Live at 9.00pm over ntv7
Share your impressions of the debate on questionable land deals in Penang in the comments below and vote in the poll:
This debate also allowed Koh Tsu Koon an opportunity to provide a public rebuttal to Guan Eng’s accusations.
I watched it live yesterday on NTV7, in my opinion….
Koh’s points
there were only 7 or so scams against over 10,000 titles processed
the case was before court thus it was subjudice to discuss it
the approval for the quarry was given because there were surrounding quarries , thus after the land is flattened it could be used for housing development.
LGE’s points
If the state govt did not change the people would not know of the matter
despite advice by land and survey dept and regulators the old state govt ignored procedures.
no punitive action whatsoever was taken against the perpetrators
large quantities of land alienated to one person
The way I percieve the debate is both parties acted with decorum.
Koh did not bring up Anwar at all while many thought he would, but gave standard BNsque answers like dismissing the expose as a small percentage, subjudice as the case was before court and skirting issues as to why procedures were not followed.
LGE while suceeding to put him into defensive mode, and create enough doubt to make us think that this could only be the tip of the iceberg in such cases, repeated CAT far too many times-I swear at one point I was rolling my eyes.
Koh is partially right when he said….
“He is now the CM but yet he still behaves like he is still in opposition,”
No doubt the winner is LGE, but KOh held his ground well save for brief moments of exasperation.
He was not a buffoon like shabery cheek who Anwar trounced.
After march 8th Koh took defeat magnanimously and was the ONLY BN person defeated to attend a Pakatan MB’s swearing in.
While LGE won the debate he has yet to learn the finer points of statemanship…and while Koh appeared defeated he is certainly no villian like (a certain ex MB).
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Did PGCC/Batu Kawan projects approved by any authorities?
LGE seems unable to provide solid facts to prove his arguments. KTK certainly knows well what is going on.
LGE should do more homework.
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Dear SH Tan,
It is a bit too late in the night to debate with you on the ‘no middle ground’ positions of politics. Instead I’ll cut and paste a comment I made with regards this debate in another blog.
Dear xxxxxxx,
Let me try to explain my views from my understanding of the context which brought about this debate.
Soon after taking office, LGE started making media declarations of land scams, missing files, etc. and at the same time complaining that KTK refuses to meet with him to explain.
Isn’t this politicking and playing to the crowd when he could have just called and waited for KTK’s response before going to the press? Much like Chia Kwang Chye’s ‘friendly advice’ in the press to Dr Toh? A political message was the intention rather than real desire to communicate is what I think.
Then the debate itself. From my perspective, i thought that the debate with its narrow title gave LGE every opportunity to ‘pin’ KTK to the wall but he didn’t do that. Instead LGE kept on harping on why no actions other than a warning was given to the civil servant.
I’m guessing here that the civil servant in question is a Malay so to me LGE was asking questioning KTK’s inability to act against a supposedly an UMNO backed Malay civil servant.
This to me is more politicking and not seeking the desired answers as LGE claims. It is a political attack at KTK’s reluctance to stand up against UMNO.
On this I agree with you that KTK failed Penangites for not standing up against UMNO, which is what most of us had hoped he would do.
But from the context of the debate and the declared desire of LGE to obtain the truth, he failed miserably.
Had the topic been “Were you really running the Penang government or an unseen UMNO hand is doing it behind you?” then I would conclude that LGE won.
But in the context of the ‘land scams’ I thought LGE painted to many a picture of still being in the ‘opposition’ mindset and KTK deflected his attacks with a manner associated with a statesman.
So since this debate took place on the premise of the topic, LGE lost and KTK won was my conclusion.
That doesn’t mean that I hero worship KTK nor do I ridicule LGE.
In fact I have already told KTK, my old friend of 22 years, that I will be opposing him in my blog (via an email 3 days ago) for his reluctance to leave the BN.
But I must also be fair and give credit where it is due.
Both men have their faults but I found your inability to recognize this disturbing for your hatred of UMNO is so strong that it prevents you from seeing things for what they are rather than what you wish it to be.
I also wish for UMNO’s demise and Lee Chong Wei to win but the fact is KTK won the debate based on the topic and Lee Chong Wei let nerves get the better of him (not withstanding that Lin Dan played a flawless match).
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I really did not comprehend what KTK said when he mentioned that the so-called ” mistake ” made by the previous BN govt is less than 0.1 percent given that there are 99.9 percent other land deals handled by the previous BN govt.
KTK should understand that all these 0.1 percent ” mistakes ” involved huge sums of money ( millions ) all belonging to the people of Penang. Most importantly these ” mistakes ” were committed by former BN Exco members and not by ordinary folks.
If these Exco members were not up to something fishy, then what is it ? KTK should clearly explain to the people of Penang how and why the ” mistakes ” were committed, otherwise Penangites will ot accept his side of the story. KTK cannot just brushed this very important issue off and hoped that it can go away.
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One word – the relic of BN spoke passionately of Bersih,Cekap dan Amanah in the previous administration. Obviously, this man needs guidance. He said 5 cases of possible land scam do not portray the government as corrupt. Now – now, if the government is really clean, why are there 5 out of the many “hidden cases”. I am saddened and it reinforces my worse fear – KTK was not hands on at all.
Who won in this debate?????? The people of Penang.
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