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Pulau Jerejak: Stanley Park of Penang?

Anil Netto
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You just have to shake your head in disbelief when you hear former Penang CM Koh Tsu Koon blaming the financial crisis in the 1990s, 9-11 and Sars for the setbacks suffered by Pulau Jerejak Resort.

Stanley Park in Vancouver City - Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Stanley Park in Vancouver City – Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Pathetic. In the first place, the place should never have been given to an Uda-majority joint-venture firm to manage.

Second, the 362-ha Pulau Jerejak should have been turned into a nature reserve for Penangites, already starved of green lungs on the island for rest and recreation. Do you know that the 405-ha Stanley Park (only slightly larger than Pulau Jerejak) next to Vancouver City draws 8 million visitors a year? (Click image above to expand.)

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Allah issue: Long wait for appeal date

Anil Netto
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One year on, and the Allah issue is still in limbo.

Or rather we are still waiting for the Court of Appeal to fix a date for the government’s appeal against the High Court’s landmark decision in favour of the church. For now, though, the Catholic Church’s weekly Herald tabloid is unable to use the term ‘Allah’ as the government has obtained a stay pending appeal.

Meanwhile, the Church has reprinted a rare Malay-Latin dictionary, first published in 1631, which shows that Christianity was already using local languages in the region four centuries ago.

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Small fine for Pykett Ave demolition

Anil Netto
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Update: The maximum fine under the law for this offence is RM500,000 or two years jail or both. The CM has described the RM6,000 fine imposed as a mere slap on the wrist and has instructed the MPPP to appeal for a heavier sentence.

The firm responsible for demolishing an old double-storey building along Pykett Avenue without local council planning permission was fined a small sum by the magistrate’s court yesterday.

Klassik Tropika Development Sdn Bhd of the Mah Sing Group was fined RM6,000 for the demolition, which took place just days before a scheduled MPPP inspection (probably to assess if the site had any heritage value) in July 2010.

This saga brings back memories of how a RM2 company was fined RM50,000 for the Christmas Day 1993 demolition of the historical Metropole Hotel, a property worth RM9.5 million back then.

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Johor Education Dept Director on video

Anil Netto
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Listen to Johor Education Department director Markom Giran caught on video urging teachers/counsellors to work for a victory for the “government” in the Tenang by-election.

Among other things, he urges them to colour-code areas according to the degree of support for the BN (blue) on the one hand, to hardcore support for the opposition (green), on the other. Attention would be focussed on grey areas. Counsellors were also urged to talk to the pupils’ parents and visit their homes as part of this effort.

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UEM-EPF in the driver’s seat for PLUS

Anil Netto
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3

Latest: PLUS has accepted the UEM-EPF bid as a confirmed offer. MMC meanwhile had submitted its bid directly to the government.

See Singapore Business Times story here.

While we are all distracted by the ethnic and religious controversies in the country, watch out for these big-ticket deals.

On the sale of PLUS Expressways Bhd, one of the most lucrative assets in the country: UEM-EPF remains the only bidder (RM23 billion) after Jelas Ulung, which had submitted a RM26 billion bid, dropped out of the race when it failed to come up with a RM50 million deposit.

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Concerns about sPICE

Anil Netto
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So from RM50 million that the MPPP will have to pay for the proposed convention centre, it has now become just RM11.5 million, which we are told is a “minute sum” for RM300 million worth of facilities.

If this sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And very ‘creative’ too. We are now told the council will save RM25 million in upgrading Pisa and the Aquatics Centre and it will also receive RM13.5 million from the sale of the hotel land. Thus the MPPP would only have to stump up RM11.5 million instead of RM50 million.

In the first place, has the MPPP budgeted or planned RM25 million on upgrading work? If it hasn’t, then there is nothing to save. Secondly, whether or not we have sPICE, the MPPP can still sell the land.

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S P Setia awarded RM300m PICC job

Anil Netto
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Latest: It has been announced late this morning that the PICC project has been awarded to Eco Meridean Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of S P Setia Bhd, and the project will now be dubbed ‘Subterranean Penang International Convention and Exhibition (sPICE) Centre’. The work, which involves upgrading the existing Pisa facilities as well, will reportedly cost “at least” RM300 million (or more?) using a Build-Operate-Transfer model.

According to my source, the tender proposal had expected the state to provide RM50 million in funding. But we now hear that that the burden of coughing up these funds will fall on MPPP (i.e. Penang rate-payers), which is already hard-pressed for funds to upgrade basic public amenities such as public markets and pavements. Has the RM50 million expenditure been approved in a full council meeting of the MPPP? Was it even on the agenda of the last full council meeting of the MPPP? Who is really running the MPPP?

If this RM300 million project, which will take three years to complete, is really feasible, the state government should show us the projections. S P Setia may be able to deliver the convention centre but can it guarantee that it generates operational profits? If not, who will absorb the operational losses and for how long? Realistically, how much can MPPP expect as returns for its RM50 million outlay and when? What about the hidden costs and opportunity costs that may not be reflected in the RM300 million, especially the cost for the use of the MPPP’s land and interest lost by the MPPP on the RM50 million? How much is S P Setia going to pay MPPP for building on council land? Why should Penang rate-payers subsidise this project? Questions, questions… but will we get real answers?

My report early this morning before the official announcement:

S P Setia Bhd has been selected for the job of the Penang International Convention Centre, the cost of which has ballooned from initial estimates of around RM50 milllion bandied about earlier to some RM250 million RM300 million now.

According to a source, negotiations are underway on the terms based on what S P Setia wants from the state government and the MPPP. It is believed the state government was asked to provide RM50 million to help fund the project. I don’t think this is the best way for the state to spend its limited financial resources.

The design for the PICC, to be constructed underground, is believed to include a roof-top garden, a hotel and a retail section. The MPPP has requested a traffic dispersal study. It is not known if a socio-environmental impact study will be commissioned.

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Pulau Jerejak scandal; land reclamation

Anil Netto
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Almost all the useable land on Pulau Jerejak near Penang Island was sold to a resort, majority owned by the federal government’s UDA Holdings Bhd. And Penang has incurred a RM19 million RM30 million loss on the deal.

The Tropical Island Resort, which manages Pulau Jerejak, is a 51:49 joint-venture between UDA and the Penang Development Corporation. How could PDC (and by extension, Penang) end up with only a minority share when the island is part of Penang? UDA, for its part, was delisted from the stock exchange in 2007 and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Finance Ministry’s Khazanah.

PDC has incurred investment expenditure and debt of RM19 million. Another RM11 million in land premium has not yet been paid to the Penang Land Administrator. Shockingly, even though the land premium has not yet been paid in full, the title deed was still issued by the previous administration, said Chief Minister Guan Eng. If that’s the case, the resort must settle what it owes to the PDC and the Penang state government, which in turn must seek legal advice to protect Penang’s interest.

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Live – Monster flood swamps Brisbane

Anil Netto
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15

Three quarters of flood-hit Queensland is now a disaster zone and Brisbane is now deluged after extraordinarily heavy rain forced the Wivenhoe Dam to release excess water.

The Brisbane river level rose to just over 4 metres at 2.00pm and is expected to peak at 5.5 metres at 2.00am Malaysian time, 4.00am Brisbane time tomorrow and that peak level is expected to remain for 12-18 hours. (In the event, the peak level turned out to be a metre lower.) The city has been locked down. A contact in Brisbane tells me: “Brisbane city itself is sadly under. All along the Brisbane River is under. … the city cat (catamaran) boats… are all off the river as debris of trees, broken pontoons, wood, boats, parts of houses etc are floating rapidly down the river. The worse is yet to come as high tide is 4.00 am tomorrow morning and the river is expected to rise…”

Ironically, the biggest problem for Brisbane over the last 12-15 years has been drought. This looks like climate change to me.

Live reactions:

Live video of Brisbane River below from a webcam looking from Milton above Coronation Drive across the river to Riverside Drive at West End:

More live streaming here:

What is the reason for the flooding? The Wivenhoe Dam was only built to hold back 1.5 million litres of water from the catchment area, but now 2.5 million litres of water is coming through after extraordinarily heavy rainfall.

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Air Asia plane skids off runway

Anil Netto
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An Air Asia plane carrying 130 passengers and crew skidded off the runway as it landed at Kuching Airport in heavy rain last night.

Four passengers were believed to be unwell or suffered minor injuries.

The accident happened when Flight AK5218 from KL landed on runway 25 at 10.02pm. A passenger said the plane veered sharply to the left and right after it touched down and then skidded off the runway onto soft ground.

The question is, is drainage at the airport a problem – or was it something else?

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