UPDATE: Polling closed at 5.30pm sharp on 15 June 2010.
Just before it closed, it was 9,608 (about 66 per cent) saying No to the arches and 4,981 (about 34 per cent) saying Yes.
URGENT ALERT: The percentage of those saying No to the arches in Penang Botanic Garden has inexplicably plunged in a poll hosted on the Tourism Ministry’s website.
Caught in the act: See how the poll results appear to be manipulated
From 91 per cent who said ‘No’ to the arches a few days ago, it is now only 54 50 48 per saying ‘No’. That is an unbelievably sharp drop in the percentage opposing the arches in just a matter of days. When observed, in the space of an hour on a Sunday afternoon (today), over 200 more “Yes-es” were recorded in favour of the arches. And that’s just in an hour.
The poll may close anytime soon and then the government might use the final result to justify its decision on whether the arches should stay or go. So make sure you vote now before it’s too late.
Here’s your chance to tell the government whether those large arches at the Penang Botanic Garden – one of which is believed to be tilting – should be removed.
The Tourism Ministry is carrying out a poll on its website. But be careful, you are asked whether those arches should remain.
Vote ‘Ya’ if you like the arches or ‘Tidak’ if you want the arches to go. For the poll, go here (see right column).
Some background info:
The Penang Botanic Gardens, established in 1884, is Malaysia’s only Botanic Garden and is one of our most beloved treasures, enjoyed by thousands daily and by more than 2 million a year. Recent developments due to a RM7.75 million grant from the Federal Government are resulting in inappropriate and destructive projects that are ad hoc in nature and do not conform to any principles and good practices of botanic garden planning.
The arches are merely the most visible of these abuses to the Gardens. Others involve a non-existent RM1 million bambusetum, a RM1 million eco-stream walk that turned a natural flowing stream into a glorified drain with nothing ‘eco’ about it, a RM2.5 million visitor centre, which is being built below unstable hill slopes, and various developments within the gardens such as two suraus, the destruction of historic plant houses, and the destruction of the beloved formal gardens.
The arches are part of a RM2.5 million mall entrance with lots of concrete, a large open storm drain, decorative fountains and car parks. Large trees were removed and a pre-war art deco cafe was demolished. The NGOs have proposed an alternative salvage job where the arches are removed, the fountains removed, lots of trees planted
in the car parks and the pools turned into ponds for water plants and fish.The removal of the arches would at least be symbolic and would allow us to work towards greater transparency and better management of the Penang Botanic Gardens.
And a report from The Star of 8 June:
| Please help to support this blog if you can. Read the commenting guidlelines for this blog. |
U want the state government to remove the arch? Too bad! LGE just has no gut to do it.
Anil, I’m no expert on voting patterns, but if there were features in those graphs I plotted that would suggest poll manipulation, the most obvious one is the “Tidak” vote around mid-day yesterday. I only started recording statistics after your article, so I missed the swing you reported. Since online polls are taken to be such an important measure of the national mood, should we be putting some effort into establishing (or finding and employing) an online polling system that would be less prone to manipulation and provide some statistics to support its credibility? Given the available statistics behind the… Read more »
Thanks, Sean for looking into this. You are right, the “Yes” swings were detected in the hours before my blog entry, and maybe tapered off after that.
Good idea, if we can find a more credible online polling system. But where?
Well, I have to admit that I don’t have a clue where to start looking. It might be possible to provide estimates of from where voters are voting by using their IP addresses, perhaps grouped by geographic area rather than showing individual addresses. There are a number of confounding problems with doing that – not every network provides unique addresses to its clients, for example. It would provide some defence against brain-dead manipulation attempts. I’m not convinced that showing the progress of a vote is such a good idea. I know why CMS widgets are designed that way: it encourages… Read more »
All those tricks used in getting feed back on the Arch via online ..!!
most likely included outsiders from Penang ! And MULTIPLE votes by same readers ??
A real people’s poll should be from the people of Penang, where the structure stands.
Something like a referendum, don’t you folks agree ?
Keep them. Rename them as Arches of Shame. A permanent symbol of incompetence … for generations to come.
Come to think about it, engrave the name of Ng Yen Yen on them for remembrance in perpetuity.
Why not sell it to Khir Toyo to adorn his palace entrance. It looks more appropriate there than a botanic garden.
Please keep it to remind Penangites and ordinary Malaysins what UMNO/BN government has done to Penang after 52 years of nonsensical governing,
In case you’re interested Anil, I logged the results from MoTour just after reading your site and plotted a few graphs:
http://blog.lolyco.com/sean/2010/06/14/the-ministry-of-tourism-poll-penang-botanical-garden-arches/
Do we actually need the arches in Penang Botanical Garden to remind the people how corrupted BN is???
To retain the two arches to tell me how corrupted BN is??? It just does not make sense la guys !!!
Please have them removed by all means (before they collapse and kill someone and we blame Lim Guan Eng again).
Those two arches really look horrible !!!
Sometimes just wonder why cant Malasians do things right???
Why waste so much money to redesign the garden ? Go South and ask Singapore and I am sure they are ready to help. Take a look at their botanical garden website alone http://www.sbg.org.sg/ will see how much better they are in managing their assets.
Makes me salivate just looking at what Singapore Botanic Gardens can do so much for nature lovers, horticulturalists, gardeners, florists, researchers, artists and nature photographers. And it’s a great venue for events like weddings. There is so much care in the planning, setting up and management of the Garden, it is so integrated and harmonized for man’s enjoyment, that it is indeed world class. It is a shame that Penang Botanical Garden, with so much nature to offer (some even better than Singapore Botanic Gardens) cannot even compare to our southern neighbour. Worst, it’s beauty is tarnished with ugly, incongruent,… Read more »
btw, what has LGE and the local council said or done so far about these arches?
you think they really put up polls to get people’s views? dream away!
they will manipulate at all cost to get their own way
If they wanna cheat even in a poll .What can we do?
Leave it.
As nearly all of us know that this is not the doing of the Penang State Govt.
I can see a backlash in the voting at the moment. It would be interesting to see stats over time for some of these votes where the distribution changes suddenly. You can find some nice bandwidth graphs from sites which have been ‘slashdotted’. Maybe you’ll start something local to Malaysia, and local server admins and dodgy vote hosts will complain of being ‘Anilised’.
If the federal government does not remove them, the state government should. After all it is state land.
I have been watching the poll. The “yes” has been going up by units of 10. Something is very fishy here.
Anil, should this vote come from Penangites? If this is done nationwide, I’m afraid it can be manipulated. Just get/pay some to vote Yes. The fate of Penang’s Botanical Garden is now at the fancy of outsiders. Remind us of by-election tactics!
Something similar happened a year or so ago to a Home Ministry poll.
The country is littered with these hot concrete “parks” that are too hot in the day and closed (or not lighted up) at night. After a year or so, you will find the play equipment broken or the space taken over for some unauthorised use. It comes from the same mindset that wants to pave over or tile every avalable stretch of sidewalk and even road – at your cost.
exactly like I thought coming from the behavior of MCA Ministers. Another RM7.5m thrown into the pockets of some BN cronies. The … Minister can have all the polls she wants, but everyman or woman worth his/her senses know the arch is (probably) to enrich some BN cronies.
when will BN stop such wastage? Answer is never ever coz the very reason one joins (them) is for the dole.
Aliran should call for a Press Conference to expose this sudden wild swing of “NOs” from 91 to 48 “NOs” within hours!
The Penang public/rakyat must be be alerted on this and what those (responsible) are capable of! Where’s Ng Yen Yen, how much are those ‘swing votes’ worth this time? …
Anil,
This is Malaysia boleh, BN style! Are we at all surprise by the sudden ‘swing’? No!
I purposely made a trip there to take a look and saw the shoddy work. Yeah, agree with “tan of tanjong bungah” that a plague should be erected next to it but will like to add 2 words to it –
“Satu lagi shoddy work projek Kerajaan BN”, if those two arches are not demolished. Sigh!
Anil, The photo that you’ve posted is grossly exaggerated – you’ve deliberately pictured the arch at such an unrealistic tilt to create unjust hype. Either that, or Penang is tilting in general. Maybe a more competent photographer will do its cause. As a veteran journalist, you should’ve been more responsible for what you publish! From a structural point of view, tilting in this direction that you’ve exaggerated is not of major concern. The centre of gravity of the structure will still be within the middle third of the foundation and collapse is unlikely. If, however, the tilting is in the… Read more »
The picture was taken by a concerned Penangite, not me. Other photos of the arches, from different angles, had previously been shown on this blog in earlier posts.
A couple of engineers have used instruments to check if there’s tilting and they found there is indeed a tilt on one of the arches, and I think this has already been reported in the Chinese media.
The main point, though, is do Botanic Garden users really want those huge arches, tilting or otherwise?
This fiasco is so typical of Malaysia… First the government goes ahead and build these tacky monstrosities without consulting the community; Secondly they waste money on something that is TOTALLY UNNECESSARY and adds nothing to the beauty of the site…its a wonder they arent painted nipple pink. Thirdly you give the contract to an organisation which obviously hasn’t the expertise to carry out such a project. Fourthly, why does everything built in this country have to have islamic iconography incorporated in the design. And fifthly, and most importantly, are the pathetically tidak apah comments that have appeared in this column.… Read more »
The arches should be removed. It is not just about the arches but the whole expansion project, including drainage, expanded car park space, visitor’s centre and whatever else that is in the plan. Leaving the arches as a monument to remind people of the approving authority’s incompetence does not serve the interest of the botanical park. The whole area should be redesigned and rebuilt properly. It should be redone to fit the spirit and purpose of the park.If money needs to be spent, so be it.
Hi everyone,
I saw the arches, such montrosities, last month. If the Ministry of Tourism does not demolish the arches, then a plaque should be erected next to each of the arches to state “Satu lagi projek Kerajaan BN”!
Well, two things you could do with the arch.
You could have had it become a feature had it been taller like the ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa’ which is a bell tower at Pisa, Italy.
http://www.mapsofworld.com/travel-destinations/leaning-tower-of-pisa.html
Auyh! No matter what they decide you would of course *have* to make the arch safer than it is now lah!
….Or pull it down which would be a pity.
quote Tunglang Make it a dummy hangman’s arch
lol but yea..a great idea show them thieves you mean business.