Social media abuzz with video of Guan Eng on bungalow value

PETALING JAYA: Social media is abuzz with a video of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng telling reporters that he did not know the value of his bungalow.  

This comes on the heels of Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong saying The Star’s northern edition front-page headline “CM: No idea of Value” was “inaccurate and politically motivated” but admitted there was nothing wrong with the content of the story. 

The video comes from the Facebook page of Buletin Mutiara, the bi-weekly publication by the Penang state government, in a March 20 post.  

In the video, during a press conference at Lim’s upper-middle class bungalow on Pinhorn Road, a reporter mentioned claims that the property’s market price was RM6.5mil.  

According to previous reports, Lim said the owner had offered to sell the house at RM2.8mil in 2012, but he did not take it up because he was unsure whether he would get elected in the general election.  

Lim said the owner had agreed to hold on to the price based on an understanding with his wife Betty Chew.  

The reporter then referred to the understanding in 2012 when the white-shirted lawmaker interrupted him to say it was a “verbal understanding lah”.  

The video then shows the reporter asking Lim whether that was his response to allegations before the Chief Minister spoke again, virtually muffling out the rest of the question.  

“Because you know, I’m not a property agent, I wouldn’t know what is the price. But that was the verbal understanding,” said Lim.  

Liew claimed that Lim had “never said he didn’t know the value of the house”.