Penang Gerakan Youth wants Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to explain the full picture of the controversial land approval for a 1.4ha plot in George Town’s Unesco heritage zone.

Youth chief Oh Tong Keong said Lim should explain to the people the truth involving the land conversion approval.

“The people have the right to know whether the said piece of land has been converted from a 99-year-old lease to freehold status. And if it is so, when was it done?” said Oh in a statement.

Oh also asked Lim to reveal the status of the said land.

He said Lim was also practicing double standards by wanting to release the Exco minutes on the land conversion case but not the minutes on the Kampung Buah Pala case.

Oh was commenting on Lim’s statement yesterday that the Penang Government might declassify minutes of its state Exco meetings on the land conversion approval.

Lim had said the state Exco would be requested to open up confidential minutes on the decision to convert the said piece of land from leasehold to freehold.

The seafront land adjacent to the E & O Hotel on Farquhar Street is earmarked for a construction project by PDC Heritage Hotel Sdn Bhd – a joint venture between the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and YTL Hotels & Properties Sdn Bhd – for luxurious condominiums and an eatery.

The issue was first brought up by Umno’s Pulau Betong assemblyman Muhammad Farid Saad earlier this month when he questioned Lim over his written reply in the last state assembly sitting in August that no freehold conversions were approved between April last year and June this year.