Penang Forum steering committee member Khoo Salma Nasution said she believed Chow was “trying his best” to uphold the principles of competency, accountability and transparency in the project.

He was doing so “despite the intense pressure put on him by developers and various other individuals and parties”, she said today.

“I believe that the chief minister welcomes constant open engagement with civil societies and that is why I requested to have an open debate with him.

“In fact, the chief minister has been very gracious in saying that he is not the least bit embarrassed by civil society protest. He even encouraged us to submit a memorandum every Friday if we like.

“But there are members of his government and his party who seem to think that civil societies and voters should only exercise their democratic right once every five years,” Khoo said in a statement today.

Earlier today, Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Daniel Gooi slammed the NGO’s proposal for a debate with Chow over the Bayan Lepas LRT project, labelling it as an attempt to further publicise their “lies and misleading facts”.

He claimed that Penang Forum was making statements to tarnish the state government and its effort to provide a holistic traffic solution through the PTMP, accusing the group of wanting to “see Penang fail as a state”.

Gooi said the state government was committed to sustainable development, especially in building a feasible and lasting transport infrastructure, “as it could see them being voted out in the next general election”.

Khoo dismissed Gooi’s allegations, simply telling FMT that it was “illogical”.

She expressed concern that Chow was not aware of the complete details of the project, reiterating her call for full public disclosure on the PTMP.

“If possible, he should give a substantive answer to each and every point I have put across in my letter ‘Penang’s Bayan Lepas LRT – Glorious Legacy or White Elephant Project’, or else it might leave his voters in doubt of the viability of the PTMP.”