Penang Forum is concerned to hear about extensive ‘redevelopment’ plans for Pulau Jerejak, a prized natural asset and green lung for the state.
It was only in May that Penang state exco member Phee Boon Poh had reportedly assured the public that Pulau Jerejak would be gazetted as a permanent forest reserve.
Tropical Island Resort Sdn Bhd (TIRSB) has reportedly entered into a joint-venture agreement with Q Islands Development Sdn Bhd (QID)to redevelop the Jerejak Rainforest Resort & Spa and the 80 acres of land owned by TIRSB on the 895-acre island. Q Islands Development Sdn Bhd is reportedly a subsidiary of Ideal Property Group.
Ideal Property is currently involved in the RM2.2bn Queens Waterfront project (near Queensbay Mall facing Pulau Jerejak) on a 36.5-acre site (including 25 acres of land presently being reclaimed). Ideal Property also holds a 20 per cent stake in SRS Consortium, which has come up with a RM46bn transport infrastructure proposal for Penang.
TIRSB, a 51:49 joint-venture between UDA Holdings Bhd and PDC, had previously appointed a firm to manage the resort from 2004 until the resort closed in May 2016. Uda will eventually control 100 per cent of TIRSB.
Under the new joint venture agreement with QID, the operations of the resort will be handed over to QID, the subsidiary of Ideal Property. The state government must be accountable and explain how Ideal Property has come into this agreement to ‘redevelop’ Pulau Jerejak.
We take issue with the state Town and Country Planning Department (JPBD) for including several representatives from Ideal Property and Gamuda (both parties in SRS Consortium) in a 27 June planning workshop to review and streamline the draft Penang Island Local Plan. Why were they included? What about public participation in the review process?
The redevelopment masterplan, reportedly approved by the state government, includes luxury hotels, a bridge linking Pulau Jerejak to the main island, 1,200 homes, a marina, a theme park and an 11.5km round-island cycling track.
Given the pledge to gazette the island as a permanent forest reserve, we are shocked to hear about this extensive ‘redevelopment’ for the following reasons:
The public should have been consulted before the agreement for such a mega project was signed. When was this done?
Shouldn’t there be a detailed environmental impact assessment for an area of this magnitude (80 acres)? Where is it? Who carried out the study? Was it put on public display?
Is this development proposal in conformity with the gazetted Penang Structure Plan, which is the legal planning blueprint currently in force? If it is not, it may be challenged in court.
If PDC is exiting the deal, this would be another case of handing over a public asset, part of The Commons, to private interests to reap huge profits. Why are we surrendering such a natural treasure?
In any case, do we really need more luxury hotels and expensive homes in Penang at a time when the high-end property market is slowing and experiencing an oversupply?
Save Pulau Jerejak; preserve it as a green lung for Penang.
Penang Forum steering committee
9 November 2016
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Singapore keeps its Pulau Ubin undeveloped in its rustic kampung setting:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=II0OI94CE3o
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8JOJ5jfEqlM
If not jungle and rustic where their citizens under NS can get world class military training and jungle environment? Makaysia?
Pulau Ubin also got Orang Bunian. Mau jumpa mereka kah?
Fact: Pulau Ubin is one of the top places in SingLand to go for fishing as well as jumpa Cik Pon (Pontianak). There is a nocturnal legend of a small British girl who died in Pulau Ubin & often wanders near a lakeside. But Cik Pon is more terrifying than the small girl!
Malam, Malam. Jika kau rasa ada bau cukup wangi, lebih baik simpan joran & balik segera! Jangan nanti Cik Pon sampai!!!
Penang Gerakan demands transparency on Pulau Jerejak deal https://sg.news.yahoo.com/penang-gerakan-demands-transparency-pulau-jerejak-deal-053600737.html GEORGE TOWN, Nov 11 — Penang Gerakan Acting Youth Chief Jason Loo today claimed the state government has secretly sold its share in Tropicana Island Resort Sdn Bhd (TIRSB) held by the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) to UDA Holdings Bhd. Claiming that PDC could have obtained a better price for the land in Pulau Jerejak, Loo questioned why an open tender was not called for the 49 per cent stake in TIRSB. “If there was an open tender, which are the companies that had participated in this and how much did… Read more »
Gerakan have not done anything to benefit the average income Penangites during its reign.
So please do not try to be hero here.
GEORGE TOWN – Pengerusi Barisan Nasional (BN) Pulau Pinang, Teng Chang Yeow diberi tempoh sehingga hari Isnin ini bagi mengemukakan bukti bahawa Ketua Menteri menolak usahasama transaksi Pulau Jerejak yang berpotensi meraihkan keuntungan RM220 juta pada 2013. Ketua Menteri, Y.A.B. Tuan Lim Guan Eng ketika ditemui selepas merasmikan Program Pendidikan Kebudayaan dan Warisan (CHEP) di Lebuh Kimberly berkata, beliau sebelum ini telahpun meminta supaya Chang Yeow menunjukkan bukti bahawa Kerajaan Negeri Pakatan Harapan Pulau Pinang melalui Perbadanan Pembangunan Pulau Pinang (PDC) menolak transaksi melibatkan pembangunan kawasan seluas 80 ekar di Pulau Jerejak. “Saya minta Teng (Chang Yeow) tunjukkan bukti…tapi nampaknya… Read more »
Now I am very upset each time I see the Ideal Property name on the roundabout!
I will not vote for DAP in the next election.
I will get my friend o do likewise.
This could be Waterloo for Pakatan in Penang.
Suddenly Gerakan has become a lesser evil!
Very good with UDAng, gilakan will be forced to developed more if there is real power … Then Penang forum had to content with gilakan amno in power. Penang forum try to bark more? Penang lang no brainier. How many has stepped into pulau jerejak? It is better for them to develop the black dot island than to touch the main island. Let them do what they want and leave main island alone You want to go to pulau jerejak? What is there,? To be bitten by mosquitoes and get dengue or zika? Food and drinks will be expensive as… Read more »
Be careful, some don’t like their CAT Hero kena hantam for a reason!
One Hero is all they care to worship, also ‘it’ can do no wrong.
Hope their generations will sweat buying a house in Penang.
I suspect it could be redeveloped as ‘retirement village’ for the rich and those foreigners who make Penang their second home for retirement.
japs stupid to conquer se asia buy starting world war. china smart by being rich. conquer by buying land. even our kl airbase as being bought over by china.
what can you do if do not have $¥£€ to pay fot bus fare? still want to take bus? WALK! or depends on charity thumb a lift.
Now you realised Niao Kong’s penchants!
Better be objective than to worship blindly!
Think for your future generations.
Remember MAS will have direct flights for Penang-Shanghai and Penang-Shenzhen from next year.
Expect more PRC Chinese to come to Penang, to buy properties or to retire comfortably with their black money.
What happened to Wet World Wild (WWW) water theme park in Batu Ferringhi?
Has not the CAT gomen learnt a lesson?
Still meowing for another theme park?
Furthermore, can a small island such as Pulau Jerejak physically support such ‘playground’, logistically & still being environmentally sustainable from huge daily human footprints & their waste by-products?
This is truly Absolute Vodka Madness of Niao Kong on the verge of development suicide – all in the craze for Money & political portfolio.
Time to exorcise this Deity to where ‘it’ came from comes GE!
‘Wet World Wild’ free of charge at Jalan P Ramlee during rainy season!
Can have sampan ride as well!
Sampan that does not need license from gilakan gomen
they wait gor you but you always go to far lim or belum.
like rain water it can stop raining or heavy thunderstorm. if state gomen is james bond GOLDFINGER then no to to ask peanuts from gilakan bn gomen.even singland temasek lose money. SIA can lose money.the way you bark you are the 21 century GOLDFINGER.
Come clean on Pulau Jerejak development plans, BN tells Penang https://sg.news.yahoo.com/come-clean-pulau-jerejak-development-plans-bn-tells-071700671.html GEORGE TOWN, Nov 10 — The Penang state government should reveal its full development plans for Pulau Jerejak, Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Teng Chang Yeow said today. The Penang Gerakan chairman said the recent UDA Holdings Bhd’s announcement of plans to build residential units and a bridge to link the resort island were not the initial plans for the small island. “The previous Barisan Nasional state had identified the whole back bone of the island to be gazetted as a forest reserve and only allowed the fringes of… Read more »
Lim Guan Eng has asked Gerakan not to pretend that they do not know about the transaction for Pulau Jerjak. Lim said, “The sale of Pulau Jerjak 51% to UDA was approved by the previous Gerakan state government. Penang through PDC only has 49% shares. We want to save the situation. How do we solve the problem? UDA is Federal Government. PDC doesn’t have majority control. The Federal Government wants to develop and make us an offer of more than what we can get. Once the whole thing is done, we can gazette the area as forest reserve.” Members of… Read more »
whst kind of watch and guard dog.can only wstch water or tei shui in chinese.
Check with your buddies about Pulau Jerejak, Guan Eng tells BN https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/362409 So, this Niao Kong is trying to say this Pulau Jerejak development is initially BN’s & is beyond control? That ‘it’ has to go along with it, more so to reward the contract to ‘it’s’ favourite developer? And what is PDC’s role as a state gomen arm doing, to go along as per opportunistic penchant of CAT? What a load of s… to preach Greener & Cleaner Penang when ‘it’ is an opportunist to ‘piggy-ride’ on BN unpalatable development plan for Pulau Jerejak. Ini lu cakap UBAH? Nyiamak..… Read more »
From Botak hills, reclaimed coastal seas & now a small island not spared.
The extent of thirst for uncontrolled & unsustainable development is beyond belief.
This Niao Kong will someday pay for all these unpalatable development which brought about environmental disasters & loss of earnings to coastal fishermen. Not to mention the loss of species of Nature which ‘it’ as an animal itself couldn’t see the value for long term sustainability of people, nature & land.
Karma is waiting to strike this CAT.
no worries as long belum is not sudah still a place for refuge. not happy? go there often and drown your sorrow. stay put there
Why many kampong folks leave their close to natural jungle for concrete jungle. Why those in concrete jungle bark and snap when they can trade places with kampong folks. Country folk are deserting countryside at an alarming rate. Please go and reverse the trend otherwise homo sapiens will become extinct in countryside. Less countryside people more animals will flourish.
Poor Penangites witnessing playgrounds for the rich sprouting out in every corner of the island. Simply depressing if you do not have the money to join the elites?
also why the loudest blamer dont blame owners selling heritage to singland and hongland? only blame buyers? just because tokong buy bung alow so now blame buy ers?
poor and free things from gomen? go back to days of old mao and meow. they tried the great leap and fail until deng comes. now china in short time sent spacemen and start to build space station.
in china old people gets concessions when for you as foreigners. are you at retired age? here you can always go to pg hill as you get concession if you are a retiree but not when you are taking ferries or to visit pulau jerejak. anyway are public ferries to pulau jerejak?
If you are a Penangite, you should have realised earlier.
This Niao Kong is not what ‘it’ claimed ‘it’ is.
Penang BN wants Guan Eng to come clean on Pulau Jerejak development
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/penang-bn-wants-guan-eng-043538188.html
Nobody seems to know CAT’s next move, only to ask after the fact of publicity announcement.
So, who can object in the face of compensation threats?
Is this the type of gomen we want?
why dont ask buy ers the developers? what is their plans dizzyland or treetop house no need to go to belum
It has already premeditated long before hand by Ideal group in that Pulau Jerejak project.
It’s not wrong to say Penang’s DAP govt is highly pro-developers than its people’s welfare !
DAP will lose votes over this issue in the coming GE.
The average income folks in Penang are not amused that Penang is now being developed for the rich to enjoy at the expense of environment and the poor folks.
tun lang very happy to have umno back. cheers like donald duck trumpping.
Bring back Gerakan so that we can have no development for at least 5 years.
It all depends on what you mean by “development”.
then what development you have in mind? silence means no ideas. education? opposition cannot officiate in sek kebangsahan. many are control by the commonwealth gomen.
Hassan, not the time for knee-jerk reaction.
Is this the type of CAT development that we want?
Quietly contemplate this issue in the absence of ‘noise’ of some Knee-Jerks.
If not for yourself, at least for your next generation.
Why you do not trust BN to turnaround the fortune of Penang with less development?
Development for the people or for the rich?
Ask yourself.
There will be more development. The real power is no gilakan … Anil admitted gilakan give land and sold land chrip chrip when they are in power. Look at how British sold raffles place for rm1 and gilakan sold it off. better to have gilakan in power and see if pg forum barks.pg forum more worried and dr lim may be replaced.
Welfare @ Pinhorn Road more than Penangites’ housing needs!
if there are buyers then penang should be proud. look china fsctory production is down and there sre few buyers. the factories cannot incessantly keep producing if there is no demand. lucky malaysians are rich except penang lang.no woner dap state gomen s doing somwthing. please ask some shiek to donate like top official
The next manifesto by any political party for the coming state election must clearly define the new vision for Penang as MNCs are closing their factories in Penang (eg. Seagate will be history in Penang after 22 June 2017) as to what kind of new jobs and industries that could sustain jobs and prevent outflow of young Penangites to KL or Singapore for jobs.
To start with since 308, Niao Kong has no vision other than a sea tunnel vision!
People have choice. Don’t like one can go to belum and live in tree tops rather than to press hard against glass window. Mega cities? Penang just become a city and for mega city wait for a thousand years
LGE, Bapa Pembangunan Pulau Pinang. The enemy most scared by trees
A ride in hell? An up-close look at real life in megacities http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/11/arts/michael-wolf-photography/index.html “It’s horrific” says photographer Michael Wolf, describing scenes from his “Tokyo Compression” photo series. The images — nameless faces pressed up against windows, their expressions frozen in visible discomfort, the glass around them wet with condensation — are snapshots of everyday commuter life for many of Tokyo’s residents. Michael Wolf: “There are cities around the world that are planned more sensibly. There is rent control, there is city planning, there are height limits to buildings. The issue is that in some cosmopolitan cities, there is more interest… Read more »
lets have another watch like hill watch. then we can have more to see.
news break. fmt reported in uk tram become turtle. Many killed and 50 injured. worst than bus accident.
Soon might not be a “Pulau” anymore with the amount of reclaiming from QBM
malaya will also become an island if china decided to help thais to build a canal in kra.
You observation is not further from what will most likely happen to Pg Island for the Rich & Famous.
WHERE IS THE MIA PENANG ISLAND LOCAL PLAN??? Playing Hide & Seek with such an important state plan + guide for controlled + responsible + sustainable development is highly repugnant of a state gomen loud-speaking its holier-than-thee CAT Mantras on others at every opportunity. Unless DAP ala Developers’ Associated Politicians is hiding unpalatable slippery development intentions from concerned Penangites until the first hour of publicity becomes irreversible. ‘Accountable’ – my foot! Note: The majority of public has not seen the extent of dire damages to Ground Zero Botak Hill due to irresponsible entities & sandiwaras of state gomen to play… Read more »
Penang Forum can be a true champion of the people if they can get developers to build walkways along the perimeter of the Jerejak exclusive to commoners.
Pulau Jerejak, if developed, should cater for the leisure escapade for commoners, and not become the exclusive area for the rich. OK for a theme park so long as its admission tickets are affordable for Penang commoners.
You got a point. Unfortunately the developers are eyeing the rich for such project. The poor can look at Jerejak, from Queensbay Mall, with envy in the future as the place would be too expensive for them to set foot there.
Jerejak should not be made a paradise for the rich people.
You think Niao Kong will listen?
From PTMP to hill side rezoning to land swapping + sea reclamation, nothing’s changed in Komtar’s plan for frenzied development.
‘It’ got 9-lives top play the fool with Penang, we don’t have that luxury!
you want to go there for what? you can drive or kapchai to there. or show you are a channel swimmer. no rapid boat like rapid bus. pg ferries sure close shop early just to ferry few people. if everyone goes there. pf and tun lang will write pulau will over populated.more homo sampiens than monkees.
Why save Pulau Jerajak ? With Ideal Property’s world class experience in resort development with many such projects in the past that we can look and see first hand their experience, surely Penangites are in good hands. Add on to that their world class expertise in transportation having built transport systems all around the world, which no doubt qualified them to be part of the SRS transport system which won the Penang Transport Masterplan scheme, no need to worry.