PENANG: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is naive, ignorant or merely playing politics, says Gerakan.

Its vice-president Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said that Lim seemed to be asking questions through the media for answers which he could easily get from his officers, reports, documents and briefings.

“I am saying he is naive because all the questions he has been asking can be easily obtained because he has access to all the information,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Dr Teng said this showed that Lim was not ready to take on responsibility as a chief minister.

“I do not know whether to call him Chief Minister or just Lim Guan Eng,” he said.

Dr Teng, who is a former state executive councillor, also hit out at Lim for asking him and former chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon to apologise to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for misleading the latter on the proposed RM25bil Penang Global City Centre (PGCC) project.

Lim had said that Abdullah was invited to launch the proposed project last year when the Penang local authorities had yet to approve the project.

Dr Teng said he was appalled that Lim had made such baseless statements.

“The Prime Minister was fully aware during the soft launch that the local authorities had yet to approve the planning permit.

“That was why the Prime Minister requested the state government to facilitate the process,” he said, adding that the project was proposed on private land owned by the Penang Turf Club.

Dr Teng also clarified that it was the developer who invited the Prime Minister and state authorities as part of their marketing strategy.

Meanwhile, Lim said he regretted Dr Teng’s personal attack against him.

He said all the state government wanted, when it questioned why the Prime Minister was invited to launch the PGCC project when it had yet to be approved by the local authorities, were answers based on facts.

“Instead of answering the state government’s questions to him, Dr Teng has launched a personal attack against me,” Lim told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from Korean ambassador to Malaysia Bong Ryull Yang.

Lim said he would reply to Dr Teng today.