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Silly season ahead of Sarawak polls has begun

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Silly season ahead of Sarawak polls has begun

With the Sarawak state elections expected to be held in April, we can expect all kinds of announcements to be made ahead of the polls.

Like this one: Minister for Rural and District Development Ismail Sabri Yaakob reportedly announced on 21 February that a Mara Science Junior College would be built on a site in Bintulu, with the first intake of students expected in 2019.

Expect more such announcements in the weeks ahead.

By the way, can someone let me know the status of the “university” in Teluk Intan promised by Gerakan-BN candidate Mah Siew Keong on 26 May 2014, just five days ahead of the Teluk Intan by-election.

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Unwise to penalise PKR reps for abstaining from land reclamation motion

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Unwise to penalise PKR reps for abstaining from land reclamation motion

The sacking of two PKR state assembly members, Bukit Tengah rep Ong Chin Wen (the PKR state whip) and Kebun Bunga rep Cheah Kah Peng, as directors of Penang state government-linked companies is disturbing.

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Photographs and timeline of Raffles House in Penang – now flattened

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Photographs and timeline of Raffles House in Penang – now flattened

This was the building known as Raffles House in Penang, along Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah/Northam Road. Notice the five 19th Century Doric order columns.

It stood on the site of Stamford Raffles’ house, which was damaged in a fire in 1901. It was rebuilt or reconstructed in 1903 and opened as a hotel. (See timeline further below.) The solid structure of the building may well have been the original. Heritage circles had asked if they could investigate and record the building but it never happened.

Instead, the building was among several that were demolished at the Runnymede site over the Lunar New Year by the developer.

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‘Special projects’ on hills: Penang Forum vindicated

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‘Special projects’ on hills: Penang Forum vindicated

Penang Forum’s position against special projects on the hills of Penang, put forward by prominent lawyer Agatha Foo, has been vindicated in recent weeks by three developments. [Basically, Penang Forum said that the Penang state government had come up with guidelines in 2009 that interpreted too broadly the term special projects contained in the Penang Structure Plan, gazetted in 2007. The Structure Plan prohibits development on hill land more than 250 feet above sea level, allowing only “limited development” for special projects under exceptional circumstances.]

  1. A decision by the Appeals Board, chaired by Yeo Yang Poh, in favour of the residents of Sungai Ara, who had appealed against the MBPP’s approval of developer Sunway’s ‘special project’ on a hill in their vicinity.
  2. An article by University of Malaya law professor Gurdial Singh Nijar which affirmed the Appeals Board decision and Penang Forum’s position on special projects.
  3. A statement by the Human Rights Society of Malaysia (Hakam), issued by Ambiga Sreenevasan and Gurdial Singh, supporting Penang Forum’s position and the Appeals Board decision on special projects.
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Penang losing its ‘charm’ and ‘character’

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Penang losing its ‘charm’ and ‘character’

I couldn’t help thinking of the demolition of the Runnymede ancilliary buildings over the Lunar New Year, when reading this report in Buletin Mutiara (below). The irony of it all.

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Runnymede ancilliary buildings demolished: MBPP must explain

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Runnymede ancilliary buildings demolished: MBPP must explain

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, heritage circles in Penang were abuzz with talk that several buildings in the Runnymede property in Penang – the site of Stamford Raffles home in Penang – were being demolished, reminiscent of the way the nearby Metropole Hotel was flattened under stealth on Christmas Day, 1993.

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Protests erupt in Auckland: TPP signing is just the beginning

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Protests erupt in Auckland: TPP signing is just the beginning

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Auckland and elsewhere as the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement was being signed on 4 February. The chant that rose into the air summed up the sentiment: “TPPA – Taking People’s Power Away”.

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Wishing you a prosperous New Year – but what do you mean by prosperous?

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Wishing you a prosperous New Year – but what do you mean by prosperous?

We are so used to wishing prosperity to one another over the Lunar New Year, but maybe it is time to look more closely at what we mean by prosperity.

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New mobility agenda for Penang needed

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New mobility agenda for Penang needed

Our guest contributor is Eric Britton, a sustainable transport expert who visited Penang a couple of years ago. He says, “The priority is not to further expand supply of inefficiently used infrastructure, but rather to manage and use it better.”

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Seven reasons why I am against the Penang transport masterplan

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Seven reasons why I am against the Penang transport masterplan

Under normal circumstances, I would be the first to support any plan to promote sustainable transport in Penang and Malaysia. Unfortunately, I cannot support the Penang transport masterplan as it stands for the following reasons:

1. Ballooning costs: The cost keeps ballooning even before it starts. RM27bn was already an astronomical figure. Now we are told it will be RM35-40bn (The Edge interview with the Penang chief minister). And that is excluding the tunnel, mind you. (A figure of RM6.3bn has been mentioned for that.) These are mega projects by any definition – and we used to criticise Mahathir for those, with justification. Whose idea was it to have a road tunnel, anyway?

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