Councillor in hot water over call to ban lotteries

22-01-2009: Councillor in hot water over call to ban lotteries by Regina William Email us your feedback at fd@bizedge.com

GEORGE TOWN: A local council member from Selangor who had called for a ban on all forms of lottery in the state is in trouble with the DAP, which had nominated him for the seat.
The party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said yesterday stern action will be taken against Ang Leng Kiat, who sits on the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA). Ang had proposed that the MBSA stop issuing new permits for lottery outlets and withdraw licences which have already been issued.
He said his suggestion was to help minimise the social problems arising from gambling and that it was not politically or religiously motivated.
Lim did not disclose what action Ang would face, but said the councillor’s proposal did not reflect the party’s stance. The Selangor DAP also said that Ang’s statement did not represent the stance of the state liaison committee.
“This has nothing to do with the DAP. He is acting on his own,” said Lim, who is also Penang chief minister.
Nevertheless, Lim himself had last year called on the federal government to reduce the number of draws each week from the present 10 to six, saying that there were too many draws.
Lim was speaking to reporters after witnessing the installation of multilingual road signs in the heritage enclave here. Yesterday, 19 signboards were put up, out of a total of 300 that will be installed on 82 streets this year.
Meanwhile, despite the opposition from several non-governmental organisations (NGO) against the state’s Wireless@PENANG initiative, Lim said the state government will push ahead with the project.
“If WiFi is harmful, my chief of staff Jeff Ooi and I would be the two persons in Penang who will be the first to get fried by radiation, since we work 10 hours to 12 hours per day at Komtar, with four WiFi hotspots around us,” Lim said.