The DAP parliamentary opposition leader and Gelang Patah MP said it was also an admission that BN feared losing more Malay support and the 10 Umno-held seats in the next polls.
The veteran leader said it didn’t surprise him that Umno leaders were so “desperate about their political prospects in Penang” that they were even thinking of making the state a federal territory.
To move to swallow Penang into federal territory would do away with state elections, the state legislative assembly, assemblymen and the chief minister.
“The Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor yesterday sought to justify such an undemocratic and retrogressive step, claiming that the idea to make Penang a federal territory is to ensure equal development in Penang, and that it was not to extend authority over the state but to help the Malays.
“These are the Umno-BN staple politics of lies and hatred,” he said at the Penang DAP Chinese New Year Open House at SJK(C) Shang Wu Hall today.
Recently, Tengku Adnan said the idea to make Penang a federal territory was to help the Malays. He claimed that the Malays were sidelined by the opposition-led Penang government.
Lim responded that DAP has never sidelined any race in its 51 years of history, having elected reps of various races in Parliament, and even leaders who went to jail defending other races.
He was referring to his son, Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who went to jail some years ago.
“Has any Umno leader sacrificed his political career for the honour and dignity of a Malay or Muslim, let alone crossing the racial and religious divide to defend the rights and honour of a non-Malay or non-Muslim citizen?” he said.
Lim said he believed Malays and Muslims in the country were not so gullible as to fall easy prey to “lies and hatred”.
He said that from his visits to Malay areas in Penang like Kampung Tok Suboh and Sungai Gelugor recently, he found that the Malays no longer bought into the “lies” about DAP sidelining Malays or that DAP was losing Malay support in the state.
“It is Umno that is losing the Malay support in Penang while DAP and Pakatan Harapan and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia are gaining more support of Malay voters in the state.
“In fact, Tengku Adnan’s proposal is an admission that Umno and BN have no hope of winning back non-Malay support and are facing the prospect of losing more Malay support and more Umno seats in Penang in the next general election,” he said.
Lim said Umno kept 11 state seats in Penang in the 2008 polls but lost another one to PKR in the 2013 election, and has only 10 seats now.
“Five of the 10 Umno reps here had their 2008 majorities slashed, and four others won with majorities of less than a thousand.
“Will they be able to win the nine marginal seats in the next polls? We will know in this general election,” he said.
Lim also said Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng was right to say Tengku Adnan had picked the wrong state to turn into a federal territory if the federal government’s intention was to help Malays.
“He should be looking at Kelantan and Terengganu – the poorest states in the country,” he said.
Lim also questioned if becoming a federal territory was a sure guarantee for development, citing Labuan island’s case.
“…he (Tengku Adnan) claims the federal government had invested over RM5 billion since the date of takeover.
“Clearly, Harris Salleh, the man responsible for handing Labuan to the federal government when he was Sabah Chief Minister in 1984, does not think so. Only last year, Harris openly called on the federal government to return the island to Sabah immediately.
“Harris said he was disappointed that the federal government did not deliver its promise to make Labuan an economically viable island city,” he said.
Meanwhile, when asked what she thought of Penang becoming a federal territory, opposition leader and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also a Penang MP, said Tengku Adnan’s suggestion was “absurd”.