Penang CM says bound by confidentiality clauses in land reclamation deals

GEORGE TOWN (Dec 17): The Penang government has been advised to respect the confidentiality clauses preventing the administration from declassifying land reclamation agreements signed during the previous administration, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (pictured) said today.

He said state legal advisor Datuk Aliza Sulaiman had made the recommendations after studying the agreements.

Lim said his government was not playing a game with its promise to publicly disclose the agreements, adding that "this is the reality".

"To do so, we must seek the consent of the companies involved in the agreements. We will do that... the LA (legal advisor) will see to it according to the law," he said at a press conference today.

Lim added that there was more than just one company to deal with on this matter.

Developer IJM has three deals with confidentiality clauses via subsidiary Jelutong Development Sdn Bhd – a privatisation agreement dated April 1997, supplementary agreement dated October 2002 and reimbursement land cost agreement dated January 2003.

The privatisation agreement gave the developer the right to build and complete the Jelutong Expressway (now known as the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway), and reclaim 324.9 acres for the purpose.

But Clause 33 in the agreement states that the agreement and all matters pertaining to it will be considered confidential and will not be disclosed to any third party without prior mutual agreement.

IJM is currently building The Light waterfront project along the eastern coastline of Penang island. The project on reclaimed land includes residential, mixed development and recreational developments.

Another company, Tanjung Pinang Development Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Eastern and Oriental Berhad (E&O), also has confidentiality clauses in its agreements for the Seri Tanjung Pinang (STP) land reclamation project inked in the 1990s.

"So we must get all parties to give their consent before we can reveal the agreements. It is clear that these agreements were signed when BN was in government.

"It is regrettable that BN leaders here pretend not to know that there are confidentiality clauses in the agreements, and are challenging the present administration to reveal them when they know we are bound by the clauses.

"This is a trick... why won't BN explain the deals it signed with the companies when it was in power?" Lim said.

The state announced over a week ago that it would declassify all documents on land reclamations approved by the previous and present state governments.

On Sunday, Lim said there were confidentiality clauses in the land reclamation agreements signed during the previous BN administration.

Earlier this week, Penang BN chairman Teng Chang Yeow challenged Lim to instruct the companies to waive their rights under the confidentiality clauses, as the federal government had done in 2007 under then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when it ordered highway concessionaires to waive their confidentiality clauses to enable Putrajaya to declassify the agreement documents.

"I think the people understand that the state cannot simply order the companies to waive the confidentiality clauses.

"They (his detractors) say if I cannot do it, then I am a weak CM. Yes, I am weak, because these are not my cronies," Lim said.

He said the state government would still declassify the agreements it had signed for 60 acres of land reclamation in Bayan Mutiara and Bayan Bay, which were not tied by any confidentiality clauses. -- The Malaysian Insider

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