Punish DAP over hudud, Bkt Gelugor voters told

Bukit Gelugor voters must punish DAP if it fails to stop PAS from tabling a Private Member’s Bill on hudud, Parti Cinta Malaysia vice-president Huan Cheng Guan said today.

The Gerakan former vice president, who declared his intention to contest the parliament seat last week, was speaking to reporters after launching his by-election operations centre in Air Itam today.

Huan said the recent hudud push by PAS has left Penangites worried and urged DAP to  immediately stop its ally from tabling the Bill, which would see the implementation of the Islamic criminal jurisprudence in Kelantan, when Parliament resumes on June 9.

"Since DAP has 38 MP seats, almost double that of PAS’ 21, it is certainly within DAP’s influence to stop PAS and it is definitely DAP's responsibility to fulfill their pre-GE13 reassurance that PAS will not implement hudud law.

"If DAP is unable to stop PAS by voting day (May 25), voters of Bukit Gelugor must take the opportunity of this by-election to withdraw support for DAP and send a strong message to the party that if it cannot stop PAS then DAP should be prepared for heavy loss of support in the 14th general election," he added.

During the launch of his centre, Huan (left) also presented a moving eulogy for the late Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh, who died in a road accident on April 17.

Nomination day is on Monday, and to date, the Penang Front Party - a coalition of 44 anti-DAP NGOs and Jelutong resident Yacoob Mohd Noor, have offered themselves to contest the seat, other than DAP.

MCA, which lost heavily by 41,778 votes to Karpal in the May 5 polls last year, have yet to confirm if it would be contesting the seat.

Five pressing issues

Meanwhile, Huan said he would withdraw his candidacy if the Penang government can assure him that the state is in "good hands".

He said the state needs to give him this assurance between now and voting day as he is concerned about five pressing issues that pose "a major threat to Penang and her citizens".

Huan questioned if the Penang government can honour and fulfill the late Karpal's last two requests to the state leadership which have gone unheeded.

The first request, he noted, was in July last year, when Karpal wanted tougher punishments for the culprits responsible for the famous Bukit Gambir "bald" hill incident.

Huan said Karpal's second request was in January this year when he wanted the Penang government to use its two-thirds majority to challenge the banning of the use of 40 words for non-Muslims which was enforced on April 29, 2010.

Other concerns about Penang is the state's investment which have "plummeted" more than 73 percent and from number one position in 2011 to sixth place in 2012 and fourth place in 2013, just barely ahead of Sabah.

Huan said the figures for January to March this year shows Penang at a distant fifth place with top-place Sarawak getting almost 10 times the investments of Penang so far.

"Even more worrying is that most of the investment into Penang these past years have come from domestic sources and related to property development and not the foreign investments that can generate high-quality jobs for Penang people.

"The chief minister is on record to say that IKEA is a 'critical economic catalyst' for Penang. I fail to see how a furniture seller can be considered as such," he added.

"If the Penang government finds it hard to work with the federal government to push up the state's investment, perhaps I could help if I were elected the MP," Huan quipped.

Other concerns Huan raised included the "worrying trend" where the state's yearly expenses have almost doubled from 2008 to 2012, while normal tax revenues have essentially remained flat and  declined in 2012.

He claimed that Penang is able to cover this doubling of expenses by generating revenue of more than 1,000 percent from sales of state land and assets in 2012 compared to 2008.

He also urged the Penang government to immediately declassify and release the agreement for the controversial proposed Penang tunnel project.

"I understand that there is a Freedom of Information Act within Penang that allows this," he added.