PUTRAJAYA: Finance Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today denied that he had promised development in Cameron Highlands to garner support for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the by-election.
He said he had never promised any cash or special development project to the voters in the parliamentary constituency.
“We are different from Barisan Nasional (BN). Did you see PH announcing new roads or bridges? No, we did not,” he told reporters at the Finance Ministry after announcing the lead arrangers for a samurai bond issuance.
The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) had reportedly urged Lim to clarify his statement of allegedly telling the people in Cameron Highlands to vote for PH if they wanted to see development.
Lim allegedly made the remark, as reported by an online article, after a visit to the Felda Sungai Koyan night market on Wednesday.
Lim said the media report was not comprehensive or was taken within a certain context.
“What I said was, we should have two governments (state-BN and federal-PH) to develop Cameron Highlands together,” he said.
Lim said Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail was the state assemblyman for Jelai, a state constituency within the Cameron Highlands parliamentary constituency, and if the PH wins Cameron Highlands, then the two (governments) could develop the area.
“But if we depend on the state government alone for the development of Cameron Highlands, it will be stuck and disrupted,” he said.
Lim asked whether Pahang, which he said had a huge debt of RM3.1 billion, would have the funds to carry out the development it promised, adding that the federal government would be able to do so.
The minister said the federal government was prepared to cooperate with the state government to develop Cameron Highlands. — Bernama
