NO! to M’sia’s FTA with police state, USA – Remember, 1.2 million dead in Iraq
The new US ambassador to Malaysia, James Keith is urging both Malaysia and the United States to conclude a Free Trade Agreement after an earlier deadline in June was missed.
Of course, the US stands to benefit far more in such an “open market”. To draw an analogy, it would be like Manchester United playing against the Malaysian football team. Sure it may be a “level playing field”, but we all know who would win such a game.
The thing about an FTA with the United States is that it’s not just about trade. Keith said that trade and security issues will be a major focus during his tenure.
PGCC: Council to hear nearby residents’ concerns
Feelings against the PGCC are running high. Despite the mainstream media’s almost total blackout of dissenting views, emails have been going around, highlighting the adverse implications for Penang if the project goes ahead. Concerned activists have begun a campaign to raise public awareness of the PGCC and its horrendous implications for Penang.
In the midst of all this, some welcome news: the Penang Munical Council (MPPP) has given an assurance that it would be transparent and accountable in vetting the project. MPPP president Zainal Rahim Seman said the MPPP would ensure all the requirements are met before approving the project.
theSun reports:
Commenting on the complaints raised by several NGOs in Penang after the project was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Sept 12, Zainal said a public hearing will be held in three weeks time. “The developer has submitted it’s plans for the PGCC and I want to assure everyone that the MPPP will be thorough and open in deliberations on the project,” he told theSun. “We will invite those in the neighbouring areas to come for the public hearing and they will be given an opportunity to air their views, which will be considered in our decision-makings. “The developer will have to fulfill all the criteria, including traffic impact assessment in the area and the EIA requirement. The relevant departments, including the Public Works Department and Department of Environment, will also submit their reports on the project.” Zainal said the approval for the project will not be given “so soon”. He said although the project had been launched even before the approval was given by the MPPP, the initial assessment had been carried out by the Prime Minister’s Office.So I gather that the Council will be holding a meeting for neighbouring residents to hear their concerns, perhaps on 27 Sept. And I hear the NGOs are also thinking of a public forum. All of a sudden, the path to the promised PGCC land doesn’t look like like it’s going to be strewn with rose petals. First stop, the call for an independent and thorough EIA.
PGCC: Why did the Penang Turf Club sell a goldmine?
Say you had a home that sits on vast, potentially valuable, prime land in a popular land-scarce island. You know that bigtime developers are greedily eyeing your sprawling green turf because when they look at it, you can almost see $$$$$ pop up in their eyes and hear the chek-chek-ting! of a cash register – you know, like in the cartoons.
And then someone comes by and offers to buy your land at the present (relatively cheap) market value. And instead of paying most of the purchase price in cash, he offers to build you a “better” home on his even cheaper land on the mainland. Would you jump at the offer and dance in the streets?
This is what has been bugging me the last few days. Something just doesn’t compute. Unlike the swamp land sold by the fishermen’s cooperative (which eventually was resold to the Port Klang Free Zone authority) for a pittance, the Penang Turf Club land is prized land.
So I cannot understand why the Penang Turf Club sold its 260-acre land to Abad Naluri, the associate firm of Patrick Lim’s Equine Capital, for just RM488 million in 2002.
That works out to RM43 per square foot.
Even if you exclude the portion of the land that cannot be developed, it still works out to RM64 psf, which is dirt cheap.
Today, open recreational land in Penang is worth around RM60 psf.
But with the rezoning of the Penang Turf Club land to “mixed development” the land value could leap to RM250-300 psf, which is the land value in neighbouring Jesselton. One pro-PGCC bank analyst, in his exuberance, even suggested the land could potentially be worth RM500 psf (trying to pump up the value of the land, are we?) – though I am told that real estate valuers feel that RM250-300 psf is a more realistic range.
Either way, Abad Naluri is laughing all the way to the bank – even before the first bulldozer rumbles into the site.
NCER: Transforming agriculture – for whom?
On 30 July, the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) master-plan was launched with much fanfare. Among other goals, the blueprint aims to transform agriculture in the rice-bowl region of Malaysia.The masterplan was designed by Sime Darby although the project will be implemented by a regional coordinating authority, chaired by the Prime Minister.
On the face of it, it all sounds great. After all, if we can increase our food production and be more self-sufficient, then we would achieve food security, right?
But there are some underlying issues that have not been highlighted in the mainstream media.
Sime Darby is not a disinterested party. It is eyeing the seed market and planning to produce patented “mother seed” for 10 popular crops, which it wants to sell, along with fertilisers, to contract farmers. Not only that, the firm will eventually buy the farmers’ produce, process it and market it via Tesco (in which Sime Darby has a 30 per cent stake).
To get this scheme started, Sime Darby will introduce mechanised agro-business methods on a 700-acre model farm to a core group of pioneer farmers, who would be paid monthly salaries higher than the average farmer’s income. The contract farmers, once trained, would become contract farmers working on land allocated to them by the government or on plots merged through cooperatives.
Lipstick on the PGCC gorilla
The PGCC developers talk about building a zero-carbon city, but they don’t tell us about the scale of carbon emissions during the years of construction.
It might be worth looking at what people in the know are saying about large so-called “eco-projects” elsewhere.
Check out this excerpt from The Georgian, Issue 1, 2007. The Georgian is the magazine of the Georgian Group, a national charity in the UK dedicated to preserving Georgian buildings and gardens. Every year, the group is consulted on over 6,000 planning applications involving demolition or alterations.
Lipstick on a gorilla Nowhere are the contradictions of building these eco-homes better illustrated than in Dalston, East London. The Victorian theatre there, and adjoining late Georgian houses, were recently demolished to make way for a transport interchange, as part of a regeneration exercise loosely linked to the 2012 Olympics. The development contains homes complete with wind turbines, and the tower blocks will have ‘green’ roofs. As the propaganda has it, the whole exercise is environmentally sustainable. But once construction starts, more that seventy-five lorries will be arriving at the site daily, for several months. The Carbon Trust estimates that the carbon emitted in building the reinforced concrete slabs alone will be something like 15,000 tonnes, equivalent to the Greater London Authority’s carbon emissions from electricity use for the next twelve years – or the amount that would be emitted if the mayors of London and Hackney flew across the Atlantic and back continuously from now (2007) until 2045. – Robert Bargery, editorYou still think it’s going to be “zero carbon”? Aren’t we having wool pulled over our eyes? This makes the Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s call to fast-track the approvals process all the more irresponsible. What we really need is a thorough, detailed, independent EIA process.
Main Penang NGOs express alarm over PGCC
If Patrick Lim and Equine Capital think it is going to be smooth sailing after the Prime Minister announced that approvals for the PGCC would be fast-tracked, they had better think again.
This morning, half a dozen of the main Penang NGOs came together to express their stand against the development of the PGCC at a packed press conference held at the CAP office. Also present was a cameraman (the logo on the camera said ntv7, but I am not so sure) who meticulously videotaped the proceedings. (Let’s see what comes out on ntv7 tonight. I am not holding my breath.)
Present were representatives from CAP, Penang Heritage Trust, Malaysian Nature Society, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Cepat, and Aliran as well as other concerned Penangites.
The site of the project – the present Turf Club – was originally given by the government for a nominal sum and was zoned as ‘Open Space’. This was changed very recently to ‘Mixed Development’, even though public opinion was unanimously against it (judging from the submissions sent in by the public during the 2007 Structure Plan exercise), the NGOS said in a joint media statement.
“By doing so, the State has acted arbitrarily and sacrificed the interests of the community to a group of developers,” they said.
The NGO representatives expressed particular displeasure over the fact that the project is being steamed-rolled through and imposed from the top-down without full and open public consultation.
What Patrick Lim didn’t show us: The missing 35 towers
Holy shmoly! What the…
So PGCC master planner Nasrine Seraji claims I misquoted her and took her comments out of context. She was reported as saying that those comments were made four years ago and that no slides or pictures were shown on my blog post, which she claims was also not in the context of her conference.
But those comments were published by Canada.com last November, less than a year ago. Take a look at my original post here, where you can also find the link to her full original Canada.com interview (which doesn’t contain any pictures and slides either) and then you decide if I misquoted her and put her views out of context.
You want to talk about not giving the full picture and putting things out of context? Patrick Lim, Fox Communication and the mainstream media have been misleading the public by telling us only about the “iconic” crooked twin towers. (One of them is 66 storeys high by the way, almost similar to Komtar, that ugly protrusion in the centre of George Town.)
They have not shown the public what the other 35 towers on the site would look like. (Yes, I have recounted – there will be 37 towers in all, almost all of them over 40 storeys high.) The above view (which is actually a cut-out model done to scale on the actual plan – minus the Fox gloss) is what my late grandma and my late dad will see from Batu Gantong. (The crooked towers are at the top left and Scotland Road is on the right at the bottom.) Not a pretty sight.
Towers rattle and shake after “iconic” towers’ masterplan launched
When I requested my late dad and my late grandma a couple of days ago to watch over the green spaces surrounding their final resting place at the Bukit Gantong columbarium, neighbouring the proposed Penang Global City Centre, and to ask God to preserve the environment there for future generations, I wasn’t expecting anything earthshaking.
What a day to launch the masterplan of those “iconic” PGCC towers! (Wonder why they can’t say the word “towers” without adding the adjective “iconic” before it. Don’t they have any other word?)
Hours after the launch on 12 Sept, we had an 8.4 earthquake off nearby Sumatra, a tsunami alert, and people fleeing from high-rise buildings.
Too bad for Patrick Lim and Fox Communication that news of the quake and the tsunami alert shoved aside reports of the PGCC launch from the front pages of the newspapers yesterday. There are some things that even a PR firm can’t anticipate or handle.
The mothership is landing…
And so Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi launches the masterplan for Patrick Lim’s RM25 billion Penang Global City Centre project on 12 Sept.
They say a picture paints a thousand words. Have a look at these graphics visualising the PGCC, which I am reproducing here from architect firm Asymptote’s website in the public interest
I don’t know about you, but it looks like a soulless alien colony to me – as if a mothership from a distant galaxy has docked at the Turf Club land!
Architect Nasrine Seraji exposes PGCC developers’ greed
The developers of the RM25 billion Penang Global City Centre (PGCC) project have been telling us how green and carbon-free their project is going to be.
But what they didn’t tell us is they actually wanted to cram in as much as they could into the Turf Club land to maximise profits. In fact, they wanted a density that would have made it twice the density of Hong Kong!
Somehow, the PGCC’s Teheran-born architect, Nasrine Seraji, managed to convince the developers that no one would want to live there if they went ahead with their original plan.
Even so, it looks like the PGCC could end up with 33 tower blocks of over 40 storeys each. That is still massive.
And isn’t there going to be any social housing – low and low-medium cost housing – in the Turf Club site itself?
Somehow, the PGCC’s Teheran-born architect, Nasrine Seraji, managed to convince the developers that no one would want to live there if they went ahead with their original plan.
Even so, it looks like the PGCC could end up with 33 tower blocks of over 40 storeys each. That is still massive.
And isn’t there going to be any social housing – low and low-medium cost housing – in the Turf Club site itself?
RM25 billion PGCC: 33 tower blocks, over 40 storeys each
It’s a RM25 billion whopper: about 33 tower blocks, each over 40 storeys high on the land being used by the Penang Turf Club. Imagine that!
And it looks like two different meetings on the Penang Global City Centre (PGCC) project are going to be held at two posh venues on Monday, 10 September – one at The Mansion and the other at the Penang Sports Club.
I now gather that the meeting at the Penang Sports Club was requested by the Jesselton Residents Association, which is concerned about this mega project on the doorstep of their peaceful and tranquil neighbourhood. Apparently, the developers requested that only three reps attend the meeting but the Jesselton Residents Association asked for 10.
The meeting at the Mansion will be a briefing on the PGCC on behalf of the developer (Abad Naluri) by Equine Capital executive chairman Patrick Lim (who is said by some to be the most influential businessman in Malaysia). The target audience: activists and performing arts people. Let’s see how many people actually turn up. I believe activists from the main Penang-based NGOs are boycotting the event; I am not sure about the performing arts folk though.
This briefing is being arranged by the Fox Communication people in Penang, K Y Pung, The Star’s former regional associate editor, and Mohd Tajudin, former journalist of theSun.
Timber firms to receive soft loans a.k.a. subsidies
Timber firms are set to receive millions of ringgit in soft loans from the government under a “reforestation” programme.
In this article for IPS, I discussed two questions:
- Why should profitable timber firms receive soft loans, which in effect are subsidies?
- Is this really a reforestation programme or will such commercial tree plantations actually cause the deforestation of logged-over (but still viable) rainforests?
Fox makes its move
Not making much headway with the Penang-based NGOs, the Fox Communication/Equine people have now trained their sights on the Jesselton Residents Association, neighbouring the Turf Club. The latest I hear is that this meeting will be held on 10 September at the Penang Sports Club nearby – two days before the official launch of the Penang Global City Centre mega project on the Turf Club land.
This means the idea to hold the meeting at “The Mansion” has probably been dropped. What to do, their original invitees don’t want to turn up. Update: Now I hear they are targeting the performing arts people and trying to woo them with the proposed performing arts centre in the PGCC. And they are still trying to round up activists to attend the Mansion meeting.
But hey, the Penang Sports Club is still pretty exclusive. Members – and their guests – only.
Apparently, they want to limit the meeting to 10 reps from the resident association. Maybe they are worried the public might turn up and start shouting at them.
But if Fox/Equine think its going to be smooth sailing with the residents association, they have another thing coming. Jesselton Heights is a tranquil, lush green upper-middle-class neighbourhood in Penang – perhaps equivalent to Damansara in KL (though I am not sure what that is like these days!).
A phone call from Fox
This is no rumour.
I was reading an article by Raja Petra of Malaysia Today about Abdullah Badawi, Patrick Lim and rumours that someone had forwarded to me – when suddenly, the phone rang.
It was a guy, Tajudin, from Fox Communication.
Fox is the firm handling the PR for Patrick Lim’s Penang Global City Centre mega project. Lim is of course the executive chairman of Equine Capital, which is also involved in another project on mainland Penang – the 450-acre mixed residential and commercial development in Batu Kawan known as the Crescentia project. Crescentia, close to where the proposed second bridge is located, has an estimated gross development value of RM860 million. We are talking big bucks here.
Anyway back to the PGCC project. We are talking even bigger bucks here.
Tajudin was under the impression that I was the one coordinating on the NGO side the meeting between activists and the PGCC developers, which Lim wants to address on 10 Sept, just two days before the official project launch.
Whatever gave Tajudin that idea?
Unspinning Patrick Lim’s spin on his Penang mega project
So just as my public relations guru (PR Guru) friend predicted, the spin is out for the Penang Global City Centre (PGCC) project on that sprawling green lung (and prime land) that used to be the Penang Turf Club.
The Star today reports Equine executive chairman Patrick Lim (widely known as “Patrick Badawi”) highlighting two aspects of the project, which will be officially launched on 12 September 2007:
- Two new flyovers that Equine associate Abad Naluri will build to connect the PGCC to the Penang Outer Ring Road (another controversial project); and
- The green credentials of the PGCC – 40 per cent of PGCC to be allocated to “green and open spaces”, carbon-free city, blah, blah, blah
An inspiring night
Just back from the dinner to celebrate Aliran’s 30th anniversary – and being so close to the 50th anniversary of Merdeka and 44th anniversary of Malaysia, there was much cause for reflection.
But so different from the official Merdeka celebrations. The 700-strong crowd seemed to relish the performances put up by the Community Band, the Aliran Singers, Johan and the Instant Cafe Theatre Company. Perhaps the songs and satire about the struggles of ordinary people and our trials and tribulations in trying to discover what it means to be a true Malaysian struck a chord among those present.
RM4.6b PKFZ scandal a major embarrassment for PM
You know that whole official fuss about the Negara ku rap video clip?
Well, my theory is that the official uproar was aimed at diverting attention and public disquiet away from several issues such as the rising cost of living, the trade unions’ popular campaign for a minimum wage, recent allegations of high-level corruption… and the fallout from the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal.
It’s a classic ploy that never fails to work. Just ask a string of US presidents. If faced with a domestic problem, scandal or crisis that threatens to erode popular support for a leader, simply divert public attention away with an imaginary bogeyman – or, in the case of the US, launch yet another foreign war against a Saddam-like “monster”.
Remember how Abdullah Badawi pledged to stamp out corruption ahead of the 2004 general election? What is he going to promise now ahead of the next general election?
Everything that could go wrong with the PKFZ project appears to have gone wrong.
This is a piece I wrote for Asia Times on a scandal that has tarnished the image of the government.
Merdeka! But beware the new power…
Just watching the 50th Merdeka celebrations on TV and I can’t help but notice how top BN politicians are dominating the proceedings.
The 8tv talk show hosts are singing the praises of the PM.
Samy and Ong Ka Ting are hovering around the PM. So too Hishamuddin Hussein.
Khairy Jamaluddin raising the flag… Khairy leading the Youth of the BN component parties in a marchpast…Najib literally breathing down Abdullah’s neck, looking over his shoulders, as the PM delivers a “spirited” speech.
(Fifty years ago, the Tunku was flanked by Najib’s father Razak, Cheng Lock, and Sambanthan. Umno Youth leader Sardon Jubir placed a chain around the Tunku’s neck in recognition of his role as Bapa Kemerdekaan.)
Dressed in BN blue, Abdullah uses words such as “terbilang” and “gemilang” (from the BN tagline), raising his voice in an attempt to fire up the crowd – but he ends up coughing in between… 0ops. Someone, tell him that yelling at the top of his voice is not his style.
In front of him, Umno flags (and was that an MIC flag I spotted?) flutter next to the Jalur Gemilang. (Hmm, that gemilang word again.)
Would Jesus want the Makkal Osai suspended?
This evening, I received an SMS with the intriguing question: “So u think Makal Osai shld b suspended?”
Makai Osai of course refers to the Tamil daily that published an image of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette and a beer can four days ago. It was slapped with a suspension from today to 24 September.
It was interesting to see the Islamic Party, Pas, coming out to express displeasure against the depiction of Jesus in the paper. Archbishop Murphy has found himself an unlikely ally, I thought!
Since then, the paper has apologised and Archbishop Murphy has accepted the apology.
Quite appropriately, the quote next to the picture that was deemed offensive read: “If someone repents for his mistakes, then heaven awaits them.”
End of matter? No, the paper was nonetheless hit with a suspension order.
West Bank: Checkpoints, teargas and other daily oppressions
Here’s a riveting account of what life is like in the West Bank. Making a guest appearance today is political scientist John Hilley, who has just returned to Scotland from a trip to Palestine with the Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign. He describes his time there “between getting tear-gassed and shot at in Bil’in to being around our wonderful projects and friends in the West Bank refugee camps”.
I thought it was particularly courageous of John to engage with the IDF soldiers manning checkpoints and to point out their role in the crushing Occupation. In doing this, he puts into practice the powerful moral force of non-violent resistance.
This piece deserves a wider audience; so here it is, reproduced in full with kind permission from John. It’s a longish piece, but it’s worth the read to catch a glimpse of life beyond the checkpoints.
Checkpoints, tear gas and other daily oppressions:
10 days in the West Bank
With the Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign July-August 2007 by John Hilley “What is the purpose of your visit?” I want to tell this young, abrasive soldier at the passport terminal on the Israeli side of the Jordanian border crossing that I’m here to witness her state’s illegal, apartheid treatment of the Palestinians. “Tourism.” Aware of the many people around being subject to intense interrogation, and likely refusal, it seems, for the moment, the more practical reply.Across the hall, a more lengthy queue of Palestinians waits to enter, their treatment, as I will witness these next days, part of the humiliating ritual of life under Israeli occupation. Boarding the bus for Al Quds/Jerusalem, one feels an immediate sense of imposing militarism.