‘LISTERINE’ MERDEKA GIFT FOR GUAN ENG

MOUTHWASH....A Gerakan politician says that Lim by using the mouthwash will speak the truth for a change.

By : ATHI SHANKAR

GEORGE TOWN: Gerakan may not be in the mouthwash business but it is suggesting that Chief minister Lim Guan Eng use “Listerine”’ before he next opens his mouth.

Gerakan politician Baljit Singh has even bought a bottle of Listerine for RM8.93 from a nearby pharmacy to give to Lim as a “Merdeka gift” in conjunction with the country’s 55th Independence Day celebration tomorrow.

But Baljit is sure that the DAP secretary-general would turn it down.

“The chief minister will not accept my Merdeka gift. Do any of you want to present him my gift?” Baljit asked journalists at a press conference at the state Gerakan office here today.

Also present were Gerakan’s state vice-chairman Dr Lim Boon Han and bureau heads Dr Thor Teong Gee (for publicity, information and communications) and Rowena Yam (for political training).

Baljit said the people were getting fed up with Lim’s constant “twists and turns” to politicise, personalise, spin media tales and spread lies on anything and everything.

He suggested that Lim use the Listerine to kill all germs in his mouth the next time he starts his trademark political troubleshooting.

“Listerine would clean up and refresh his mouth and once for all stop his twisting and twirling. I’m not a Listerine salesman … it’s a mere suggestion,” said Baljit, who heads Gerakan state legal and human rights bureau.

Earlier, Baljit slammed Lim for putting up “Penang for sale” sign since assuming the chief minister’s office after the 2008 general election.

Selling off Penang

He accused Lim, formerly from Malacca, of selling off Penang and the rights of Penangites to developers.

He said Lim had sold government land in Taman Manggis, Bayan Mutiara, Teluk Bahang water catchment area, Taman Free School and Jalan Cheeseman.

He said Lim’s government approved 19 special projects exceeding 76m height limit for hillside development.

Critics, including environmentalists, have said the projects would spell disaster for Penang island’s natural tropical greenery and hilly terrain. They also noted that the projects were all ultra vires the Penang Structural Plan (PSP) 2020.

Baljit also pointed out that Lim’s administration had approved unlimited high-density posh housing projects all over the state.

He cited the RM250 million subterranean Penang International Convention and Exhibition Centre (sPICE) project as an example.

The sPICE developer has been gifted concession to build 1,500 high-density posh housing units anywhere in the state without taking into consideration infrastructural demands for proper traffic management, irrigation and drainage.

Baljit chided Lim for being too busy selling off Penang’s sea, hill, water catchment areas and flat land that he forgot to check the downslide in the state’s main revenue earner – the foreign direct investment-drivern manufacturing sector.

He noted that the state’s FDIs have reportedly worsened by 70% in first five months of this year.

“To make matters worse, many approved FDIs are not materialising while existing ones are shipping out from Penang.”