Penang Barisan Nasional secretary Tan Sri Khalid Ahmad Sulaiman said today that he was not the Umno veteran offered to serve in the DAP-led state government.

“I have not received any offers from the state government. I live and die for Umno and the BN,” he told Bernama following speculations that he was to jump ship.

Yesterday, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said an veteran leader had accepted an offer to join the state government after he resigned from a post in Umno.

He did not reveal the veteran’s identity or the post offered.

Khalid, 71, said Lim had never contacted him to offer any post and therefore the issue of him receiving the offer did not arise.
“May be, I am not the one meant by the chief minister because Umno has many other veterans. Clearly, it is not me because I have not been offered any posts,” he said.

He said a confusion could have occurred since he was still serving as deputy chairman of the Penang Appeals Board. He said he was appointed to the post by the previous government and his tenure would expire only in 2010.

Meanwhile, Penang Umno liaison deputy chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Rashid Abdullah said the party and the BN have clear guidelines with regard to members wanting to work for the other side.

“They have to relinquish their memberships or posts in the party,” he said.

So far, no one had applied to quit Umno and the BN to join the state administration, he added.