came to record my statement, I readily gave them my full cooperation," he said, adding that the session lasted for about an hour.
Speaking in a press conference at his office today, Lim said he has also instructed all of the state executive councillors to cooperate if the MACC wants to record statements from them.
"They have also recorded a statement from Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Dr P.Ramasamy and they may be recording statements from one or two other excos," he said.
Lim reiterated that the state government will not hide or cover up anything and is willing to extend its full cooperation to the MACC in its investigations into the case.
"We have nothing to hide and nothing to fear," he said.
However, Lim questioned why MACC did not conduct an investigation into Malacca chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam over alleged money politics.
"Why do they act so fast and can even take a statement from me when a case involved a Pakatan Rakyat leader but when it is a Barisan Nasional leader, they did not even start any investigations and had immediately said there were lack of evidence?" he asked.
"It looks like the MACC has different values where they have one standard for Pakatan Rakyat and another for Barisan Nasional," he said.
Last month, Mohammad Fairus was questioned by MACC officers for the case. Mohammad Fairus has since tendered his resignation from the Deputy Chief Minister I post effective this April 8.
The whole issue came to light when national PKR Youth exco member Amizudin Ahmat made allegations that two PKR leaders are working with several quarries in Penang to cover up illegal activities.
On whether the state government has a candidate to take over the Deputy Chief Minister I's post, Lim said he will need to discuss it with the state exco first.
"We will try to announce this as soon as possible," he said.
Lim also hit out at Teluk Bahang state assemblyman Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya for twisting the truth behind the state government's successful hardcore poverty eradication programme.
"This is obviously due to sour grapes that we are able to achieve what they are unable to do," he said.
He clarified that under the programme, the state government will top up the monthly income of each family that earns less than RM500 to bring it up to RM500 each month.
"So, if a family earns RM300 a month, we will top up RM200 to bring it to RM500. We will do this every month until the family is able to earn RM500 a month," he said.
He ticked off Dr Hilmi for giving misleading statements that the state government will review this every three months.
"We will continue to give the contributions as long as we are the state government. Every three months we are only going to update our database so that we will also cover some families who may have fallen into the hardcore poverty line due to loss of income," he said.
Yesterday, Dr Hilmi reportedly hit out at Lim for claiming to have eradicated hardcore poverty in Penang. He said the state government has failed to solve poverty problems and that there are still many poor people who needs help.
He had said the financial aid given to the hardcore poor by the state government is only for the first three months before it was reviewed and that this is not sufficient to help the hardcore poor.
"They have also recorded a statement from Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Dr P.Ramasamy and they may be recording statements from one or two other excos," he said.
Lim reiterated that the state government will not hide or cover up anything and is willing to extend its full cooperation to the MACC in its investigations into the case.
"We have nothing to hide and nothing to fear," he said.
However, Lim questioned why MACC did not conduct an investigation into Malacca chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam over alleged money politics.
"Why do they act so fast and can even take a statement from me when a case involved a Pakatan Rakyat leader but when it is a Barisan Nasional leader, they did not even start any investigations and had immediately said there were lack of evidence?" he asked.
"It looks like the MACC has different values where they have one standard for Pakatan Rakyat and another for Barisan Nasional," he said.
Last month, Mohammad Fairus was questioned by MACC officers for the case. Mohammad Fairus has since tendered his resignation from the Deputy Chief Minister I post effective this April 8.
The whole issue came to light when national PKR Youth exco member Amizudin Ahmat made allegations that two PKR leaders are working with several quarries in Penang to cover up illegal activities.
On whether the state government has a candidate to take over the Deputy Chief Minister I's post, Lim said he will need to discuss it with the state exco first.
"We will try to announce this as soon as possible," he said.
Lim also hit out at Teluk Bahang state assemblyman Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya for twisting the truth behind the state government's successful hardcore poverty eradication programme.
"This is obviously due to sour grapes that we are able to achieve what they are unable to do," he said.
He clarified that under the programme, the state government will top up the monthly income of each family that earns less than RM500 to bring it up to RM500 each month.
"So, if a family earns RM300 a month, we will top up RM200 to bring it to RM500. We will do this every month until the family is able to earn RM500 a month," he said.
He ticked off Dr Hilmi for giving misleading statements that the state government will review this every three months.
"We will continue to give the contributions as long as we are the state government. Every three months we are only going to update our database so that we will also cover some families who may have fallen into the hardcore poverty line due to loss of income," he said.
Yesterday, Dr Hilmi reportedly hit out at Lim for claiming to have eradicated hardcore poverty in Penang. He said the state government has failed to solve poverty problems and that there are still many poor people who needs help.
He had said the financial aid given to the hardcore poor by the state government is only for the first three months before it was reviewed and that this is not sufficient to help the hardcore poor.
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