anilnetto.com

George Town: Heritage conservation for whom?

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9 Jan 2009

Himanshu Bhatt, writing in theSun, worries that George Town’s traditional residents are being forced out by boutique hotels, pubs and restaurants. Whatever happened to the Heritage Master Plan, which stresses the importance of preserving the living culture and traditional trades of the historical city, he wonders.

All brick and no soul

by Himanshu Bhatt

IN NOVEMBER 1999, I was covering the general elections as a reporter for theSun, when I watched Lim Kit Siang campaign vigorously on a small lorry parked in the compound of the 19th century Khoo Kongsi – the grandest Chinese clan enclave in the country.

Surveying the audience before him, the DAP secretary-general exhorted the enclave’s residents on the ills of the impending Rent Control Act repeal, which was threatening to displace them from their inner-city homes in George Town.

If Lim were to visit the Khoo Kongsi today, he would find that none of the residents he had preached to that night are still around. They were all told to leave once the repeal was made effective.

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Govt lifts ban on Herald’s Malay supplement, but…

Anil Netto

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8 Jan 2009

13

The government has reversed its short-lived ban on the Herald’s Malay language supplement – but the weekly Catholic tabloid will still not be able to use the term “Allah” pending a court decision on the matter.

The decision was verbally conveyed by the Home Ministry to the Catholic Church today and a letter is expected to reach the Church tomorrow.

But three other conditions are likely to remain:

a ban on the use of three other terms that are also used in Islam;
a ban on the sale of the paper outside church premises (which is unnecessary as the paper is only sold or distributed in churches across the country); and
a requirement that the front page should indicate that the paper is for non-Muslims only (which is again redundant as the paper is sold only in churches, and the masthead already indicates that it is a Catholic weekly.

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A RM38 billion bridge from Malacca to Sumatra?

Anil Netto

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8 Jan 2009

40

It’s the silly season again.

The takeover of IJN (thankfully aborted).

The proposed Sime Darby-Air Asia airport in Negri Sembilan.

Not to be left out, the Malacca government has suggested a fanciful RM38 billion 52km bridge from Malacca to Sumatra.

The bridge proposal is of course a resurrection of the old Mahathir administration’s ‘brainwave’ of a Malaysia-Sumatra bridge, which was fortunately scrapped with the onset of the East Asian financial crisis in 1997.

If I remember correctly, the estimated cost mentioned back then was RM60 billion?

These guys don’t know the meaning of sustainable transport and global warming, much less ‘opportunity cost’. At least Najib is smart enough to say the ferry service is sufficient. He says a feasibility study is needed first to evaluate this “bright” idea.

Says blog reader Ganesh:

Look at this brilliant idea. Only BN can think of it. The people here are suffering … and we want to spend RM38 billion on a bridge? With RM38 billion, we can lift every poor person in Malaysia to middle-class level.

This report from the NST:

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Aborted IJN takeover a victory for People Power

Anil Netto

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7 Jan 2009

13

Sime Darby’s decision to call off its takeover of the government-owned National Heart Institute (IJN) is a stunning victory for People Power.

The rakyat have spoken. Ordinary people, through their vocal opposition to the proposal, have defeated a plan put forward by the largest oil palm plantation firm in the world, which is also one of Malaysia’s most powerful conglomerates.

In a poll on this blog of over 800 respondents, 96 per cent of you were against the takeover, reflecting widespread public opposition to the move.

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Petrol price down; electricity tariffs still the same

Anil Netto

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7 Jan 2009

23

The crude oil price is now close to US$50 per barrel. The price of natural gas has plunged since July 2008. Coal, which at one time was US$192/tonne, is now hovering around US$80/tonne.

Earlier when the prices were soaring, Tenaga Nasional hiked its electricity tariffs on 1 July 2008.

The electricity tariff hike was to cover the gas price increase and to partially offset the rise in coal prices, which had also gone up 170% since 2007, said the TNB chief back then.

Now that fuel prices have fallen, blog reader Desmond is wondering why TNB hasn’t reduced its rates.

When the fuel price went up, Tenaga said their cost had gone up and it hiked the electricity tariff.

Now petrol and gas prices have dropped and even fuel oil and transport costs, shipping charges for coal delivery, and the price of coal itself has gone down in the world markets but why is the Tenaga electricity tariff still so high when it should have gone down as well?

Something is not right here.

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High-rise hotels in world heritage zone to proceed

Anil Netto

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7 Jan 2009

15

Sigh…. good luck to George Town and its heritage conservation. Looks as if the state government has already made up its mind to give the green light to the four projects. Why am I not surprised.

The state government says these hotels are needed to stave off the recession. But it forgets that tourism is a major revenue earner for Penang, and visitors don’t come to George Town to check out its boutique hotels. Rather, they are drawn to the historical character of the place. Once that is gone, George Town becomes just like any other city in this region.

This excerpt from a Business Times report:

Penang hotel projects on, Unesco guidelines awaited
By Marina Emmanuel
marinae@nstp.com.my

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday said the state authorities and affected developers are awaiting guidelines from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) on whether any changes should be made to the project plans.

“The developers fully understand that legally, the projects can still proceed, although Unesco needs to state if any modifications are needed. Penang needs these projects (investments) to offset the oncoming economic recession,” he told a press conference at his office in George Town.

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Rocket fire into Israel: Lull until 4 Nov 2008

Anil Netto

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7 Jan 2009

24

rocket-hits Much has been said about the home-made Qassam rockets fired into Israel in the same way that the United States cited WMD before its illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This is a chart that was drawn up by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center. It was removed from the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the eve of the ground invasion and replaced with an almost illegible graph in which the labels obscure the data, according to Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker in the Electronic Intifada.

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Massacre! Israeli forces shell UN school in refugee camp

Anil Netto

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7 Jan 2009

31

gaza
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. Now they are shelling UN schools.

Israeli forces have shelled another UN school in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp. Three artillery shells landed in the perimeter of the school, killing some 30 displaced people who were sheltering there and injuring 55.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, has been using UN schools to shelter some of the 15,000 Gazans who had fled their home following the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

The massacre is reminiscent of the Israeli shelling in 1996 of a UN compound in Qana, southern Lebanon, which killed 106 civilians.

John Ging, the UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, stressed that all UN schools in Gaza are clearly marked, flying the UN flag, and that the organisation has provided the GPS coordinates of all of its installations in the area to Israel. “Those who were in the school were all families seeking refuge,” the UN News Centre quoted him as saying.

Over 640 people have been killed so far in Gaza.

This report from the Ma’an News Agency website, one of the most browsed in Palestine:

Date: 06 / 01 / 2009 Time: 17:04

Updated 18:07

Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli forces killed at least 42 Palestinians at a UN school that was sheltering displaced people in Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip late on Tuesday afternoon, medical officials confirmed to Ma’an.

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K Terengganu by-election: The old numbers game

Anil Netto

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6 Jan 2009

20

Yesterday I heard on the radio news (one of the Astro channels, I think) that the BN had 30,000 supporters accompanying their candidate on nomination day. The Pas candidate could just muster 15,000 supporters, the newscaster said.

But Raja Petra, who is predicting a Pas win by a majority of 5,000 votes, warns us:

Whatever the mainstream newspapers reported today, don’t you believe it! PAS saw a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000 supporters. And the crowd was wall-to-wall — from the Stadium Negeri, where the nomination papers were filed, right up to the old penyu round-a-bout, where the penyu no longer lives. Most importantly, the crowd was mostly local folks and their dressing, sarong just below the knee, and Terengganu slang was so distinct there was no doubt about them being locals. I mean, only locals would shout “Hancur, hancur…….hancur bee eng” and “Menang, menang……menang Pakatang.”

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Funeral tents attacked; emergency calls refused in Gaza

Anil Netto

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6 Jan 2009

3

Funeral tents have been attacked in Gaza, hospital premises shelled, a high-rise building housing international media fired at by an Apache helicopter, medical teams prevented from responding to 80 per cent of emergency calls… and of course, the rising death toll of civilians, including women and children.

And all the while, the Palestinians are being steadily dispossessed from their rapidly shrinking homeland.

Will this madness never stop?

Sharon, a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, reports from Gaza:

There have been two separate reports about Israeli attacks on funeral tents. We are trying to confirm deaths and injuries for one. The second of the funerals attacked was medic Arafa’s yesterday afternoon; 5 people were injured.

We have also had reports that in the Zaytoun area two days ago, Israeli soliders rounded up a group of people into two houses; women and children into one, men into the other, where they were kept for two days. Then this morning at 11am Israeli forces shelled the houses. We have heard the number of deaths as between 7 and 20. One was a seven year old boy whose father was interviewed on TV while holding his body. We are trying to find out further details. It is getting very hard to keep up with this insanity.

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