He said if it was not so simple, then the minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor should have discussed the matter first.
“Penang Umno chief Zainal Abidin Osman said they want to see Tengku Adnan for an explanation about this. He said it is not so easy.
“Then why make such a suggestion if it is not something easy to do? You would have talked about it first.
“Here, there is no discussion… and he gave unacceptable reasons (sebab bukan-bukan) for it,” Lim told reporters today.
Yesterday, Zainal said Penang Umno would see Tengku Adnan to seek his explanation on the matter, which was now a hot issue. He said whatever Umno learned from Tengku Adnan would be shared with BN component parties in Penang for further discussion.
He also said it was not so easy to take a state or to change the boundaries of a state to make it a federal territory as it involved the Federal Constitution.
Tengku Adnan’s federal territory idea for Penang has put the Pakatan Harapan government on defence mode. He had been heavily criticised since he voiced the idea in a radio interview last week.
Over the weekend, Tengku Adnan defended his idea, saying it would help Malays in Penang who had been sidelined by the state government and it would address the lack of affordable housing in the state.
Both his arguments have been shot down by the state government and Penang Pakatan elected representatives, who claimed the administration had done more for the people in these two areas compared with Barisan Nasional.
Guan Eng, who is DAP secretary-general, said the proposal was made because BN knew it would lose in the general election.
“The move is hateful and vengeful,” he said.
Yesterday, his father, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, said Tengku Adnan’s federal territory idea was an admission that BN had no hope of winning back non-Malay support and could possibly also lose Malay support in the coming polls.