A drone video originally put up on YouTube depicting the serious landslide scars on Penang Hill was removed by the user after it was highlighted in this blog yesterday. The above still image was captured before the video was yanked out.
Save Penang Hill 2.0 call goes out as 23,000 sign online petition in six days
The online petition to save Penang Hill can be found here. 23,000 signatures in six days is impressive by any standards. Expect more people to sign on.
Clearly the Save Penang Hill campaign of 1990 has been forgotten by those who have fantasies of turning Penang Hill into a mini-Genting Highlands complete with cable cars and throngs of visitors. With an express train already carrying more people up the hill, the sound of cash registers on Penang Hill going ka-ching! must seem like music to their ears – never mind the limited carrying capacity of the hill and the many landslides there over the years. And now, two proposed hotels could open the floodgates for even more ‘development’ pressure on the hill.
Does Penang need a new airport?
Our guest writer today is Roger Teoh, who is doing his PhD in transport studies in Imperial College in London:
Ignoring Penang NGOS, copying Hong Kong-style ‘development’?
The chief minister has said that if Hong Kong had taken the advice of Penang NGOs to stop all development following landslides, it would not be as developed as it was today. He said Hong Kong learned the lessons of a major landslide and soon came up with solutions.
Karpal (2002): Compensate property owners affected by Penang highway noise pollution
“Those whose property is not acquired but nevertheless are affected by the PORR [Penang Outer Ring Road] project with drop in prices of their property and the consequent noise and pollution which will be a result of the project should also be compensated,” said Karpal Singh in a press statement 16 years ago.
DAP calls for new EIA on Penang Hill project – in 1990!
It is fascinating what some people continue to dig up. This excellent statement below was issued by the then DAP secretary-general, MP for Tanjung and parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang on 28 September 1990.
Widen the scope of penalty for blocking and damaging public spaces
This is a statement released by Penang Forum:
Penang Forum welcomes and commends the Pakatan Harapan government for passing a bill to significantly raise the fine for firms that damage any street, five-foot ways, verandah or property belonging to local authorities or block pavements.
Requiem for CAT, as protesters slam unsustainable ‘development’ in Penang
Among the victims of the Bukit Kukus landslide tragedy on 19 October was a cat, which succumbed a couple of days after being pulled out of from mounds of fallen earth and rocks. This morning, a group of environmentally conscious Penangites gathered across the road from Penang State Assembly and used the dead cat as a metaphor to mourn the demise of competence, accountability and transparency (CAT) in the state.
There goes Penang Hill – two new hotels coming up
While the Bukit Kukus tragedy is still fresh on our minds, plans to build two new hotels on Penang Hill have finally been unveiled.