I Approved It But Ph Didn T Carry Out Airport Job Says Najib

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The proposed expansion of the Penang airport was to enable the terminal to cater to 12 million passengers a year. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: A proposed expansion of Penang airport was approved by the Barisan Nasional government but the project was delayed by the Pakatan Harapan administration when it came to power a few months later, says former prime minister Najib Razak.
He said Lim Guan Eng, then Penang’s chief minister, had thanked him for approving the expansion project, which was to be undertaken by Malaysia Airports.
However, the project did not go ahead when PH took power in May 2018, although it had been approved in the 2018 Budget.
“The PH administration said the government didn’t have money and wanted to privatise the project to cronies, instead of being worked on by MAHB as approved by the BN government,” he said in a Facebook post today.
He quoted a 2019 news report in which Lim, then finance minister, had said that a private finance initiative would be used to fund the airport expansion.
“So the BN government under me approved and started the project, while the PH government under ‘Atok’ (Dr Mahathir Mohamad), with finance and transport ministers from DAP (Lim and Loke Siew Fook) delayed it because they wanted to give it to cronies,” Najib said.
The project was again shelved when the Perikatan Nasional government took over from PH in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
“But DAP is blaming me and the previous BN government?” he said.
Yesterday, Najib had said DAP should “ask your Abah” – a reference to Muhyiddin Yassin, who headed the PN government which came to power as a result of the so-called “Sheraton Move”.
DAP national organising secretary Steven Sim, in a response to Najib, said it was the Sheraton Move which caused the proposed airport expansion to come to a halt. Sim pinned the blame on the PN-BN government.
“(Even) after Umno and BN took over the federal government in August 2021, the airport expansion project remained suspended and has yet to be revived,” said Sim. - FMT

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