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.
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”.
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.
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.”
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?
CAP: What is Penang without its roadside trees?
CAP has just come out with a statement below:
What is Penang without her green? What is Green Lane without the Green? Penang is slowly losing its green as more concrete jungles are taking over for development and paving the way for more vehicles.
No detailed EIA for three proposed Penang Island highways?
Construction of three highways in Penang Island is expected to begin in June 2016, but the consortium will only need a preliminary EIA before starting work. This is such a major project – highways near hills and densely populated areas – and yet, they don’t need a detailed EIA?
What? More Green Lane trees to be removed for road-widening
In this era of climate change, I was alarmed to hear that up to three dozen big trees could be removed along Jalan Masjid Negeri (“Green” Lane) to make way for another car lane. (Update: Apparently, 16 trees could be involved or ‘transplanted’, not 33 as reported – but how many of these transplanted trees will survive?) This is the stretch across the road from the MacDonald’s outlet.
This road-widening project is expected to cost some RM15m. Is this the best use of our limited funds? Would it really solve our traffic problems? For how long?
Now northern flank opens up against Najib as thousands rally around Mukhriz
What would Najib make of this?
In the west, there are the investigations in France and Switzerland.
In the south, Singapore announced a large number of bank accounts had been seized in connection with the 1MDB probe in cooperation with the authorities of Malaysia, Switzerland and the United States. In Johor, Umno is in turmoil after Muhyiddin was sacked from Umno Baru.
‘You know it’s really bad when the SWISS announce they are investigating someone…’
That was a reader’s comment left on the website of the Wall Street Journal. The Swiss were renown for their banking secrecy, but even they couldn’t keep mum over this.
The sum suspected to have been misappropriated amounts to around US$4bn; its intended purpose is the subject of further investigations. So far it has been ascertained that a small portion of the money was transferred to accounts held in Switzerland by various former Malaysian public officials and both former and current public officials from the United Arabic Emirates.
So thanks to the Switzerland attorney general’s office, we now know there is a ‘black hole’ out there amounting to US$4bn (RM17bn), involving several firms that have links to 1MDB.
In my piece, The black hole of 1MDB, I noted that 1MDB stood to make at least RM12bn in property revaluation gains. This would come in handy for 1MDB to fill up its own black hole by paying off its debts, (incurred on what?) and papering over its losses.