MCA founder’s granddaughter lauds Guan Eng’s policies in Penang


The Malaysian Insider
Aug 25, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Lim Guan Eng received praise from an unexpected source today when the granddaughter of the MCA’s first president and daughter of the country’s longest-serving finance minister said the Penang chief minister should be given his due for the state’s prudent management of public funds.

Tan Siok Choo, the daughter of Tun Tan Siew Sin and granddaughter of Tun Sir Tan Cheng Lock — both of whom were former MCA presidents — told BFM radio this morning that it was good that Lim had shown what could be done by eliminating waste and implementing open tenders.

“For my father… he was always very particular that government funds should be looked after like your own funds. I think it is in a way, currently, very good that Lim Guan Eng (picture), Chief Minister of Penang, has shown what can be done if you eliminate waste and if you have an open tender.

“The fact that he has been able to run Penang without much contribution from the federal government and yet turn in, yet attract one of the highest rates of investment, I think speaks for itself.

“And this is baring the fact that when my father was in politics, Kit Siang never had a good word to say about my father. So there is history between our two fathers but I think one must give Guan Eng his due,” she told the radio station’s Morning Grille programme.

Siok Choo’s father Siew Sin was finance minister from 1959 until 1974. Guan Eng’s father Kit Siang became an MP for the first time in 1969 and eventually became parliamentary opposition leader.

Her remarks today come as the DAP is increasingly being seen as the party of choice for the country’s Chinese community while the MCA, the party founded by Siok Choo’s grandfather Cheng Lock, appears to be floundering.

Recently, international news magazine The Economist also praised Guan Eng’s open tender policies and credited his administration with helping Penang regain its lustre as a “global city” by lifting the state’s economy to beyond that of a sweat shop industry.

The international weekly dubbed Penang “the first custom-made city of globalisation” and credited Guan Eng for boosting the port city’s revival by axing a racial special treatment economic policy in the state to create a more level-playing field that appeals to foreign investors.

Speaking about the MCA this morning, Siok Choo said the party needed to understand what its constituents wanted if it was to stay relevant.

“I think the good thing about the current situation is that the ethnic lines are getting blurred. You can see this in how Malaysians react to issues… look at issues like Bersih, the call for better and cleaner electoral process, it is being championed across the board, sought by Malays and Chinese. So therefore in terms of civil liberties and soft issues like law and order, no longer seen as Malays vs Chinese… seen as an issue that all Malaysians want.

“I think the party has to realise that if that is what your constituents want, that they don’t see as us and them situation anymore in terms of Malays and Chinese, if the party wants to be relevant and if it wants to move forward, that is the direction it has to go.”

  1. #1 by dagen on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 1:13 pm

    No lah. Soo koon did all the work and guan eng now bask in all the glory.

    Wot? Wrong? Huh? Wot did I say? Oh man, I just read bakri musa’s writing in another thread. I need to cleanse my head now.

  2. #2 by boh-liao on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 1:58 pm

    What TSC really said abt MCA: MCA bei sai liao lah, TIME 2 close shop

  3. #3 by drngsc on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 2:10 pm

    LGE / DAP,
    Take your bow, and get on with the work. History will record your greatness.
    As for now, there is much hardwork ahead and this is not the time to rest on your laurels. We must save Malaysia from the present government.

    we must change the tenant at Putrajaya. GE 13 is our best chance. Failure is not an option. Roll up your sleeves. Much work to be done.

  4. #4 by cintanegara on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 2:12 pm

    This blog is to praise own son? Dr Mahathir never ‘promote’ Mukhriz in his blog…..Every week LGE name must be highlighted and sensationalized…malu lah…

  5. #5 by k1980 on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 2:15 pm

    jibbi’s response– “Grrr, praising dap again! No praise for me at all! You are all ham-per-lang against me! I am going to revoke the toonships from both siew sin and cheng lock!”

  6. #6 by jus legitimum on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 3:29 pm

    LGE and Pakatan have been doing a good job for Penang since 308.The fact is of course indisputable.But until today the sourgrapes from Umno,Mca and Gerakan including their ballpolishers like ‘cintarambutan’ are still trying to sabotage by spewing venom and poison.However,Penangites are discernible,they know what is right and wrong.Come GE 13,they will continue to support LGE and Pakatan.

  7. #7 by Godfather on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 3:55 pm

    Cintanegara:

    Did you allow Koh Tsu Koon to shelter under your rambutan tree ? Did you allow Koh to share in your fruits ? Did you know that Koh now has a strain of durian – virtually seedless – named after him ? That is immortality for one who has always been subservient to UMNO !

  8. #8 by tak tahan on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 4:38 pm

    Mukhriz has shown nothing worth to deserve a praise.No performance from him except relying on tongkat to get super dirty rich.He is more like a retard or sor chai kia.Mahathir is far worst as he will be remembered a father of racist.Cintanegara will be the most MALU ONE for not yet being able to see and accept the reality of the commendable progress made by LGE in Penang.Hoi cintanegara,get out from the trap of NEP and face the existing competitive world.Learn something from LGE and your rambutan will thrive with much more sweet fruits instead of the usual bitter ones.

  9. #9 by drngsc on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 4:44 pm

    Hi cintanegara,

    I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it. Which is more then I can say for your hero Mamak-hatir. Whether he promotes his son or not, in his blog, I do not know, bcoz I will not waste my time.
    Mamak-hatir, has no goodness in him. He stole billions from Malaysians, destroy every institution there is in Malaysia, Set us back by decades, so that we are almost a failed state when we should be almost first world. He does not promote his son in his blog, so you say, but he promotes all his sons to GLC positions, so that they are all filthy rich. He is trying very hard to promote his son Mukhriz to Deputy PM position. There is no good in that man. Please do not talk to us about Mamak-hatir. The hereafter awaits him. May God have mercy on his soul.

    We need to change the tenant at Putrajaya. GE 13 is our best chance. Failure is not an option. We have much hard wwork to do.

  10. #10 by pulau_sibu on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 5:01 pm

    Please continue to do excellent job because this is a prof of the skills of Pakatan. People can expect from Pakatan by evaluating what is being accomplished in Penang.

  11. #11 by rahmanwang on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 5:13 pm

    UMNO said LGE anti Malays, MCA said LGE anti Chinese.
    Well I think LGE only pro Indians and East Malaysians then.

  12. #12 by monsterball on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 7:45 pm

    This should shame sex man and fish eye man alot.
    But we can expect these two will keep on finding faults with Lim Guan Eng.
    It is their jobs.

  13. #13 by a g on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 11:08 pm

    cintanegara,

    If Mukhriz happened to be my son and was commended by an authoritative publisher such as the Economist, I would be very proud of him too!

  14. #14 by Bunch of Suckers on Thursday, 25 August 2011 - 11:39 pm

    “This blog is to praise own son? Dr Mahathir never ‘promote’ Mukhriz in his blog…..Every week LGE name must be highlighted and sensationalized…malu lah…”

    Cintanegara, I beg your pardon!!!

    This article was written by “The Malaysia Insider”. It is not necessarily appearing in LKS’s blog as you claimed!!!! Can’t blame your retarded mentality with the help of NEP!!! Please squat under your Rambutan Trees and dream continuously… I don’t give you a damn!

    Shamefully, the former Gerakan Leader dared to claim that “he sowed seeds for LGE to reap and glory…” He must be born without testicles to claim shamefully… Sucker!

    If Malaysia without opposition parties, esp. DAP; our nation would be rotten and smell like sh*ts!! Bunch of suckers keep sucking around their own goods!!!

    Long live PR, long live DAP, long live LGE, long live Rakyat!!!!!!!!

  15. #15 by dagen on Friday, 26 August 2011 - 8:40 am

    /// Cintanegara, I beg your pardon!!! ///

    Beg wot? Pardon? Oh no. Just tell him to “phaaarrk off” next time. OK?

    Soo koon wants us to believe that if he had stayed on as CM then penang would also have progressed in the like manner as what we could see today. And in fact better, I believe. For soo koon’s pet secret project of training pigs to fly would become a reality and his pet pig would fly in the face of all those who habitually utter “pigs could fly”.

  16. #16 by Peter on Friday, 26 August 2011 - 10:17 am

    Hats off to LGE. You did a fantastic job as a CM despite the various obstacles and false accusatioons you and your PKR colleagues face from the UMNOPUTRAS, religious fanatics, racialists and all the sore corrupted losers in BN. Not to forget that praying mantis look alike KTK who is now behaving like what the chinese says “dead chicken kickinf the rice bowl cover”. PKR just do your job for the good of the rakyat and move on. Dont waste time on all these useless bums.

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