Friday, April 15, 2011

CM slammed over swiftlet ban

By VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my

KUCHING: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been criticised for not handling the swiftlet farming issue in Penang well.Deputy Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Chua Tee Yong said Lim instead chose to push the blame to the Federal Govern-ment.

“What I need to stress is Guan Eng is a representative in the National Council for Local Government and he has the right to be heard and voice concerns to defend the people of Penang if he feels the decision made is incorrect.“As such, I hope he does not continue to mislead the people or push the blame to the Federal Government,” he said here yesterday.

Chua also requested to see the minutes of the council's meeting on how the decision to ban swiftlet farming at heritage sites in Penang and Malacca was made.He wanted to find out if Lim had agreed with the measures to be taken.“I want to know if he con- curred with the measures taken by the council.“This is because I never knew the Chief Minister of Penang to be an obedient person (leaving) the council to discuss and he just agreeing (to it),” he said.

Chua said what had been agreed in the council was a collective decision.Based on this, Chua added that it was untrue for Lim to solely say it was a directive from the Federal Government.In addition, Chua wanted to know what steps the Penang Government had taken to engage with the swiftlet operators.

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