Gerakan lodges MACC report over Penang govt’s funding of comic museum

(MMO) – Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) has lodged a report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday to probe into the Penang government’s allocation to the Asia Comic Cultural Museum to pay for the museum’s rental fee.

Penang Gerakan vice-chairman H’ng Khong Leng today said it was announced in the state assembly sitting on Oct 12 that the state government had allocated RM413,940 for the museum’s rental fee for 2020.

“If this is true, then the state has given about RM2 million to the museum to pay for its rental fee since the museum’s establishment in March 2016.

“We find it suspicious that a private entity could receive that much funding while other tourism organisations in Penang do not receive just as much financial aid,” he told a press conference here today.

H’ng also claimed that the museum was not registered under the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), as it could not be found in the SSM database.

He believed that the museum had received that much financial support from the state as the museum curator Hew Kuan Yau (picture) was a strong Democratic Action Party (DAP) supporter.

“We urge the state Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow to clarify on this subject matter with proper documentation to clear any suspicion from the public,” he added.