There I said it. If you watched it last night then do drop a note and tell me what you thought. Will update with youtube links once they are up.
Briefly, LGE opened with a flurry of accusations, touching on 5-6 “land scandals”. As the night went on though they focused on one particular scandal, the “40 million loss” related to the awarding of land to a private quarry contractor.
Koh managed to defend himself very well imo. His points were:
- The root cause of the confusion was a slipup made in the land dept 40 years ago.
- He had not met with the government privately to discuss the issue as they were constantly “going public” with new claims of “land scams”
- The “40 million” figure was merely the court amount. The contractor is apparently willing to settle for 1.5 mil.
- He had not fired the individual involved, as he had ordered investigations not once but twice against him but there was no concrete proof that there was criminal intent involved. The new government had not fired the official either.
- He had not gone public as the case was in court and he would be committing subjudice.
LGE made glaring errors in the debate:
- During the cross, Koh pointed out that the contractor was willing to settle for 1.5 mil; presumably the new Govt knew this as well. He asked why the 40 mil figure was constantly bandied about when the case was still being contested in court. LGE didn’t answer the question but did some pandering instead.
- Koh pointed out that the new govt had earlier accused of having come into an empty office with the state documents missing, but in fact while the office of the CM itself was free of documents, they could all – “thousands and thousands of them” – be easily found in the private archives on the same floor. LGE didn’t respond directly to this.
LGE did a lot of pandering to the crowd, which I thought was a waste of time. It made him look as if he were running for reelection. The constant tirades against the old govt instead of focusing on the topic at hand made Koh’s points seem more valid.
Koh on the other hand only focused on the 40 mil issue. Although he handily rebutted LGE’s accusations on that issue and definitely came out looking good, I would have liked to hear about PGCC.
For my part, the debate did a lot to convince me that the current govt is going down the wrong path in constantly going after the old administration. I remember after Koh’s gentlemanly concession in March, they were initially planning to consult him on governing the state. Gerakan was once an opposition party, and recent events hint that some within the party are dissatisfied with BN. I’d try to build bridges, not burn them.
[update]Lim Guan Eng also made an extremely bold statement during the debate: that his government would eradicate hardcore poverty in Penang within one year. That’ll definitely come back to bite him if he doesn’t deliver.
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Tags: debate, koh tsu koon, land scam, lim guan eng, Malaysia, penang, Politics
another pro-gerakan. lol
i cant understand that why he’s not acting on what the root member thinks.
still loving the big bro lots ;p
LGE = 1
KSK = 4
LGE has an issues but KSK is too good 4 him.
Well done Mr. “Gentlemen” KSK.
This is a sucker punch to LGE, And also a wake-up call to him as well.
Hope that he will start doing something 4 penangites instead of busy trying to find other’s mistakes. (He should know, he is not in an opposition party anymore)
I doubt anyone could call me a Gerakan or BN supporter. A Penang supporter maybe…
Politics aside, I’m merely presenting my opinion based on the debate alone. And LGE definitely lost based on that. The only things that mattered here were the facts based on the land scams, not repeating reelection promises or claims about wiping out poverty.
I think KTK won too. The middle ground is won by KTK that night. LGE better get its butt moving and starty governing.
Great entry.
LGE is like his father – they argue for the sake of argument, not for consistency and truth in content. As much as I hate Barisan Nasional, the opposition has failed countless times to be of quality in the ‘intellectual approach’ to issues. I’m loosing love for Malaysia more everyday…
This is the pain that we should bear to move to a more democratic nation.
Bear with it, tomorrow would be better then. for the sake of ourselves, our generations.
Don’t think is this solution for debate; even to show to eveyone that K had already prepared for the explaination.
~ In fact, who else can dare to challenge govrnm. for ‘transparency’
AND — both shall understand that ‘L’ shall focus on govn. yes, but anyone forgotten that K or others (loss in election) already in opposition side “no cooperation” still fighting with them (won election).