The urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister explained that the sale denied over 30,000 Penangites the chance to own a house at an affordable price.
Rahman also took Lim to task for claiming the affordable housing project had been relocated to SP Chelliah, in George Town, saying it was the “wrong” excuse.
“What’s the problem with building affordable houses on both plots of land?” the Sabahan lawmaker asked at a press conference here today while adding that the original housing project in Taman Manggis would have seen a unit being sold for as low as RM35,000. The cost to rent the units on the other hand stood at merely RM100.
He “congratulated” the Penang government for allocating the other parcel of land, but noted that the lowest price for a unit in SP Chelliah stood at RM72,000, which was double the selling price of Taman Manggis homes had the project gone ahead.
“(So) DAP and Lim are not the victims of our revelations. The victims are the people of Penang. From whatever we have exposed, we didn’t portray Lim as a victim.”
When asked if the Barisan Nasional (BN) had gone overboard with the issue, Rahman answered in the negative, stressing that its revelations were backed by official documents and official data.
“We wanted to give a fair value and assessment. They (Penang government) can defend themselves but what concerns me is that their defence is baseless and instead has raised more questions.”
Gerakan Secretary-General Liang Teck Meng, who was also present today, challenged Lim to address the issues BN had put forward and not hide behind the state’s exco.
“Lim has projected himself as cleaner than clean, whiter than white. So I hope he will come forward and answer these allegations.
“We just expose whatever we can and we’ll leave it to the rakyat to evaluate. Whatever that is wrong, is wrong.”
Lim made headlines recently when it was alleged that the Taman Manggis state land, valued at over RM20 million, was sold to Kuala Lumpur International Dental Centre (KLIDC) for only RM11 million.