Mutakhir (Dis 19): Lim Boo Chang saman Ng Wei Aik
Below is Part II.
Part I yesterday, HERE.
A couple of days ago, MPPP councillor Lim Boo Chang quit his post, citing among other reasons, Lim Guan Eng’s “arm-twisting tactics to intimidate“.
It came as no surprise that Boo Chang – who’d also at the same time quit PKR – was very soon character assassinated by the usual suspects. This was in tandem with the DAP propaganda machine shifting into high gear.
Luckily for Boo Chang’s credibility and good public standing, he was not the only personality to have made accusations of such a nature against Guan Eng. Many others have done so and all their stories are uncannily consistent with each other.
The screenshot below is of the Sinchew article ‘Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng quits PKR‘ (1 March 2010). It’s the press statement issued by the PKR man (now turned KITA Parliamentarian) who was punished by the PKR disciplinary board for criticising Guan Eng.
Explaining his resignation from PKR, Tee Beng recounts Guan Eng’s “dictatorial attitude”. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see how Boo Chang’s description of the “abusive attitude” of the Guan Eng administration is an eerie echo.
The same account of Guan Eng’s take-no-prisoners attitude is given by DAP insiders. The screenshot below is of Star article ‘New look, old style‘ (30 Oct 2011)
An identical appraisal of how Guan Eng cannot tolerate even mild criticism comes not only from his own party colleagues in addition to his erstwhile Pakatan allies but from his opponents in the Penang MCA as well. Screenshot above of Star story (13 June 2011).
Other politicians have shared similar tales of their personal experiences dealing with Guan Eng’s extremely thin skin.
Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Mohd Hashim, known to be otherwise soft-spoken, went to the extent of calling the Penang chief minister a dictator. The screenshot below is of Star article ‘Zahrain: Lim is a dictator‘ (29 Jan 2010).
Aside from repeating the, by now, common thread that Guan Eng cannot accept any form of criticism, PKR Parliamentarian Zahrain also suggested that the Penang chief minister may be reluctant to push for local council election because it will diminish his power. Aaah, an autocrat after his father’s own heart.
It’s public knowledge that the first thing Guan Eng did upon assuming power in Penang was to secure for himself the land portfolio in the state exco. What isn’t public knowledge is that Guan Eng personally chairs the tender board, claims Zahrain, despite the Penang Pakatan state government boasting its CAT (competency, accountability, transparency) slogan.
With more and more people falling out with Guan Eng, we can begin to connect the dots. The picture that emerges isn’t pretty.
Backing Zahrain’s outburst, Zulkifli Noordin, the outspoken Kulim Bandar Baru MP discloses that Guan Eng’s intolerance was an open secret not only among PKR politicians but among even those in PAS. Screenshot below refers to an archived New Straits Times article ‘Zulkifli: Act on MP’s criticism‘ (30 March 2010).
Zulkifli reveals that local DAP leaders in Penang have been unhappy with the Malaccan outsider. They’re not the only ones. Independent-minded DAP leaders in other states are also in Guan Eng’s bad books.
Guan Eng’s legendary inability to accept criticism has even made it to Twitter. Below is a screenshot of the Twitter (profile, no less) of Penang Gerakan vice youth chief H’ng Khoon Leng. It says how “dissenting views and criticism are not tolerated” under Guan Eng’s “oppressive governance”.
You might have noticed that I didn’t even need to sample any remarks by Guan Eng’s avowed enemy Umno. It’s already bad enough coming from his own side, and those who’ve worked with him.
Yet every single individual who has had the temerity to criticise Guan Eng – though they all say the same thing – has been relentlessly attacked by opposition supporters. Even if it was Mother Teresa herself who’s saying something uncomplimentary, she too would be accused of having crossed over to the dark side.
What we’ve glanced in the above selection of politicians’ quotes skims only the surface.
The general consensus amongst local, pro-establishment reporters and bloggers is, dare I say, one that concurs with the view held by the politicians. Guan Eng has had too many skirmishes with newsmen to enumerate here but one can get a rough idea of his relationship with the press just going by the number of media that he has banned.
Broadcasters TV3 and print publications Utusan and NST are barred from covering his press conferences and attending events at which he is guest-of-honour. Berita Harian is reportedly excluded from the official invitation list circulated by the Chief Minister’s Office.
The latest salvo fired in the war of attrition has Guan Eng labelling the New Straits Times as “evil”.
E-V-I-L … It’s a very Christian thing to say if one were to follow the spiritual compass of the Bishop Paul Tan who has stridently branded several individuals and organizations already as evil.
The opposition appears to be cultivating a cult following where they project themselves as the Children of Light (God walks with them) while the BN supporters naturally are the Children of Darkness (the poor lost souls).
Anyone’s who spent some time surfing the Internet would have come across numerous comments from various Netizens about how Guan Eng’s press officers are diligently patrolling cyberspace, and abusing and intimidating commentators in the social media who fail to see the light.
Evil Malaysians are rightly agents of Satan but you can just as well say “agents of Umno” — it’s the next best phrase. See screenshot of a Malaysiakini reader’s comment below.
The barrage of vitriolic comments recently spewed at Negri Sembilan MCA chief Dr Yeow Chai Thiam proves the maxim — You criticize DAP, you die. Going berserk at any hint of criticism has sadly become the culture of the party supporters — a case of taking the cue from leadership by example.
How the preceding discussion on this page relates to my posting yesterday titled ‘sPICE: Dr Lim Mah Hui harus bersuara demi kepentingan awam’ can be discerned from the lament by KITA parliamentarian Tan Tee Beng that “no one dares to join [him] in stating the truth” when confronted with Guan Eng’s shenanigans.
Tee Beng was quite correct to say that “Unfortunately, many choose to keep quiet and become ‘yes’ men” by closing one eye and covering up all of Guan Eng’s weaknesses”. (see Sinchew HERE).
The cost of not closing one eye and not keeping quiet is to be at the receiving end of the sort of sustained harassment that I’ve been subjected to as an indefatigable Guan Eng critic. But I’m merely on the periphery of the political scene.
Caught in Penang – the epicentre of opposition politics – is Lim Boo Chang. Over the past few days, the cost borne by Boo Chang for his unwillingness to be a ‘Yes’ man covering up Guan Eng’s weaknesses has become quite clear.
Decidedly, what we’re looking at is the opposition’s scorched earth policy at work.
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Helen Ang 
I thought only LGE managed to reduce his state (Penang) debt where he claimed the he managed to reduce Penang debt of RM655.24 millions by by alienating state land-related water assets to PAAB.
Zambry also did a good job at Perak where the state’s RM970.59mil water supply debt (much bigger amount) to the Federal Government would be reduced to RM78.66mil with the settlement of the water asset migration between LAP and PAAB http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/12/8/metroperak/10046663&sec=metroperak
Even Zambry can do it, in fact better. Therefore LGE so called “success” is not that extraordinary especially when the steps to migrate the state water assets already started by the previous state government under BN. Without any shame LGE claims all the credit for himself.
In Islam, there is a branch of knowledge called the science of hadith, i.e. how to determine if a saying of prophet Muhammad S.A.W. is authentic (i.e. not make up by some people in the name of the prophet).
One of the method to determine the authenticity of the hadith is to investigate the sources of the hadith. If the same hadith is mention by different people who are utterly unrelated/disconnected (means they cannot team up to make the story), then the chances is that the hadith is authentic.
lee kuan yew was born in Batu pahat, LKS ,LGE From BP?…
I heard that Guan Eng made this pronouncement: I want men around me who are not afraid to say ‘yes sir!’