These two are at each other again. Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan accused Penang state government of approving a total of 2,428 hectares of reclamation works to a developer in Penang. Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said this, “the minister has lost his mind, there were no such approvals, he must show proof if he says the Penang state government had approved such reclamation activity.” Abdul Rahman said that action will be taken against Lim for this approval. In fact, the state government must get approval from the National Physical Planning Council (MPFN) for any reclamation project of more than 100 hectares. Lim explained that this approval could not have been given because the state have no authority to approve any reclamation above 100 hectares.
As usual, it is important for any accuser to show proof because without proof, it is just another accusation. Show proof and it’s time for the accused to show evidence showing otherwise. I think this has been missing in Malaysia for quite some time. These days, some news are written sensationally, ‘floated’ into social media and the news would become viral. No one bothered to check and no one even know what they are actually forwarding! Social media means the truth? Anyway, we are now seeing this happening not just in social media but also in real life. Everyone has something to say and the media is all prepared to give space because their readers crave for such news. Perhaps life has gotten too boring.
Penang has two reclamation which everyone is aware of. The Seri Tanjung Pinang Phase 1 (240 acres) which is considered completed and Phase 2 (780 acres) for which approval has been granted. Total size is thus 1,000 acres (404 hectares). Another one would be IJM’s reclamation for their ‘The Light’ project. The total size is 152 acres (61 hectares). This has recently been in the limelight because the new phase would be jointly developed by IJM with a Singaporean partner. Okay, there’s the potential upcoming reclamation ones which would be the payment for Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) partners. Actually, there’s just not enough information available to add up to 2,428 hectares yet. Will be awaiting for more details then. Happy reading.
written on 5 Sept 2015
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0 Responses
Hai Charles,
I just don’t know, why we are so prejudice and skeptical when Singapore did their reclamation but yet we are also doing it back home? Especially for the Johoreans. It is so easy for us to hear them complaining that our neighbor is destroying the nature and their living as a fisherman. They said that Singaporean government just ignore to complains by our DOE to conduct feasibility study before reclaiming.
Now we are doing our reclamation at Danga Bay and Singapore didn’t complain so hard.(Yes there are some of their newspaper articles commenting) The ugly face had came back to us. Why don’t we see things with open mind to anything happened around us. Try to figure out, why did somebody is doing that? Is it right or wrong? If it’s wrong, how can we put an end to that incident and what to do about it. Our way of life is not forever and we must adapt to changes around us.
Be careful to complain as it may be come back to us one day.
I have never been prejudiced or skeptical. More development, as long as it benefits many is always welcomed. Yes, Agree that we must be open and be rational. Many times, everything is jumbled up and messed up because everyone is biased….