Penang MCA Women Wing chief Tan Cheng Liang open questioning of why the Penang state Irrigation and Drainage Department’s projects were not awarded to Chinese contractors came under fire from Komtar ADUN Ng Wei Aik.

“BN leaders are constantly harping on racial sentiments, with UMNO accusing the Penang PR state government of sidelining the Malays, while MCA accuses of discriminating against the Chinese,” he said

“Such tactics proves that the BN leaders are running out of ideas that they have to resort to play with such despicable racial sentiments. However the people are no longer fooled by their forked-tongue speeches.”

“Since PR took over the Penang state government, we have announced that all state government projects not exceeding RM 200,000 will be opened to F class contractors via open tender. F class contractors consist of Bumiputera contractors,” he said.

As for projects exceeding RM 200,000 they are open to all Malaysians regardless of race or religion in open tender bidding. “This policy has been accepted by all Bumiputeras. Yet MCA didn’t say a thing about it,” he added.

“Now Tan has questioned on the relevance of awarding the department’s 243 projects to F-class contractors. Is she suggesting that the F-class contractors’ designation be abolished?”

Ng says that MCA should voice her suggestion to the MCA party president or ministers in the government’s cabinet and not make baseless accusations against the Penang state government for practising open tender systems and taking care of the F-class contractors who are not as well-capitalised.

The Malay Contractors Association of Malaysia’s (PKMM) Penang branch has come out to defend the state’s open tender system as fair and warned Penang MCA to stop politicising contracts awarded to Bumiputeras there.

Acting Penang PKMM chief Datuk Izham Merican condemned Penang MCA’s “ignorance” for failing to understand that open tenders allowed the state government to select the best and most competitively priced contractors, regardless of race.

“By only questioning contracts awarded to Malays, is MCA being racist towards the abilities of Malay contractors whom they regard as less competent than other contractors?” Izham said in a press statement. -The Rocket