GEORGE TOWN: Gerakan has urged Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow to get the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to conduct investigations into the recent land sale fiasco involving the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and a private company.
State Gerakan chairman Oh Tong Keong said if the state executive council could unanimously decide that Chow should initiate legal proceedings against Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (PCCC) life honourary president Tan Sri Tan Kok Ping for his statements which humiliated and degraded the chief minister, then Chow, as the PDC chairman, should also take the initiative to ask the state PAC and the MACC to conduct a probe.
Oh said the sale of the PDC-owned land to UMECH Land Sdn Bhd had raised numerous controversies, which remain unanswered.
The PDC Board had recently decided to terminate the joint venture agreement with UMECH Land.
"It is good that legal action can be taken against Tan, who had allegedly humiliated and brought down the dignity of the chief minister and the credibility of the Penang government.
"However, the cancellation of the land sale has clearly shown that there are disputes and problems in the sale of this land.
"The Penang government and the PDC should cooperate with PAC and MACC in their investigation to prove that there is no element of corruption and abuse of power within the state government and the PDC in this land sale controversy.
"After that, a new bidding process according to standard operating procedures should be done to sell the land," he said.
Oh said the state government and PDC must learn from the disputes and mistakes made in this land sale transaction by identifying the cause of the problem and promising to avoid repeating this mistake.
Oh said the decision made by the state exco to take legal action against Tan had shown that they unanimously supported Chow.
"The people of Penang also want to know if the representatives from the state Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Umno will stand with Chow in safeguarding the dignity and credibility of the Penang government and the chief minister," he added.
Chow has come under fire over the sale of the land after the PCCC raised questions on the awarding of the project through direct negotiations and why local companies were not given the opportunity in the project.
Questions were also raised that the land could have been transferred to a developer.
Yesterday, the state exco unanimously decided that Chow should initiate legal proceedings against Tan for his statements, which humiliated and degraded the chief minister.
During a Wednesday press conference, Tan reportedly accused Chow of being "incompetent" for evading questions about the controversial land sale.