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Uproar over Soho project near Queensbay

Residents of Bayan Bay are unhappy about plans for massive development and land reclamation near their area, which is already close to the massive RM10bn Penang World City project. Small office/home office (Soho) projects are creating unease in various ways and that has prompted a freeze on all new projects for now – but that doesn’t mean the project won’t proceed in the future. To placate the residents, they have been told that the height of the proposed buidlings will be reduced.

Meanwhile, Soho buyers elsewhere are disgruntled at having to pay higher commercial rates for assessment even as developers reap handsome profits e.g. by building at a higher (commercial) density.

This Soho mess was easily foreseen by many quarters.

The following press statement was issued by residents in the Bayan Bay area.

MH370 will haunt Malaysia’s future: Bloomberg

The missing plane has made people around the world take a closer look at Malaysia – and from various accounts, what they have seen, from the lack of transparency to the way opposition leaders are treated, has not impressed them.

Farewell, Bernard Khoo @ Zorro Unmasked

Seri Tanjung Pinang Phase 2 traffic impact assessment seriously flawed

Not surprisingly, no traffic consultant was named in the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment.

A RM1.6bn entry for the Malaysia Book of Records?

Here you go again.. direct tender, negotiated tender, restricted tender, tender terhad or whatever-you-may-call-it, the effect is the same – mind-boggling amounts of money expended with little accountability.

And then they need to introduce GST for the rakyat to cough up while patients have to pay for nuts and bolts and screws needed for surgical procedures.

Funds for poor kids misappropriated to buy nasi lemak, teh tarik

Ho-hum, another year, another auditor-general’s report with the usual outrages.

Strange goings-on at Penang’s ‘Sore Thumb’

Residents of Tanjung Bunga recently sent a letter to ask about the current status of the ‘Sore Thumb’ – but so far apparently no response.

Raise commercial water tariffs in Penang as well

While all the focus is on Penang’s high domestic water consumption, the Penang trade consumption is often ignored – but businesses enjoying cheap water guzzle 40 per cent of total Penang water consumption.

Graph: PBA
Graph: PBA

While the state government rightly calls on Penang’s domestic consumers to reduce their high per capita water consumption, it should also ask Penang trade consumers to curtail their water usage.

Saifuddin, Nurul Izzah, Rafizi to team up for PKR polls

Just received the following message via email from a PKR politician:

Bagi jawatan-jawatan Timbalan Presiden dan Naib-naib Presiden, kami (Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Nurul Izzah Anwar dan Rafizi Ramli) telah sepakat untuk menawarkan satu gagasan bersama yang menekankan kepada kepimpinan bersama (collective leadership) dan barisan pimpinan masa depan untuk melonjakkan keyakinan rakyat kepada KEADILAN.

‘Just what is it with Penang?’

Why hasn’t Penang been hit with water rationing so far? Himanshu Bhatt wrote this piece for fz.com a couple of days ago.