GEORGE TOWN – DAP has labelled the Kedah menteri besar a “big bully” over his joke to divert Sg Muda away from Penang if the state does not pay for extracting water from the river on its side of the border.
Party secretary-general and former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, in a statement today, also accused Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor of discriminatory policies against non-Muslims, especially the PAS leader’s remarks on Hindus and Indians following the demolition of a Hindu temple in Alor Star recently.
“These two latest incidents not only displayed the new Kedah menteri besar’s ‘big bully’ attitude, but also his cruelty.
“No Malaysian leader until Sanusi has ever threatened to deny water to fellow Malaysians.
“Further, he is tinkering with Mother Nature by wanting to redirect Sg Muda, which is the natural border between Kedah and Penang.
“Is Sanusi not defying God’s will by interfering in what God has determined to be the natural course of the river?”
He said Sanusi’s “boorish” behaviour contrasts with that of his mentor, the late Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak, who was Kedah menteri besar from 2008 to 2013.
Describing him as a cultured gentleman and intellectual who once headed the Islamic Shariah Department at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Lim said Azizan was everything that Sanusi is not.
This is despite Sanusi serving as Azizan’s political secretary throughout the latter’s tenure as menteri besar, he said.
“Sanusi reminds Malaysians of everything that is wrong about PAS. Not just the broken promises, but also the dangers that PAS in the government pose to the future of Malaysia, including both Sabah and Sarawak.”
He said Sanusi has come to symbolise the Islamist party’s ideology of overt racialism and religious extremism that is feared by many moderate Malaysians.
At a press conference held at Universiti Utara Malaysia on Thursday, the menteri besar quipped that his government can block Sg Muda, which originates in Kedah’s Ulu Muda forest, at Pinang Tunggal, a border area between the two states.
“We will redirect Sg Muda somewhere else. Where will you (Penang) get your water from, then?” he said in comments carried in a video clip published by KiniTV.
“We can go to that extent if they want. I can ask the villagers to put up sandbags to dam the river at Pinang Tunggal.
“After that, from our last intake, the river will dry up. After it’s all dried up, you can go catch fish at the river. There won’t be any water left.
“The river will be redirected elsewhere.
“Do they want to go that extent? I wouldn’t think so. I don’t think we’ll have to go to that extent.”
Sanusi has insisted that Kedah is entitled to a RM50 million annual payment from the Penang Water Supply Corporation for the supply it extracts from the river, as it originates in Kedah.
He said the state should not be sacrificing logging revenue from its vast forest areas solely for Penang’s profit. – The Vibes, December 13, 2020
