Is Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng A Racist?

The amount of flak Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been receiving from Penang Umno  must surely say something about the man.

The Star 31st July 2011

In fact, ever since the Pakatan Rakyat coalition wrested the state from Barisan in the 2008 general election, Penang Umno has been after Lim Guan Eng accusing him of all kinds of incompetencies and even calling him a racist for not doing enough for Penang Malays.

This is very strange, for only recently Penang UMNO partner MCA came out to complain that the Chief Minister was not helping Penang Chinese by awarding all State Drainage and Irrigation Department contracts to Malays only .

Now, is Lim Guan Eng not doing anything to help the Penang Malays by giving the state contracts to Malays?

The Chief Minister has explained that all state contracts were awarded via open tenders and the Malay contractors came out with better offers.

What is telling is that the average Penangite is not complaining. What is telling is that in the space of two or three years since the Pakatan coalition took over the reign of Penang state government with Lim Guan Eng as the Chief Minister, Penang has been able to return a surplus from the perennial deficits of the previous Barisan state government helmed by former Chief Minister Dr Koh Su Khoon of Gerakan party.

What is telling is that Penang under Lim Guan Eng has consistently been able to attract investments both local and foreign and was No1 state for total capital investment for 2010.

What is telling is that Penang under Lim Guang Eng was one of only two state governments in Malaysia (the other being Selangor, another Pakatan coalition led government under Khalid Ibrahim) to have been commended by the Auditor-General for the way the state government/economy was run.

What is telling is that Lim Guan Eng has been able to improve public transport in Penang and to have generally made Penang a cleaner city to live in, compared to the time when Koh Su Khoon was helmimg the Barisan state government.

So, is Lim Guan Eng a racist?

I don't know. Only Penangites know. And it seems that they are not complaining, except for Penang Umno and maybe their political partners and some NGOs.