Ong Kian Ming slammed
over ‘lies’, ‘misleading’
road funds remarks
DAP assemblymen K Kumaran and Chee Yeoh Keen accused the former Bangi MP of confusing the issue with demands for equal allocations for opposition constituencies.
K Kumaran and Chee Yeoh Keen, who represent Bagan Dalam and Bagan Jermal respectively in the Penang state assembly, said Ong’s criticism of DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng was designed to create confusion.
Lim is the MP for Bagan, within which lie the state constituencies of Bagan Dalam and Bagan Jermal.
“Lim had never blamed nor questioned (state executive councillor) Zairil Khir Johari or the state government because the funds were from the federal government and not from the state government.
Kumaran told FMT.Instead, Zairil had leapt forward to defend the federal government official responsible for ‘hijacking’ the roadwork funds out of the Bagan parliamentary constituency. Why try to cover up the issue?
On Thursday, Ong lamented that the party was no longer what it used to be, after Lim had taken issue with the allocation of funds for the benefit of the opposition-held Tasek Gelugor constituency.
Ong, who joined the DAP in 2012, said the party of that era would not have seen its chairman publicly question an exco member from the same party on such matters.
He also said Lim’s criticism reflected poorly on the party’s commitment to fair distribution of government resources.
However, Kumaran and Chee took issue with Ong’s comments.
said Kumaran.Ong not only lied but tried to confuse the issue by bringing up the question of equal allocations,
Bagan only gets 17.2% of the RM4.15 billion allocated for development projects in Seberang Perai Utara. The funds intended for Bagan were hijacked, and that’s the problem.
Chee, backing Kumaran’s remarks, added:
This is not the DAP member we know. If Ong were still an MP, would he support the hijacking of funds meant for his constituency?
Both assemblymen nonetheless rejected the notion that the party was calling for the government to neglect opposition constituencies. They insisted that Bagan had received a smaller portion of development funds compared to other constituencies in the district.
The dispute stemmed from Lim’s allegation that RM1.4 million of the RM5.6 million allocated for Bagan had been taken for projects in Tasek Gelugor. The Bagan MP demanded the return of these funds and called for action against the federal officials responsible.
Zairil had explained that the RM5.6 million had been utilised to upgrade a trunk road running through the two constituencies. RM4.2 million of that sum was spent for the portion of the road in Bagan, with the remaining RM1.4 million utilised for the section within Tasek Gelugor.
FMT has reached out to Ong for comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment