A defiant Lim Guan Eng promised today to put up a good fight to protect Penang’s image after he was charged with corruption over his house purchase last year, adding that no amount of humiliation would succeed in bringing him to his knees.
The Penang chief minister in a statement shortly after he
was granted bail by the Penang High Court also maintained that he was innocent
of the charges and that the government he heads in the northern state is free
from power abuse and corruption.
He blamed Barisan Nasional (BN) for the charges, also
questioning the federal administration’s alleged failure to take its own to
court over other cases of corruption involving billions of ringgit.
“BN can prosecute me but I will not kill my passion to free
Malaysia from corruption. BN can victimise me but will not crush my spirit to
free Malaysia from those who steal our children’s future.
“BN can humiliate me by unnecessarily detaining me overnight
but will not succeed in changing white to black and black to white, right cannot
become wrong and wrong cannot become right,” Lim said in the statement.
Lim was kept overnight at the Penang Malaysian
Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) headquarters in George Town after he was
picked up by enforcers yesterday from his Komtar office.
“BN will not break my party's unity — we stand together as
leaders and members to battle for reforms towards a better Malaysia with
freedom, justice and democracy.
“If BN feels that they can bend or break me by arresting me,
they are wrong! I will die standing than live on bended knees,” the DAP
secretary-general added.
The leader who is now in his second term as chief minister
also disagreed with comparisons drawn between his case and that of former
Selangor mentri besar Khir Toyo’s, pointing out that the businesswoman who sold
him his house, Phang Li Koon, had not made any losses.
Instead, he said, Phang had recorded a small profit of
RM300,000 from the sale.
Lim and Phang are both facing charges over the allegedly
corrupt house purchase deal they struck last year.
Lim is facing two charges — one under Section 23 of the MACC
Act and another under Section 165 of the Penal Code.
He is accused of using his public office or position to
obtain gratification for himself and his wife, Betty Chew, by approving an
application by Magnificent Emblem to convert agricultural land to residential
purpose during a state planning committee meeting on July 18, 2014.
Section 23 carries a jail term of not more than 20 years and
a fine of five times the value of gratification or RM10,000 whichever is
higher.
In the Penal Code charge, Lim is alleged to have used his
position to obtain gratification by purchasing his house from Phang at RM2.8
million, which was below the property’s market value of RM4.27 million on July
28, 2015.
The second offence is punishable by up to two years’
imprisonment, a fine, and forfeiture of property upon conviction.
Phang meanwhile has been charged with abetment under Section
109 of the Penal Code over the sale of the house on Jalan Pinhorn to Lim.
Bail was set today at RM1 million for Lim and RM200,000 for
Phang.
Source –Malay Mail Online-
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