GEORGE TOWN: Former Penang Gerakan chairman has dismissed DAP’s move to honour former chief minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu by marking his centenary birthday as a political ploy.
Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan (pix) accused DAP of using the occasion to hide what he called “below-par performance in the state for the past year”.
“DAP ended the careers of two Gerakan stalwarts – Chong Eu and (his successor) Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon prematurely and now they want to honour Chong Eu,” Teng said today.
He said DAP is only interested in politicking when it sanctioned a move by its think tank, the Penang Institute, to honour Chong Eu.
Penang voters are known to swing their support for political parties, Teng said.
He added that the voters had rejected Umno before throwing out MCA and Gerakan.
“It is a matter of time that DAP falls similarly.”
Chong Eu, who died in 2010 at age 91, was the state’s longest serving chief minister. Born in Penang on May 28, 1919, he spent 21 years at the helm.
“DAP stopped Chong Eu from taking the state to the next millennium after restoring growth through the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, the Penang Bridge and various economic stimulus packages,” Teng said.
“This sends a message to the people here that DAP is nothing more than a political animal, not an administrator or technocrat like Chong Eu,” he said.
DAP’s Pulau Tikus assemblyman, Chris Lee, said Teng was unfair in his statement. There was no hidden agenda in DAP paying tribute to an esteem son of Penang, he added.
Meanwhile, Chong Eu’s family has kept mum over the move by the state to mark the occasion with the launching of a book about his achievements.
