Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has slammed the federal government for “discriminating” against Penangites by reducing its allocation to the state, saying it was because the people have chosen Pakatan Rakyat to rule in 2008.

In the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), the federal government, according to Lim, had also cut down about 600 projects, compared with those in the 9MP.

NONE Lim ( left ) said the state government would appeal to the prime minister to treat Penang equally by increasing the fund allocation from RM2.88 billion to RM7.2 billion.

He expressed regret that the RM2.88 billion had been allocated to implement 259 programmes or projects under the 10MP, compared with RM6.54 billion for 993 programmes under the 9MP.

“Since the budget for 10MP has been increased by as much as 10 percent, compared with the 9MP, the allocation for Penang ought to increase from RM6.54 billion to RM7.2 billion,” Lim said in a statement.

“Failure to do so would appear as if the federal government continues to marginalise Penangites or discriminate against the people here just because they democratically chose Pakatan Rakyat to govern Penang in the 2008 general election."

Lim was referring to a written parliamentary question to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, asking him to state the allocation for Penang under the 10MP.

He urged Najib, who is also finance minister, to provide a detailed list of the projects, especially road projects to reduce congestion, and those involving drainage systems to prevent flash floods.

Penang’s excellent achievement

Lim, who is Bagan MP, said the federal government should remember that Penang had contributed significantly to the payment of taxes and duties.

He said Penang had played an important role in economic development and has attracted investments to the state and country.

“This was clearly proven by the excellent achievement of Penang as the best in terms of investment in Malaysia for two continous years, with RM12.24 billion in 2010, and RM9.1 billion last year,” he said.

“If the federal government continues to employ this discriminatory and immature approach, it would only be detrimental to the country, as Penang would not only be the one to suffer, but Malaysia as well."

azlan In his written response, Najib had said RM2.88 billion has been allocated to Penang to implement 259 projects for the first phase of the 10MP rolling plan.

In the 9MP (2006-2010), the federal government had allocated RM6.54 billion to implement 993 programmes/projects.

“For your information, of this amount, the federal government has allocated RM873.43 million to implement 50 road and bridge development projects to reduce traffic congestion,” said Najib.

“As a step to address the problem of flash floods, the federal government has allocated RM234.96 million to implement 30 projects within the period of the 9MP to the first phase of the rolling plan in the 10MP.”

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