What Guan Eng kept secret about the Sungai Lembu issue
I’m just scratching the surface with this expose, Guan Eng. There is a lot more where these documents came from, and I don’t mind going to jail by declassifying OSA material you have yet to make public. Question is, are you and Phee willing to go to jail with me? Will you now declassify the minutes of other meetings that discussed the illegal factory issue and related matters?
THE THIRD FORCE
Yesterday, the administration of Lim Guan Eng undertook to declassify the full minutes of a 2015 meeting that discussed, among others, the legality of a factory processing carbon filters in Kampung Sungai Lembu, Bukit Mertajam. News of the factory’s existence stirred untold frenzy following revelations that the fumes and ash billowing into the open from its confines may have caused villagers who lived within proximity to die of cancer.
But what shocked – and probably hurt – Malaysians most were revelations that a state exco member issued two directives to the Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP), preventing the local authority from tearing the illegal factory down. The exco in question was none other than Phee Boon Poh, who, on the 11th of August 2017, triggered a discovery by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into his role in obstructing the course of justice.
But that’s not all.
On the 15th of August 2017, Guan Eng acknowledged that his government knew of the negative impact the factory had on villagers, before admitting that his administration ‘tied its own hands’ by adopting a policy of ‘non-interference’. Then, just yesterday, the Chief Minister told a press conference that the purpose he declassified the 6th of May 2015 minutes was to ‘prove’ that Phee had properly dealt with the issue in his capacity as the state welfare, caring society and environment exco.
“If we want to talk about environment, he has dealt with it, and the minutes revealed that the DoE officer said the factory is in compliance,” the Chief Minister said.
But the Chief Minister lied.
What he failed to highlight was point numbered 3.3 (ii), which states explicitly that the DoE would only support operations if the burning of sawdust was conducted in a closed environment. Ironically, not only did the Chief Minister fail to force the factory owner into compliance, his administration went ahead and issued two directives to MPSP, telling the local authority not to interfere in the factory’s affairs.
