“I think he is trying to divert the main focus raised in Parliament to the issue of me not meeting him and then accusing me of being a coward,” said Shabudin Yahaya of Umno, the MP for Tasek Gelugor.
He described Lim as immature for having issued his challenge for Shahbudin to meet him “one-on-one” in front of the media at the Penang chief minister’s office this morning to discuss the bungalow purchase.
Instead, Shabudin issued a press statement on Saturday night saying he would not bother, and called a press conference at 11am, the same time that Lim had set for the meeting.
In Parliament on Thursday Shabudin had questioned the low price of RM2.8 million for the double-storey bungalow, which sits on 10,000 sq ft of land in Jalan Pinhorn, off Green Lane, in George Town.
Shabudin said the market value of the property was between RM6mil and RM6.5mil.
The MP has questioned if the purchase price was linked to the state government’s sale of land in Taman Manggis, off Jalan Burmah, for a hospital and hotel project instead of for low-cost housing.
Star Online reported that at the press conference this morning, Shabudin said: “Instead of calling me for a one-on-one meeting, he should hand the issue to the authorities to investigate and decide. Why must he challenge me to meet him? Or does he want to have a ‘coffee break’ with me?”
Shabudin told the press he was only interested in working with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency for the investigation of the bungalow scandal and the Taman Manggis land sale, the report said.
“The invitation by Bagan MP (Lim) is a cheap political gimmick,” Shabudin was quoted as saying.
The MACC has said that it would open an investigation paper into the matter after two police reports were lodged against Lim. In response, Lim has urged MACC to speed up the investigation so he could prove that there were no elements of corrupt practices in the purchase.
He has said that the bungalow was bought on a “willing seller-willing buyer” basis, and denied any link to the Taman Manggis sale of state land, which he said was conducted through an open tender.
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