The call came from Parti Cinta Malaysia vice-president Huan Cheng Guan on the need to avoid dealing with a chief minister who was implicated in a corruption case.
“The chief secretary to the government should consider instructing all federal ministers and their agencies to ‘ignore’ chief ministers and mentris besar implicated in graft.
“In the case of the Penang CM, the federal ministers should ignore him since he has not resigned or taken leave,” Huan said today.
Huan did not mention the specifics of his call, but he was believed to be alluding to the corruption case implicating Lim over the purchase of a bungalow on Pinhorn Road in George Town, at below market prices.
“Since he is so adamant on staying on, the federal government should treat the Penang CM’s post as invalid.
“The federal government can then deal directly with the first and second deputy chief ministers in Penang, until he is acquitted,” Huan told FMT.
In June, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng claimed trial to two counts of corruption, involving the change in status of a piece of land under the state government and also for the purchase of a bungalow at below market price.
Lim had said it was “an evil plan by BN to kill his political career”. A businesswoman also claimed trial for abetment.
In the recent state assembly sitting, DAP’s Teh Yee Cheu had urged Lim “not to chair decision making bodies” while on trial, as it put the state assembly in “crisis mode”.
Teh urged the assembly to put public interests first but no one in the assembly supported him.