FORMER Penang Barisan Nasional chief Teng Chang Yeow has retracted his remarks that implied former chief minister Lim Guan Eng had lied about not paying the company awarded the contract to implement the undersea tunnel and three major roads projects.

Teng, who was also formerly state Gerakan chief, said he “unconditionally and unreservedly” retracts the impugned statements made at a press conferences on January 16 and 19 last year.

The statements were reported in three articles in the New Straits Times and Berita Harian on the two days, implying that Lim had lied about the state government not paying a single sen to the company.

The articles carried the titles “Come clean on payments, Penang urged” (NST, January 17, 2018), “Pulau Pinang sembunyi fakta bayaran” (Penang hides fact on payment – Berita Harian, January 17, 2018) and “Penang BN claims CM lied over four issues” (January 19, 2018).

“I regret the hardship and difficulties cause to Lim due to the publications of the (articles),” he said at the Penang High Court this morning before judge Rosilah Yop.

The retraction settles the defamation suit filed by Lim, who is now finance minister, against Teng.

According to the consent judgment, both plaintiff and defendant will have no claims to make against each other now and in the future with regard to the case. There is also no order for cost to be paid.

Lim was represented by lawyer Simon Mureli while Teng was represented by Kek Boon Wei.

The two newspapers also admitted their error and paid damages earlier, Lim said.

“It shows that the statements made regarding the tunnel and road projects were not true.

“All the accusations were false and were merely malicious slander aimed at damaging my image and that of the Penang government.

“This is not the first time I have won defamation suits. There were many cases involving NST and other newspapers. Now there are a few pending cases against some Chinese dailies,” he said.

BN used the tunnel and three major roads projects to attack Lim’s administration in the run-up to the 14th general election last year.

The payment in question was a RM11.2 million fee paid to engineering firm HSSI Sdn Bhd, the independent checking engineer (ICE) for the project tasked with reviewing technical reports prepared by Zenith.

The proposed undersea tunnel, mooted since before the 13th general election, will link Butterworth and Persiaran Gurney.

The three roads are the Air Itam-Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway bypass (Package 2), North Coast Pair Road (Package 1) and the Jalan Pangkor-Persiaran Gurney junction to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway bypass (Package 3).

Package 2 is scheduled to begin construction this September.

The projects are part of the Penang Transport Master Plan. – May 6, 2019.