Home  News 'Recycled' questions bring on the brickbats
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'Recycled' questions bring on the brickbats |
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 |
Athi Veeranggan (Malaysiakini News)
The Penang government's boast of being the country's first government based on the ‘CAT' principles of competency, accountability and transparency was dented today after a backbencher was discovered to have duplicated a set of written questions which had already been raised in the previous term.
MCPX 
Previous ruling party Gerakan seized the opportunity to take a pot shot at the DAP-led state government, branding it a "copy cat" government.
Sungai Pinang state assemblyperson Koid Teng Guan was found to have duplicated the written questions in total from those previously submitted by Gerakan's former Datuk Keramat assemblyperson Ong Thean Lye.
The Pakatan Rakyat backbencher submitted three written questions on the monorail project, natural gas vehicle pumping stations and the state sports trust fund at the current sitting.
However, Ong quickly claimed ownership of the questions, saying Koid had copied them from his own set of questions submitted at the assembly's sitting on Nov 19 last year.
‘He didn't do anything wrong'
Ong said he had a good laugh upon noticing Koid's duplication when perusing the official assembly meeting arrangement record book last night.
Speaking to journalists today, he however, said he was "proud that his questions were admired so much by the DAP that the elected representative did not change a single word and repeated them wholly at the present sitting".
The criticisms are a set back in Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's efforts in running a transparent and clean establishment since coming to power last March.
State executive councillor Danny Law Heng Kiang defended Koid, saying the backbencher did not commit an unethical act as an elected representative.
He claimed Koid had merely repeated the same questions to keep Penangites abreast of the current issues in the state.
Deputy chief minister Prof P Ramasamy, who is also the DAP chief whip, later told reporters that an internal inquiry would be conducted into the matter. |
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