“At the end of the day, Guan Eng chickened out from the challenge to cancel the 2011 agreement and decided to give strange answers”
Lim Sian See
This morning, Lim Guan Eng issued a very long press statement in reply to Rahman Dahlan who challenged Guan Eng to cancel the 2011 water restructuring if Penang Govt still want to claim they had successfully reduced their state debt by 95%.
Essentially, Guan Eng’s answer confirms beyond any doubt that the state debt was reduced by the Federal Govt.
Guan Eng’s excuses in his statement are as follows:
1) The state debt was incurred by previous BN state govt so it is right for Federal to take back.
2) Other states also had the water restructuring agreements, so why cancel Penang only and not cancel others?
(But other states don’t boast about this debt reduction due to Fed Govt water deals – for example Perak actually reduced their state debt by 99% – unlike Penang who shamelessly claim credit)
3) The state debt cancelled by Federal Govt is the right move as Penang had to surrender land and water assets to Federal Govt as collateral.
(oh… so you had to sell or give up more state assets? As if this is something to be proud of)
Guan Eng also confirmed that the state debt was not cancelled as the RM655.24 million of debts was converted to 45 annual lease payments of RM14.56 million.
(Hello.. you are still paying the same amount lah. What reduction?)
4) Rahman Dahlan is childish and jealous of Penang of having low state debt.
(What kind of excuse is this?)
Is it standard for a CM to call people “jealous” and “childish”?
The reason why you had low state debt was because the Federal Govt cancelled the debt (which is converted to annual lease payment) and gave a RM1.2 billion grant to Penang. And suddenly, Rahman is childish and jealous? If he was jealous, would he have pointed this out?
Also, I noticed that Guan Eng was silent on the RM1.2 billion grant given as part of the same 2011 agreement. Why so shy to mention?
If this 2011 agreement is cancelled then Penang’s state debt would not be reduced by 95% but will triple as they have to take back the 95% debt worth RM655mil as well as pay back RM1.2 billion in free grants given by Federal Govt.
At the end of the day, Guan Eng chickened out from the challenge to cancel the 2011 agreement and decided to give strange answers.
That is the bottom line.
Checkmated…
Bodoh punya Tokong! Fell into Rahman’s trap – hook line and sinker.
