Guan Eng seeking to divert attention from land issue

NIBONG TEBAL: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng was chided for trying to divert attention from a state party leader's controversial 4,000ha land ownership in Kelantan by calling on the federal government to allow Christians to use the word of 'Allah' in the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible.

Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the Penang Chief Minister was seeking to divert public attention from the controversy involving Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham.

Mohd Ali, who is also the Malacca Chief Minister said the issue of the use of 'Allah' word among Christians had been resolved and there was no need to bring up the issue again.

"However, he (Lim) needs to create a diversion from the controversy involving Ngeh to distract the public from the more important issue on the 4,000ha land owned by the DAP Perak chairman."

"DAP leaders made a ruling that their assemblymen should not acquire any land during their term in office, so Lim should better focus on explaining the issue to the rakyat," he said after opening the Malaysian Islamic Missionary and Welfare Organisation (Pekida) 18th annual general meeting here today.

Mohd Ali said the land issue was serious as it involved a huge land parcel in Pas-led Kelantan.

He also called for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to expedite their investigation into the matter.

Ngeh had denied allegations that the Kelantan government awarded Upayapadu Plantation Sdn Bhd, the company that owns 4,359ha land in the state, in exchange for him not being made the Perak Menteri Besar after DAP won the most number of seats in Perak at the 2008 general election.

Mohd Ali also challenged the DAP leadership to suspend or direct Ngeh to relinquish his posts pending the MACC probe.

"This is a classic example of hypocrisy practiced by the DAP leadership. They are always quick to jump the gun and calling for BN leaders to resign the moment they are alleged of any wrongdoing."

"However, when their leaders are linked to any controversy, the party adopts a silent mode and create other issue to divert the public from the issue at hand," he said.

As such, Mohd Ali urged Muslims in the country not to fall into Lim's political twist by playing up the word of 'Allah' issue and instead focus on the land ownership issue.

Lim, in his Christmas message on Monday had urged the federal government to allow Christians to use the word 'Allah' in their Bahasa Malaysia version of Bible.