PKR back-bencher Sim Tze Tzin (Batu Uban Pantai Jerejak) has delivered a visionary speech in the Penang State Assembly that received praise from the Speaker.
Speaker Abdul Halim Hussain described Sim’s speech as people-centric, reports theSun today.
Sim made several suggestions to promote sustainable urban development including those which this blog has been advocating:
- Prepare a more comprehensive public transport system with efficient and on-time buses as the main mode of transport. He cited as an example the Trans-Jakarta bus rapid transit system. “The cost would have been much lower, too, so do we really need the monorail?” he asked.
- Introduce a cross-channel bus service between Seberang Perai and the island via the Penang Bridge. Excellent suggestion.
- Turn the inner city of George Town into a bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly zone. “We should start plans to create bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways around George Town and limit vehicles from entering the city.”
- Plant trees along these lanes and walkways.
- Impress on offices the need to have bathrooms so that those who cycle to work can use them.
- Change people’s mindsets
Sim said political will, far-sighted planning and a change of mindset were important to realise these proposals. “If we succeed in implementing this, the state will be a shining example for the world to see and we will leave a great legacy for Penangites.”
Way to go, Sim! It is so refreshing to see a state assembly member arguing for more sustainable solutions to urban development. And I am happy that the Speaker was so encouraging. I hope Sim will continue to think out of the box and emphasise sustainable solutions while urging his colleagues to realise the vision of a more liveable, sustainable, greener city.
Which of the following does Malaysia need? (You may choose more than one)
- Solar energy research (73%, 623 Votes)
- We should be conserving energy (64%, 549 Votes)
- None of these (26%, 224 Votes)
- More conventional plants (13%, 114 Votes)
- A nuclear power plant (9%, 75 Votes)
- Bakun Dam (5%, 43 Votes)
- Submarine cables to transmit electricity to peninsula (4%, 30 Votes)
- 12 more dams in Sawarak (2%, 15 Votes)
Total Voters: 854
Very good idea, using bicycles again, if the roads could not be widened, to cater for increased traffic. China has just come out with a electric controlled bicycle that will help in faster mobility and for people with lesser physical strength. Above all. keeping the city environment friendly.
Well done PR government, at least we know you have brains in your company.
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“Impress on offices the need to have bathrooms so that those who cycle to work can use them.”
I smiled when he mentioned this statement. I’m a regular cyclist myself and I am a consultant & corporate trainer. The only one thing that puts me off cycling to my clients’ offices is the lack of shower facility.
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Dear Anil
How about promoting “community gardens”? (if space is available)
Residents of a particular neighbourhood cultivate a community garden full of flowers, veggies etc. Helps to get to know the neighbours and to promote social interaction/muhibbah.
Healthier food from the garden too!
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Thank you for this post. It will probably not get a lot of attention in the politicking mess the Malaysian people are subjected to these days, but for me this is VERY significant.
This is precisely what Malaysia needs: our elected representatives to present and execute cogent, cost-saving, sustainable-development, resource-optimising solutions to problems besetting the public: main concerns – public transport / crime & public safety / health environment & cleanliness / standards of education.
Yes, the govt and political parties are all focussed on the bigger economic picture of rising oil prices & inflation. But there is enough evidence to show that even when Malaysia was cash-rich in the good economic times, there has been severe erosion in existing public institutions and services. Singapore got it right – before they became one of the world’s most affluent economy, Lee Kuan Yew focussed on strengthening the quality AND mindset of public services and institutions across the board. E.g. he talked about the environment in the 70s, before it was ‘fashionable’ to do so.
Never mind if our oil will run out in the next few years – what can we do about it anyway? (Well, pray). The important thing is how are we managing the money and resources that we have NOW? Are we whining about depleting resources yet still committing huge wastage? Mercedes Benzes, huge dam projects with no evidence of need / demand (all about supply economics), monorails (when even our current bus & taxi systems have unresolved problems) etc.
Thanks again for this post. I hope more blogs will highlight constructive ideas / speeches from representatives of ANY political party on the rakyat’s “bread and butter” issues.
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While I agree with Sim on a comprehensive public transportation, to use the Trans-Jakarta bus system or locally known as ‘Busway’ as an example is off the scale, in fact, it is bad, I mean real Bad.
I was born and grew up in Penang (used to travel on the Lim Seng Seng bus from town to Air Itam)) and now happen to be in Jakarta over the last 8 years and has been following the Trans-Jakarta development. To me, the Trans-Jakarta causes more headache than solve the public transportation problems.
1) it has failed to get car owners to leave their cars at home.
2) it created more traffic jams with 2 lanes in the middle of the road taken away without any major road widening for the existing road users.
3) it compounded the acute traffic congestion resulting in time lost to travel, increase opportunity cost lost due to unproductive time spent on the road to get from A to Z.
4) the bus is never on time and seems to get stuck in traffic as well despite the special busway.
5) lack of understanding of consumer behavior as it was a safety reason why commuters would prefer to use their personal vehicle
And the list goes on and on…not to mentioned lack of buses.
My 2 cents worth.
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Solar energy can be cheaper than nuclear.
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YB Sim Tze Tzin is actually the ADUN for Pantai Jerejak and not Batu Uban.
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Anil,
I caught part of ADUN Sim’s speech on the live telecast. Yes some of his suggestions are good and worthy of mention.
But I feel what we need is a comprehensive shake-up of our transport system by the PR government. They should not keep on harping about the loss of PORR and monorail system. The monorail system is a good idea but it has to run in tandem with the other modes of transport like reviving the old tram lines, dedicated bus system with park and ride stations at strategic locations outside the city, cancel the second bridge improve the ferry system.
I remember many studies were done both by local and foreign experts on the implementation of a good public transport system in Penang (or have they also disapeared with the last administration). CM and his team may want to look at them for some insight.
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People-centric. Now that’s a nice change from being called populist.
Which is more than can be said of the state opposition now. If they keep trying to create resentment between the races, they can dream on about returning to power.
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Civil Society Groups are not in the hurry to condemn the umno/bn wastage and corruptions but quick to pick on Pakatan Rakyat spending of 300,000 ringgit.
Civil Society Groups At It Again
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Anil
Please tell me something i haven’t heard,you have mentioned this ages ago.Well this is where i get upset with pr govt for not electing you as a councilor,let me share you a story.Years ago the was a councilor who was selected who did not understand bm, as such he was told to just say sokong to anything in a meeting and during a meeting the pengerusi asked for izin to go to the loo and guess what happened,sokong was heard and that was that.
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Car sharing, park and ride and bicycle friendly schemes are increasingly popular in many European cities. The huge volume of traffic in Penang inevitably leads to undesirable traffic behaviour and increasing air pollution. The state government should find out more about successful transport management schemes in cities abroad and adapt them locally. No need to go on expensive fact finding missions. Just invite Joe public especially those who have travelled or are living abroad to send their constructive ideas and suggestions to a state government website.
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Thanks for posting this. Great to read something encouraging for once…is there a glimmer of hope for the Pearl?
Bicycles….went to the Netherlands and was amazed at how many people… CEOs, managers, homemakers, kids… were all cycling. I wonder how they actually started. A change in mindset?
Community gardens..stumbled upon this interesting website http://www.greenculturesg.com/aboutus.htm this guy Wilson Wong’s passion and his involvement in community gardening. Inspiring. I”m sure there are also many such people around in Pg. Who will start the ball rolling?
And if we could ALL do our part to keep our state clean….
Wahoo..i’m feeling definitely more upbeat today!(Hope it last)
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Here are a couple of UK websites run by their local city councils to illustrate how useful and interactive they are to the local community.
Leeds is a city of just over 700,000 people (2001 Census), similiar in population size to Penang Island itself (615,000, Census 2000)
http://www.leeds.gov.uk/
Sheffield’s population is just over 513,000.
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/index.asp?pgid=1912
Compare the quality of these two websites with that of Penang Municipal Council below:
http://www.mppp.gov.my/english/home.htm
If Malaysian federal and state governments are serious about communicating with the public at large, they should start revamping their websites to provide more interaction and useful information to their communities.
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Excellent ideas. Penang is densely populated and hence, buses would be more efficient. Pedestrian walk, bicycle lane very good too and bathroom in offices is a MUST otherwise with our climate by the time you’re in office, people will be pressing their nose to avoid ‘busuk’.
We need the same ideas to be applied in Klang Valley too!
I call upon PR to set up Shadow Cabinet as soon as possible to raise such suggestions in Parliament. It’s almost 5 months since the Rakyats have voted PR for change and not pussyfooting. Otherwise, when 13th GE you’ll be voted out. We need to keep the momentum going and raise many other issues like :-
1) Education – Don’t revert teaching of Maths and Science to Bahasa Melayu. Read here
2) Economic – An economic agenda to consider and also High Prices, Interest Rate & Growth
3) Strategy – Is there strategic thinking in Malaysia ?
Read more
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gregwar,
LGE is doing the right thing because they need the funding the federal govt because they can’t borrow. I agree with you that we need a complete revamp of public transport system and not piecemeal and the same goes with Klang Valley,etc. Whatever plan that you may come up with, at the end of the day it’s still the funding issue. LGE will need to pressure the federal govt to provide the funds or else they may have to allow Penang state govt to find alternative ways of raising funds like this suggestion “Penang’s public transportation: A radical solution”
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I picked up this ‘must read’ news from Norman Fernandez blog :-
http://normanfernandez.blogspot.com/2008/07/dap-tidak-pernah-tipu-pas-pengakuan.html
DAP tidak pernah tipu PAS. Begitulah pengakuan Tuan Guru Nik Aziz semasa ditemubual akhbar Siasah. Apabila ditanya Siasah bagaimana Pas boleh berbaik dengan DAP sedangkan dengan UMNO tidak, Tuan Guru Nik Aziz menyatakan :-
“DAP tidak pernah tipu kami, semasa dia hendak keluar dalam pakatan Gagasan Rakyat sebelum ini mereka memberitahu dengan terbuka. Biar pun DAP keluar dari gagasan tetapi tidak macam PAS keluar dari BN sehingga pecah tiga parti itu.
Umno bawa PAS masuk dalam Barisan Nasional maka kami setuju, kemudian apabila sudah tidak perlukan lagi dia tendang kami keluar.”
(Sila baca Siasah edisi 20 – 26 Julai).
Semoga PAS mengambil iktibar daripada kenyataan Tuan Guru.
Semalam suratkhabar-suratkhabar tempatan memaparkan pendedahan Perdana Mentari Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang mengaku bahawa yang UMNO dan PAS telah bertemu sebanyak tiga kali untuk berbincang berkenaan dengan hal kepentingan bersama.
PAS perlu sedar sejarah persefahaman mereka dengan UMNO-Barisan Nasional sebelum ini.
Kini UMNO-Barisan Nasional bergoyah dan bagi UMNO, PAS adalah talian hayat.
Harapan baru untuk Malaysia ialah P.R – PAS, DAP & PKR bukannya Barisan Nasional.
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Thanks for reading my speech. I posted the full text on my blog http://www.simformalaysia.com
Thx Kongkor for giving evaluations on Trans-Jakarta. The idea of reducing number of lanes is to incur pain on driving private cars, therefore force ppl to travel by public transport.
This is quite politically risky, because it might potentially caused public outrage. And it is not easy to please everyone. It takes very detail planning, change of mindset (because many will expect others to change, but for things to change to change we have to change), bold political Will to make it happen.
Hopefully CM will put it as one of his agendas
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I strongly agree with his vision. Hope it canbe done in pg.
Pdestrian paths should have be made availbe long long ago.In australia, there would always be a pdestraian path running parallel to the road. I really enjoy walking there. similarlu in Vancouver and other major cities , their streets are pedestian friendly.
Oh Yes, in the meantime we can make do with what is available in the cities. Can the town coulcils make sures that the existing walk ways in the cities are free from obstacles. Often the shop owners wouldplace boxes, chair or what have they to block free flow of movement.
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I would like to thank Sim Tze Sim for explaining his views about the busway system and the use of Transjakarta as a model example.
The busway is a really good, low cost way of implementing rapid transit that is quick, reliable and convenient.
However, Mr. Sim errs when he explains himself, saying that
“The idea of reducing number of lanes is to incur pain on driving private cars, therefore force ppl to travel by public transport.”
It must be stated that there are two purposes here and the first is to increase the frequency and reliability of bus services. That this must come at the expense of the movement of cars is a given…but overall, roads with bus lanes and busways will *move more people* than roads without busways.
Also, Mr. Lim, I dont think it is necessary to state that “this is quite politically risky, because it might potentially caused public outrage. And it is not easy to please everyone.”
Why think negative already? If it is politically risky, that is fine, but the *economic* and *social* advantages outweigh all of the political risks.
Mr. Lim you are correct that “it takes very detail planning, change of mindset (because many will expect others to change, but for things to change to change we have to change), bold political Will to make it happen.”
I hope your CM and leaders have that political will and I have been happy to offer my ideas to the CM and the government.
If you need more information or ideas, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Regards, moaz yusuf ahmad
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my apologies to Mr. Sim Tze Tzin for the misspelling of your name.
regards, moaz yusuf ahmad
transportkini@gmail.com
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There must definitely be detailed planning before implementing YB Sim’s ideas. Very good ideas indeed but we need to put a little thought into it. Pedestrian walkways/cycle paths – yes very popular in various parts of Europe and even Australia. But lets be realistic – the weather and climate conditions differ greatly between Europe and Malaysia.
Would it not be possible to create a labyrinth of covered / underground walkways? In the city center, they could be designed such that wherever possible, these walkways/cycle paths pass through existing public buildings, shopping arcades etc. Complemented by the trams for longer distances. I agree that we should try and avoid massive projects like the Monorail and PORR. They cost too much and the impact on the environment is significant. It would only be a fraction of the cost to provide comfortable, cool, pleasant walkways and cycle paths. And we could take the opportunity to use our creative skills in the process to improve the aesthetics in our cities.
Keep the ideas coming people! We might actually hit on some spectacular idea that will solve the problem cheaply and efficiently.
God bless Malaysia.
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you have it all and you have been wasting it for 51 years, SOLAR ENERGY, it is clean and everybody can use it. beats me why your Government does not promote it. in Europe there are whole cities who work on SOLAR ENERGY, the cost overall cost is slashed with more then half. Malaysia has the sun, it is free, use it for crying our loud, don’t rely in oil etc. and an other thing, for crying out loud, stop – fine them for heavens sake – the people who hand out those awful plastic bags, food containers etc. etc. most of that stuff never gets to the compost stage, you are actually “soiling your own nest”. look around you, rivers, drains and country site is inundated with the stuff, is that the picture you want others to see? next election vote for a “doer? and not a “promisser”, you want your kids to grow up in a tip?
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