Another photo of Guan Eng with Datuk Seri ‘fixer’ surfaces

A picture of Penang chief minister sitting in a car next to the businessman goes viral on social media.

(FMT) – Barely a week after a picture of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng with a businessman being investigated for corruption linked to the Penang tunnel project was published, another picture has surfaced of the two men.

The picture, which has gone viral since it was posted by Facebook user Sarah Farhana, shows Lim and a person resembling the “Datuk Seri” in the back seat of a car said to belong to one of the bosses of the undersea tunnel and roads consortium.

The latest picture comes after Lim had retaliated to the earlier picture, published by several mainstream media, by showing a picture of the same Datuk Seri posing for a photograph with Star Media Group managing director and chief executive officer Wong Chun Wai.

Wong had responded by saying that there were many pictures of him taken with people he barely knew at events he attended. In a tongue-in-cheek reply, he noted he was wearing his shoes in the photograph.

Wong was referring to Lim’s first picture with the Datuk Seri in which both of them were shown without their shoes, apparently indicating it was taken at somebody’s home.

Lim is mulling legal action against several media organisations, following the publication of the photograph of him with the businessman, who is being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Last week, the chief minister’s office had said it was normal for a public figure like him to be photographed with many people, including those he did not know.

Lim’s office had said the DAP leader had also been photographed with another businessman linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and asked if that meant that Lim was also connected to the 1MDB controversy.

The MACC had recently arrested a businessman with a “Datuk Seri” title for questioning over allegations that he had received RM19 million to “close graft investigations” involving the tunnel project.

The 37-year-old was released on bail of RM150,000 after spending 11 days in MACC’s custody.

MACC is probing whether the man, whose wife is a leader of a non-governmental organisation, had received the money from the main contractor of the project as alleged.

FMT has contacted the Penang chief minister’s office for comment on the latest photograph.