Aliran has launched an online petition calling for the unblocking of the Malaysian Insider, Sarawak Report and other news portals.
You can find the petition here.
Solidarity with blocked Malaysian Insider
Concerned and disturbed by the MCMC move to block The Malaysian Insider. The blocking of Sarawak Report, Asia Sentinel, Malaysian Chronicle, and earlier, the Bersih website (now lifted) was bad enough.
PKR rep sacked from GLC post speaks out: Why the dramatic reaction?
The PKR reps are concerned about new not-yet-approved land reclamation projects not the previous ones, says Kebun Bunga rep Cheah Kah Peng, in a letter to the people of Penang.
Penang Forum statement on Green Lane road-widening
The Penang Forum steering committee has just released a statement on the Green Lane road widening. It can be found here.
Any congestion in that area is just going to be displaced elsewhere, if there is road-widening along Green Lane. What a waste of public funds.
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.
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.
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.
‘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.]
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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.