Tanjung Bunga state assembly member, Teh Yee Cheu, says his position is simple: No cutting of steep hill slopes – Photos by Anil Netto
Tanjung Bunga residents protesting at the bottom of the steep hill slope along Solok Tan Jit Seng
When the Tanjung Bunga protesters invited their elected rep, Teh Yee Cheu of the DAP, to say a few words at their “coffee party” yesterday, they introduced him as “the people’s YB”.
Teh walked up to the mike, and along the way, picked up a placard which read “No more Class 3 and 4 hill cutting”. Pointing to the placard, he told the residents that this was his position. It was clear that he was on the residents’ side and he told them to continue with their “parties”.
At Solok Tan Jit Seng, developer DynamicPro plans to build 25 three-storey town-houses on a hill-slope which residents claim has a gradient of over 65 degrees. That’s steep! (Class 3 is over 25 degrees and Class 4 over 35 degrees). The project site on the slope looks down on a row of houses, behind which stands the Tanjung Bunga school. Above the project site on the slope lies the precariously perched Pearl Hill apartments. Before the Appeals Board could decide on the residents’ concerns, several trees on the hill-slope were felled.
The Pearl Hill apartments perched precariously above the project site.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who was also invited, did not turn up. Instead, he made sure state exco member Phee Boon Poh, who recently assumed the environment portfolio, attended.
In contrast to Teh, Phee was more guarded when addressing the residents and said he would have to walk a “middle road” between the developers’ and the people’s interests and make an independent decision. He said if he openly sided with either party, he could be accused of corruption.
This prompted a disgusted placard-carrying protester to blurt out, “Political talk!” which Phee overheard. But the exco member remained non-committal, maintaining that the state government would need to consider all factors.
One resident, Ismail, said he was worried about the safety of the residents especially the children at the Tanjung Bunga school. Another resident told the state government reps to take back the message that the residents are not stupid. “Most of us voted for change on March 8 (last year) – you can ask the people here, many of them voted for the DAP – but we want to see change.”
Yet another resident said the issue of the state having to pay compensation to developers for projects terminated was a lame excuse. “There are ways and means of stopping these developers.” One of them suggested that the state authorities could impose tough restrictions on rock blasting and the height of retaining walls, making it all but impossible to proceed with the project. Or the state government could investigate how such a project was approved on such a steep hill slope in the first place.
Residents later took Phee for a tour of the area to show him how serious the Tanjung Bunga environmental problem is and some of the likely problems that could arise.
The residents told Phee they worry another four high-rise apartment blocks could be coming up next to the existing four in Tanjung Bunga
Clearly, the state government will have to decide whose side they are on: the residents’ or the developers’ whose projects could pose a threat to public safety. The residents, for their part, are not about to accept any dangerous or unsustainable development lying down.
I am a bit lost on this issue ‘cos I live in a poor area where it floods and floods and floods every single car of mine and hence, I don’t pay much attention to ‘rich people who choose to live on hill slopes for fengshui purpose’. Yeah, I am harsh but that’s my impression. But strange….have the condo or whatever housing project been bought by rich b……? What are their reasons? And then, to the first commentor khensthots, if there is no more land in Tanjung Bungah, of course, people have to move elsewhere and find another home. Certainly they cannot rape a whole hill to please a few? There is this 22 unit bungalows opposite the Miami Bay. I won’t sympathise with the buyers or developer if the units roll down the hill one day.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Makes no difference if the participants at the “party” were mostly “outsiders”, as Lim GL called them. This addresses a broad issue.
Though safety and human lives is on everybody’s minds, the benefits of an enlightened approach to development will benefit all Penangites. Witness the wanton destruction of our hills and green spaces. The only people who are objecting to this would be the developers, lured by the big bucks… never mind the social, environmental, ecological and psychological consequences. There is a limit to what our land can healthily sustain.
LGE has not commented on why there is this vast difference in the approaches of the Selangor and Penang govts. Would make sound economic sense to preserve and enhance Nature’s blessings on our island. Life’s cheaper here, maybe.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
The State Govt could be a lot more proactive and imaginative in formulating development policies. It is a known and foregone conclusion that we are losing our hills [see Google Earth!] at a rate that will soon doom our attractiveness as a tourist destination, not to mention quality of health for Penangites. These will be lost forever and ever, gone like the now-extinct dodo.
The question is how do you force into place the mechanisms necessary to achieve what you know will benefit the State. If not now, in some years, sooner or later, the State Govt will have to address the need to conserve our green spaces and hills. Selangor has chosen to take on the future today.
I suspect the calls for change and threats to vote differently are only desperate cries for help, when nothing else seems to evince a response from our State Govt. These calls seem to have rankled many a staunch DAPper.
And to the cynics who seem to suggest that since the residents on slopes chose to live on slopes, they have no right to now voice concern for their safety… might I point out that the Townhouses were built before the Highland Towers tragedy. That incident was a defining moment which highlighted Man’s vulnerability in trying to conquer the slopes. It rightly laid bare the myth of infallibility of engineers, government and local authority.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
It does not matter if the plans were approved before or after March 8, 2008. Koh Soo Koon or Lim Guan Eng does not approve the plans. The plans were approved by MPPP and they are the same people, before or after March 8, 2008.
The plans were reviewed by the engineering, building, planning, etc departments in MPPP, and the Heads of Departments, Architects, Engineers…are still the same people before and after March 8, 2008.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
lotsa_papayas,
Acyually, it boils down to you & me. Are we going to accept policies seemingly good environmentally but hurting your pockets
Starting with Rubbish
a) Should you accept the rubbish collection to be based upon
1) weight
2) type of rubbish
b) Would you support envirnmental tax to be imposed on areas that are detrimental to the environmental? Petrol is one of them
b) Car population
1) Forcibly restrict car population with high taxes, toll charges & plenty of CBDs & R(a)s.
2) Would you accept driving cars during weekend?
Lots of papayas,
There are plenty policies that even I can think of. However, you are in CM’s position. You think you can carry out policies without being booted out of state assembly
Guys,
Singapore PAP introduce plenty of policies to contain car populations. Unfortunately, people still wanna drive cars. Singapore introduce COE. Good, car price jack up, car population goes down. Traffic problems solved. Ask any Singaporeans then, are they happy? No! You think Singaporeans are docile people. They can even wanted to vote out a hard working associate professor over the temples. That one even LKY got to intervene before it’s gone to the Workers’ Party
Sorry to talk about Singapore. Well, my point is
1) Are you guys mentally to prepare to sacrifice some things? What the heck you want? Ask what the heck majority wants? Difficult to change people’s mentality, you know
Aiyah,
I disagree with Anil on the tram because if you don’t solve car population issues, talk nuts about tram. Wanna introduce, buses better even bicycles.
Lets have a holistic views lah! Aiyoo……
Being in Singapore for so long, though it’s a foreign pledge, I think it’s a more significant pledge made by Tun Sambathan for Malaysia….
One the values is this:
1) Nation before community and society above self…
We, the citizens of Singapore
…
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society,
based on justice and equality,
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
The MPPP councillors were all political appointees in the previous BN administration, the head of which was KTK.
Being a Chief Minister entails more than just enjoying the trappings of office and dishing out datukships.
It is totally disgraceful to simply put the blame on the architects and engineers of the MPPP.
At least, have the decency to ask the previous political leadership for some accountability.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
TBRA has made representations to both the State Governments and the President of MPPP since 2006 and after March 2008 on the need to strictly control development on hill-slopes. We can only assume that the present government appears to endorse the policy of the previous government concerning hill-slope developments.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
[...] you can read about the report at anil netto’s blog too. [...]
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Dear All,
I am one of the residents in Tg. Bunga who is actively calling for the banning of construction on Dangerous Hill slopes throughout the State of Penang. Dangerous, we mean by building on hill slopes above 25 degrees, as stipulated by our Science & Environment Ministry Guidelines on Hill Slope Development issued out in 2002. They call it Class III (> 25 degrees) & Class IV (> 35 degrees). Class IV is deemed VERY Dangerous to construct any building
Yes, many of us who were there are from Tg. Bunga as we are members of the TBRA or RAs of our housing area in Tg. Bunga – so we are NOT outsiders. We are using examples of bad development, be it Bolton surin or solok Tan Jit Seng to call upon the current Govt to rectify the sins committed by Gerakan & UMNO via the old administration.
We are not all rich. I live in a house bought by my mum in 1969 when it cost RM12,000. It is a simple single storey house in Chee Seng and it is @ 50 meters from the Hill slope that is way above 30 meters from the new Bolton Surin project.
We are fighting in the hope that another Bukit Antarabangsa hill collapse incident does not happen in the future in Chee Seng, Solok Tan Jit Seng, Batu Ferringhi, Diamond Villa or anywhere else. We do NOT want to see anyone else die in a man made tragedy. We are NOT being selfish nor silly in our quest AND we are not fighting for only our area but for all Penang where the Slopes are steep and dangerous to construct any building.
By all means we need to develop but not on hill slopes where the gradient is so ridiculously steep. Take a look at Bolton or Ivory or even Pearl Hill and you will get our drift. These gradients are worst than Bukit Antarabangsa and Hihgland towers.
So for all those who do NOT agree with us – fine. Let us just wait then for another disaster and all the sad and dramatic remarks by the politicians then will be issued BUT of no value. No one maintains any slope in Malaysia, so your solution is to say we are WRONG and to let it go on. That is rather silly in my opinion. OUr stand is to call on the State Govt. to stop all further Hill Slope development on Class III and Class IV slopes and If the Selangor State Govt. can do it, so can Penang. If they can also stop the ongoing one – this is EVEN Better.
The live of 1 single person is MUCH more valuable than the rhetoric to allow things to carry on OR to allow dangerous hill slope developement to carry on.
Regards to all and if you still do not agree with our Stand – we are fine with it. Perhaps you may want to hold your own Coffee or Tea Party to support the ruthless & irresponsible Developers who care for nothing but to reap profits without regards to future safety of residents of the projects they construct and the residents of long time old residents of long existing housing estates
George
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Only an incompetent MPPP will keep on allowing hillside cutting for development.Anyone with humanity and integrity will not allow more developments on hillside. We recently attended the malaysian fest that promotes tourism to M’sia. If only tourists knew the hippocrisy and lies,tourists should be warned, they will be visiting a hot concrete jungle of condos, not the idyllic sun, sea and open green spaces of tanjung bungah hills.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Please update your comments. It is year 2011 and one doesn’t want to read comments dated a couple of years ago. I am sure many residents would have lots to say and your column has enabled them to have a say and keep the residents updated on the latest development.
Complain about this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0