Ng Yen Yen raps Guan Eng for seeking ministry grant

KUALA LUMPUR: Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen slammed Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for saying the ministry did not provide financial support for the George Town Festival, an event to celebrate the city's listing by Unesco as a World Heritage site.

She said she was surprised and disappointed at Lim's lack of understanding on the ministry's policy on events and asked him to do his “homework” on such matters.

“It is not the ministry's policy to fund any state event. So the reason why we did not fund the George Town Festival is because it is a state event,” she said at her office here yesterday.

She added that the Penang government could surely support its own event.

Dr Ng said the ministry sometimes held events in different states such as the Malaysia Water Festival in Langkawi.

“However, the Water Festival is an event organised by the ministry. We will only consider funding special state events but even so, it is very rare because that is not our objective. Our direction is to host national-level events,” she said.

She was responding to a report by a Chinese-language daily quoting Lim as saying that the ministry did not offer funding to the George Town Festival, which is a showcase of cultural performances, art exhibitions and film shows to be held from July 1 to 31.

On festival director Joe Sidek's claim that it was embarrassing that the Federal Government could not help, Dr Ng said it was also embarrassing that the state government could not afford to hold its own show.

“We, from the ministry, have helped Penang in more ways than one. We supported tourism projects by providing RM68mil for the Penang Hill train station and a further RM5mil for its car park. We also allocated RM7mil to upgrade the Botanical Gardens,” she said.

She added that the total amount given to the state to maintain tourist attractions under the Ninth Malaysia Plan was about RM142mil.

On the Penang Hill train service, she said that after the Federal Government finished the project, it was left to the state to run it.

“They must get efficient people to run the train service,” she said