GEORGE TOWN, SEPT 24- Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has lamented about the various obstacles, which Pakatan Rakyat must overcome to prove that it was steering Penang on a right path.
“We just have to continue slogging on. To convince our critics, the state government must continue to work hard, if not harder. It is the only way forward,” Lim told an audience of largely women, who volunteered to sign up for the state initiated women brigade, one of the latest initiatives under the DAP-led government.
The brigade was formed in all five districts in Penang with the aim of empowering women to play a bigger role in the development of the state.
It was also aimed at convincing women to pay more attention to their healthcare including their mental well-being, Lim said when launching an induction course for the brigade’s participants from the Balik Pulau district.
Outlining the various hardships, which have befallen Pakatan in Penang, Lim said politics in this country was indeed a challenge for anyone.
“We are embroiled in a situation where right becomes wrong and the wrong is righted. It is an opposite of things. Well, we must just carry on with our struggle.”
Since May, segments of the Malay right wing movement and religious groups, besides DAP’s usual Barisan Nasional foe, were criticising Lim’s stewardship of the state.
However, the criticisms were somewhat muted recently but Lim continued to be plagued by the challenges of catering to the needs of the people in his second term. The party had promised reforms and wealth creation when it first swept into power in the state in 2008.
He also had to attend to the party matters as it had been compelled to reconvene its central executive committee election later this month.
Among the challenges on Lim’s plate were the urgent need to accommodate the growing demand for affordable housing; resolve the worsening traffic congestion; creation of quality jobs; preserving the environment, and the state’s rich heritage and culture.
And, he had to fulfill all the wants and needs of the people amid an acute shortage of land; uncertain global economy brought on by the downturns in the United States and Europe; rising household debt; fast escalating property prices, which some financial analysts believed were driven by speculators; and unhealthy levels of polarisation due to the inability of Pakatan and BN to reconcile their differences.
The political scion of opposition icon Lim Kit Siang also had to prove wrong the perception implanted by critics that he is mostly driven by a style of “my way or no way” when he administered the state.
Despite Penang being well ahead of the others in many areas, Lim continued to push the state machinery to further step up their efforts in developing the state, leading to Lim’s current clarion call of “Penang leads.”
