The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — The relationship between DAP and the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) deteriorated further when its chairman called Lim Guan Eng a “blatant liar”.

P. Waythamoorthy claims the Penang chief minister had attempted to hoodwink the public in a recent statement by implying that Hindraf claimed it could acquire the land where the village sits on from the developers below market value.

Instead, Lim had said that it would take more than tens of millions to save the village, said to be the last Indian heritage site on the island, by those fighting against its demolition.

But Waythamoorthy pointed out that it was Lim's own political secretary who had come up with the sum of RM30 million and that the DAP secretary-general was attempting to divert from the real issue by talking up the sum of money involved.

This comes after villagers, backed by Hindraf supporters, called for Lim to resign as chief minister. Hindraf had also planned to burn an effigy of Lim in front of his office for failing to solve the issue by exercising his powers as chief minister "with the stroke of a pen".

The village was due to be demolished this week but the developers Nusmetro Venture have been forced to give the villagers a month's respite.

In a press statement, Waythamoorthy also slammed Lim for claiming that the villagers had been offered compensation of RM200,000 and that many had accepted the offer and moved.

Waythamoorthy said that the sum was only RM90,000 and only seven families out of over 40 had accepted.

"As far as I am concerned he is a heartless man for lying and colluding with the developers in uprooting these people with a peanut offer of RM90,000," Waythamoorthy said.

However, the developers have instead claimed that 10 out of 31 households had accepted offers of between RM140,000 and RM260,000 each.

Waythamoorthy repeated Hindraf's point of view that the state government was not without measures to avoid paying a large compensation to the developers but that the chief minister was empowered under the Land Acquisition Act to acquire the land at a reasonable rate subject to a court review.

He also scoffed at Lim's attempt to shift the blame to the previous Barisan Nasional administration, insisting that Lim should "remember that the actual transfer of the said land had occurred during his tenure as chief minister. If the previous government had made a fraudulent deal then he is part of the fraudulent transaction for having sanctioned the transfer."

The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), which contested under PKR tickets in the last general election, also slammed Lim for attempting to "just wash its hands off yet and blame the previous government all the way."

"It puts to test or rather gives Chief Minister Lim a chance to prove that his government is pro-people against being pro-capitalist," said secretary-general S. Arutchelvam in a press statement.

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