GEORGE TOWN (May 22, 2012): Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has dismissed reports that Malays are leaving the state as a result of being sidelined as claimed by his former deputy Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin.
The former Penanti assemblyman, who resigned from all posts in 2009 and joined Umno soon after, had claimed some 18,000 Malays have left the state due to the high cost of living.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the allegations were false and described such statements as “lies.”
He pointed out that Malay voters in the state had increased by some 35,000 as of last year since four years ago.
“If you include these voters, who are all aged 21 and above, and their families and children, there should be more,” he said at a press conference yesterday after attending the opening of the Small Medium Enterprises forum.
In his speech, Lim said the state was going to set up an Innovation Complex on a 0.97ha site at the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone here.
He said the complex will be used for research and development and an incubator site for new products and technologies.
“The Penang Research, Innovation and Science Module will spearhead the state’s role in the increasingly rapid growth of scientific discoveries and technological innovations,” he said.
Lim explained that the state hoped to tap into the lucrative global biotechnology market with the establishment of the complex.