BAYAN LEPAS: Caretaker Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong has laid the blame for the delay in the Penang International Airport expansion project firmly at the feet of DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng.
The MCA president said when the Pakatan Harapan government took over the government after the 14th General Election, Lim was appointed finance minister and changed the way the project was being funded.
Wee said the funds had already been allocated in the 2018 Budget, but Lim instead decided that a private partner was needed to fund the project.
"We had the funds, but he didn't want to use them... he had a different idea for the project," he told reporters after a campaign event for Saw Yee Fung, the BN candidate for the Bayan Baru constituency.
Wee said this in response to a state DAP lawmaker urging voters to reject BN and Perikatan Nasional because key infrastructure projects like PIA might be cancelled.
He said when PH fell in 2020, that was during the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of lockdowns everywhere, meaning air travel was suspended.
This, he said, in turn led to virtually no revenue for Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd. Yet no MAHB staff were retrenched then.
However, Wee said this meant that MAHB could not afford to fund the expansion project.
He said efforts by caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had so far been stalled due to several land issues.
We, however, added that the PIA project and Penang in general would be given priority after GE15 and once the land issues are settled.
"We will give priority to Penang. We are not cancelling projects," he said.
Wee also blamed PH for cancelling other important infrastructure projects such as the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail, Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System and East Coast Rail Link projects.
"We (the federal government) had to pay a lot of money in compensation for these cancelled projects.
"At that time, during the tenure of PH, what have you done? Now you put the blame on the current government. Be fair to us. You were at one time the ruling party. You should have done all these when you were in power.
"They themselves pledged that they wanted to abolish toll. Who stopped them from doing so? Take, for example, the Sungai Nyior toll here. In every election they say they want to do this and that, and now they come out with the latest version, we will try to do it. Please don't cheat the people.
"When you were given power in 2018, you promised the people to abolish the toll along the North-South Expressway and also the Penang Bridge. Have you done that? The answer is no. You have the answer. You just did not want to do it," he said.