Penang shining, thanks to Guan Eng

Free Malaysia Today
March 18, 2012

Penang CM Lim Guan Eng gets a good mark for his manner of governing the state.

By Dan Martin
AFP

GEORGETOWN: Former political detainee Lim Guan Eng wasted no time leaving his mark on Penang after the brash opposition politician won power in the Malaysian state in 2008 general election.

He quickly balanced the books of the former British colonial outpost, which were stained red after a half-century under the control of Malaysia’s authoritarian ruling coalition.

He has virtually eliminated its debt, launched a campaign to halt official corruption, and has, by most accounts, injected new vigour and efficiency into the government of the important economic hub.

Today, Penang — a colorful mix of colonial architecture, pre-war Chinese shophouses, tropical beaches and high-tech factories — is on the up, as property values soar and foreign investment rolls in.

With potentially pivotal new elections expected to be called within months, Lim — a 51-year-old ethnic Chinese former banker with slicked-back hair and a wide chin — says the implications of his record are clear.

“If you can show that you can govern well, it will be a model, a showcase… a precursor of governing the federal government,” he said, pointing to the possibility of the opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim taking power.

Malaysia’s long-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition faces voter unease over allegations of misgovernance, corruption, and racial tension, the latter often blamed on policies that promote majority Malays over minority Chinese and Indians.

But the BN insists the Anwar-led opposition can do no better.

Lim’s success in Penang has called that claim into question, however, and his outspokenness mark him as the country’s most potent symbol of minority impatience.

Lim earned a one-year jail term in 1998 for sedition after he criticised the dropping of rape charges against a Malay top ruling party politician and he launches regular broadsides against the BN over its frequent financial and other scandals.

His detractors call him a domineering self-promoter who is benefiting from UNESCO’s 2008 listing of Penang’s capital Georgetown as a World Heritage Site, a bid launched before he took over.

But even opponents acknowledge he gets results.

Bureaucracy more efficient under Lim

“He is very clever, very authoritarian,” said Teng Hock Nan, Penang’s top official for Gerakan, the ruling coalition partner ousted by Lim’s DAP in 2008. “When he gives a directive, it gets done.”

One of Britain’s oldest Asian settlements, Penang was a cosmopolitan trading hub in its 19th-century heyday before going into what Lim calls a “graceful decline”.

Today, run-down Georgetown shophouses — the distinctive rows of buildings seen in parts of Southeast Asia — are being transformed into trendy hotels, cafes and art galleries injecting new life into old neighbourhoods.

A federally-backed grant programme provides seed money for such renovations.

Many credit Lim’s attempts to clean up the rampant backroom deals and political patronage that are typical of Malaysia, whose rating by Transparency International on corruption in recent years has steadily sunk.

Lim launched an unprecedented system of open tenders for state projects and his top officials this year took the unheard-of step of declaring their assets.

Business figures privately say once-routine demands for payoffs are now rare and the bureaucracy more efficient.

“What is sad about Malaysia is that things that are the international norm (clean government) are abnormal,” Lim said.

Foreign investors have signalled their approval. Home to much of Malaysia’s high-tech industry, Penang led the nation in luring manufacturing investment the past two years.

Lim’s moves have been “very substantive in managing finances, cleaning up the government, and initiating green policies”, said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia politics analyst with Singapore Management University.

“I’ve gone there for years and can tell you there is a big difference.”

Australian investors Karl Steinberg and Christopher Ong, who is Penang-born, have restored an Edwardian bungalow and other decaying heritage properties into boutique hotels, lured by the new energy and official “cleanliness”.

“There are places where corruption can make it hard to get things done. Penang is relatively free of that,” Steinberg said.

But Lim’s directness rubs many raw and he faces criticism for overly fast growth as soaring property prices have worsened a low-cost housing shortage. Plans for huge infrastructure projects have fuelled the concerns.

Gerakan accuses him of stoking racial tensions, and national leaders including premier Najib Tun Razak have warned vaguely of threats to Malay dominance, widely seen as referring to ambitious non-Malays like Lim.

Strong grip of Penang

But Francis Loh, head of independent Penang-based democratic rights group Aliran, says Lim’s government has been racially inclusive.

“They represent the opening up of government in Malaysia,” he said.

Leading Malaysia pollster Ibrahim Suffian said Lim looks so secure that the ruling coalition likely views Penang as a “lost cause” in the next polls.

Nationally, the picture is less clear.

Lim doubles as national head of the Chinese-dominated DAP, one of three members of the opposition front, including Anwar’s multi-racial party and an Islamic party.

The alliance won historic gains over the BN in 2008 but remains fractious and its performance is mixed in three other states — Malaysia has 13 — it won four years ago.

But Lim remains hopeful. He relaxes by reading British historian Niall Ferguson’s works on the failures of past national governments through history, in case the opposition wins control.

“If we win… I need to know what are the pitfalls,” he said.

– AFP

10 Replies to “Penang shining, thanks to Guan Eng”

  1. I wonder how low can Najib go further without recognizing Lim Guan Eng’s contributions to the people of Penang.
    “People First. Performance Now”…Lim Guan Eng did that to the dot….and here we have a PM…not one word of congratulation to LGE…for a job well done.
    You believe Najib is for the people…by the people…with the people….you are NUTS.
    He keep saying to the People….
    “Trust me”….treating People like idiots.
    Trust him what?
    Trust him…under his leadership…..all will change and PEOPLE must forget all the billion stolen…all the unsolved murder cases?
    Perhaps he should release all jail birds …all jails empty…then we may understand a little of his nonsensical stuffs.

  2. Najib has finally let the cat out of the bag on what is program really is compared to PR which is exemplified by Penang. By stating that his plan all along was to chose qualified bumiputras, he is admitting all along he is keeping to the old system but doing it better. Instead of any cronies, the plan was always to choose cronies that won’t embarass UMNO.

    Najib is intellectual mush and nonsense. There is no such alternative. A crony system is a crony system. its works the same way whether they look better or not. Its hard enough to run a meritocratic transparent because measuring merit is not perfect. When you take your pedal off it, the system will fall apart quite quickly because the measurements are not there. Why the old feudal system did not fall apart completely because there were minorities who had to make the projects work one way or other in order to survive. The old system is actually preferable to what Najib is proposing because what he is proposing is not accountable to success. In other words, a spoiled and coddled democracy will fail faster than cruel feudalism.

    Najib still don’t get it that insisting on UMNO-Perkasa/BN hegemony can only fail. Trying to micro-manage the system better simply is no long term answer but merely extending the life of the old system that will quickly fail. All the complains of the old system will still show up and get just as bad eventually.

  3. ///Leading Malaysia pollster Ibrahim Suffian said Lim looks so secure that the ruling coalition likely views Penang as a “lost cause” in the next polls.///

    We can be hopeful but should not be over confident and rest on our laurels. True, Guan Eng has done a grand job on Penang. However, he should not be satisfied with the current achievements and should continue to strive for the best of the best to make Penang a model Malaysian state.

  4. Hahahaha…“Lift Own Basket” literally means “Angkat Bakul Sendiri” in Malay….where else can LGE gain publicity besides daddy’s blog……even the down south country hardly publish his unknown achievement…..malu la…puji anak lebih2 dalam Blog sendiri….lets the praises and acknowledgement come naturally la….

  5. Hoi cintasaiful’s ass,LGE has been widely praised inside and outside Malaysia la.Are you slumbering too much under your Rambutan tree?Do not feel sad that the botak fella of your beloved statesman never got a single praise from no one.LGE has an admirable proven record and he deserves all the praises from every sound-minded peope unlike you.The truth hurts,right?Sorry for you!

  6. Do Malaysians find the UMNO/BN government oddballs psychotic?
    They are having a scam and a scandal a day and yet they still try to make themselves out to be heroes?
    What does the rest of the world think?
    That our once proud and progressive country during the initial days of Independence is now run by a bunch of lunatics or crazies?
    Do Malaysians want to suffer such fools and rascals?
    Or do we want to get a life by kicking them out and make this country once again great and proud?
    The time for action is drawing very close!

  7. The current gomen of Penang SHOULD have been taken as an EXAMPLE how the country should be Managed with BN taking the changes in stride but this is not to be. Instead, we have bankrupt past the shelf-life politicians twisting and lying about what had been done; trying to confuse and distort facts in a world of twitter and facebook! This only proves that they should never ever again be given the chance to gomen Penang or for that matter any other States! As by so doing, they are telling the world that they would repeat the same things allover again! With mindset, why should they be permitted to repeat their rapacious behaviour? They certainly have not justified their past actions or behaviour; and why should they be given another chance? Their bahaviour, if the Mathias Chong were to be believed, is such that this very high ranking UMNO man could even asked why the Chinese wanted political power??!!! This clearly shows the blinkers they are wearing and hide themselves behind their sloganeering into even believing it themselves. And such are the characters demanding, threatening, lying and even pleading to continue to head the nation! In such scenario, they just refused to ask themselves for the slighest justification that deserves such rights.

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