Guan Eng: Debate should be on truth, not lies...

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he had chosen not to reply to some of the questions posed to him during the debate with MCA president Chua Soi Lek as he did not want to respond to "lies".

Lim, the DAP secretary general, said time constraints also prevented him from answering the questions as most were posted by MCA members.

Lim said he understood that 90 percent of the questions were from MCA members as the historical debate in Kuala Lumpur yesterday was organised by the dominant Chinese party.

However, he had decided to focus on the topic ‘Chinese Malaysians at the Crossroad - a Two Party System' and talk about the policies Pakatan Rakyat had implemented in Penang.

These policies, which have worked well for Penang, will be implemented in Malaysia, if Pakatan took over Putrajaya, he added.

"I did not want to waste time. So, I decided I would not reply to these lies, why should I?" he said.

Truth, not lies

Lim said he expected the debate to be about truth, not lies, and his responses should be on topics which were not only exclusive to Penangites, like the state assessment rates or the Batu Kawan affordable housing project.

"About the increase in assessment rates (in Penang), did we do it?" he asked reporters who were present at the press conference today, and who conceded that there were no hike in the rates.

"About Hudud law, everyone knows that we oppose it. It is even the Penang state government policy that we will not implement it. This is not only the DAP's stand but the state government's," he stressed.


Lim also noted that during the debate Chua (right) was out there "to attack him and makes lies", while he had refrained from doing so.


"I did not hear what his policies were," he said. "I was focused on the two-party system, on what policies to improve the economic system and make money, so that we can build more infrastructure for the public."


When asked about preparations on the next debate, Lim replied that it should be on a different topic.

"We will decide later. But it should not be a forum just to spew lies and personal attacks," he said.

Guan Eng wants Star to apologise for misquote

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has demanded an apology and retraction from the Star over a wrongly attributed quote from his debate with MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek.

In a statement today, Lim said that the quote appeared under an article called “What they said” which appeared on page six of the Star today.

Lim denied that he had said: “We do not agree the Prime Minister must always be Malay because we want the people to decide”.

Although Lim accepts that the Star will present a partisan slant and “biased report” of the debate because it is owned by MCA, he cannot accept the invention of quotes which he never said.

“This quote attributed to me is false and untrue because no reference whatsoever was ever made by me on this issue during the debate.

“As this debate was conducted in Mandarin, I would prefer to believe that this was a simple mistake in comprehension by an English newspaper, notwithstanding the Star being owned by MCA,” he said.

Lim has demanded that the Star publish a full retraction and an apology in a prominent section of the newspaper on the same page six.
 
source:malaysiakini

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