Penang Forum has released the following letter to the press:
The people of Penang Island and mainland Penang are suffering because of political malaise. Do those in power in Putrajaya realise how much distress is endured by every user of the Penang ferry service, everyday, not just on festive weekends? When did you last queue for an hour to board the ferry?
Check out this report in The Star:
Penang ferries these days appear to be running at a slower speed compared to the 1970s.
Some lunch-time philosophy: How is that those who are massively corrupt or evil seem to evade justice whether in the courts or even divine justice during their earthly lives?
When the Penang government allowed the maximum density of 30 homes per acre for residential properties to be raised to 87 homes per acre in 2010, the argument was that the higher density would allow developers to build more affordable homes. Yeah, right. (Did you really believe that at the time?)
Take a look at this report below, now. Five major developers are now focusing on homes with prices ranging from RM480,000 to RM3.3m. The question is, just whom are they building for? The ordinary people of Penang? I think not.
I knew this would happen.
Just when KTMB is doing well and packing in passengers into new electric trains after billions of public funds were spent on double tracking, along comes Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai with an announcement that the authorities plan to allow private companies, apart from KTM, to operate rail services on inter-city routes.
The ferry dis-service in Penang is ridiculous! Penang Forum has just released this urgent statement:
The Penang Forum Steering Committee is heartened that the federally controlled Penang Port Commission has requested the privatised Penang Port Sdn Bhd to postpone the plan to reduce the ferry service that was scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2016.
LKIM (Malaysians Fisheries Development Board), please do something about this. What are you doing to protect the livelihoods of the fishermen there? Who is responsible for this enivironmental disaster?
A temporary reprieve (see below).
It is time to step up the pressure against the federal Transport Ministry, the federally controlled Penang Port Commission, and the privatised Penang Port Sdn Bhd, which is linked to Sea Terminal under Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.
We are not just demanding that the ferries not be reduced from 1 January. We want MORE ferries. If not, hand over the ferry service to the Penang state government.
The financing model for the Penang transport masterplan and the very plan itself appears to be fundamentally flawed.
For a start, it is the fishermen of Penang who will have to bear a disproportionate amount of the cost in the form of their very livelihoods.