Ex-DAP Tunku Aziz: Lim Guan Eng appointed himself CM

Athi Shankar 

GEORGE TOWN: In the never ending attempts to belittle Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng ,the latest query is  whether Lim is the legitimate leader of the state.

This time it comes from former DAP national vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim. Tunku Aziz says Lim appointed himself as the chief executive of the newly formed Pakatan Rakyat government by virtue of being the party’s secretary general.

By convention, he noted that long serving Penang DAP chairman and Padang Kota assemblyman Chow Kon Yeow should have been the chief minister, not a parachute candidate like Lim.

But, Tunku Aziz alleged Lim declared himself as the chief minister during a meeting among DAP elected representatives held in Red Rock Hotel immediately after the 2008 election results were announced.

During the closed door meeting, Abdul Aziz claimed that when a question was raised on who would be the new chief minister, Lim, the Bagan MP and Air Putih assemblyman, immediately jumped up and said “I am the chief minister because I am the party secretary general.”

He said Lim pre-empted any internal political conventional process to take place to choose the chief minister.

“No one nominated or chose him … he chose himself. He bypassed the party’s central executive and state committees to bulldoze his way through to grab the post.

“I think many know the story on how he became the CM,” Tunku Aziz told FMT before speaking at an indoor rally here last night.
Tunku Aziz noted that Lim had been committing administrative blunders since 2008 because he does not understand the local needs, demands and sentiments.

He cited unscrupulous sales of state land to rich developers to build posh houses at the expense of affordable homes for the poor was a perfect example of Lim’s mismanagement due to lack of knowledge, maturity and experience.

Rich developers

He said Lim was now surrounded by rich developers.

“Ordinary Penang people can’t afford to buy homes in their own birth place. It’s violation of their rights. Penangites wanted a chief minister, not a land broker,” said Abdul Aziz.

As the secretary general, he said Lim should sit at the national secretariat and focus to reorganise, restructure and strengthen the DAP to face the next election.

He said DAP now was in disarray due to overwhelming power play by the dominant Lim dynasty which had frustrated many grassroots leaders and members.

He said some leaders and members either were sacked or had left the party for good as “they were fed up with the Lim dynasty dominance.”
“Lim thinks he can handle everything so he wears many hats, sparing only positions of councillors and JKKK head to others.

“His monopoly of power is a sign of insecurity and distrust of others,” said Tunku Aziz.

Family business

Later when speaking on the same subject at the rally, he said the Lim dynasty had turned DAP into a family business, practicing double standard and selective prosecution.

He also slammed these leaders as hypocrites for not voicing out their opposition against the hudud law, even though they supported their national chairman Karpal Singh’s firm stand against it.

“They fear losing the Malay votes,” Tunku Aziz told a crowded Leong See Kah Miew hall in Jalan Perak.

Other speakers at the rally themed “The days when we were in DAP” were former DAP members Tan Tuan Tat, a former Selangor DAP publicity secretary; Yap Kon Min and Tony Tan Chee Chong, a former personal assistant to Selangor DAP chief Teresa Kok Suh Sim.

On Pakatan, Tunku Aziz described the coalition as a mere “marriage of convenience” in which all allies – DAP, PKR and PAS, could agree on many issues to clinch a common agenda.

He noted that Pakatan can’t reach consensus on a shadow cabinet and predicted intense internal squabbles for positions of prime minister and cabinet ministers if the coalition capture the federal government.