How can DAP help revitalise Penang, and make the Pearl of the Orient shine, once again?
THEME: "Lets Revitalise Penang Economy"
"Revitalise Penang" Dialogue Series (I)
Speakers:
- Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General
- YB Chow Kon Yeow, MP for Tanjong
- Tony Pua, Economic Advisor to DAP Sec-Gen
Date: 6.7.2007 (Friday)Contact：04-2288482 / 2277068
Time: 8.00 p.m. (Please be punctual)
Venue: Chew Si Kee San Tong Hall
(33, Lebuh Kimberley, Georgetown )
民主行动党甘榜哥南支部主办
"风云再起 "系列讲座（1 ）
主题：" 如何抢救槟州经济？"
槟州经济放缓乃是不争的事实。
我们的经济发展应朝向哪里去？
民主行动党又能为您带来什么？
主讲人：
- 林冠英 （民主行动党秘书长 ）
- 潘俭伟 （民主行动党秘书长经济顾问 ；英国牛津大学 哲学、政治与经济 系毕业 ）
- 曹观友 （丹绒区国会议员 ；民主行动党槟州主席 ）
日期： 2007年7 月6日（星期五）联络：04-2288482 / 2277068
时间：晚上 8时（请准时出席）
地点：槟城汕头街周氏岐山堂冷气礼堂
19 comments:
Give DAP a chance, think BN screwed up big time on this.
Since Koh Soon Koon did a lousy job for Penang (even the public transport system sucks!!), let us give DAP a chance to make Panang a place better than Singapore! Let Lim Guan Eng or Tony Pua be the chief minister of Penang. The corruption, arrogance and inefficiency of the BN government must be thrown away with the power of Penangites! Say no to BN, give DAP a chance to rule!
Koh Tsu Koon should go (1)
Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon has turned out to be truly disappointing. As Chief Minister of Penang his performance has been abysmal, and lacks the common touch, fearlessness and initiative of his predecessor, Dr Lim Chong Eu. Is it fair to compare him to Dr Lim?
Now, Dr Lim himself was not perfect as a Chief Minister, which was quite natural because no one expects a politician, especially a Chief Minister, to be ever perfect. But certainly Penangites expect their Chief Minister to be, in the general case, his own man, and to love Penang and serve as best as he could its people. Dr Lim was that, but Koh … alas …
Today Koh is a particularly unpopular bloke for a variety of reasons, but let’s take 3 of the most damning (to him). In this posting I will blog on one, with the other two to follow in subsequent postings.
Koh TK has failed the school children, their parents, and teachers of SRJK Sin Chung in Permatang Sintok, Butterworth. He has allowed the situation to deteriorate to such an extent that those poor children had to suffer the trauma and indignity of being evicted from school. Then they experienced part of their school being demolished, until a court order stopped the developer Motif Era Sdn Bhd from completely knocking down the entire institute of learning.
SOS (Save Ourselves), a Penang-based NGO, has condemned Koh for evading his responsibility in preventing such an experience and outcome for the students. Koh has had 3 years to bring about a happy set of circumstances that could have avoided the traumatic drama that occurred in the last few days. He could have either transferred the land title to the school or have a replacement school built in time for the students and staff to switch buildings before the developer came bulldozing in. He did neither.
All Koh KT did was his favourite trick, wringing his hands in hypocritical sympathy while trying to act tough against the developer. I have more to say about Koh’s sandiwara (theatrics) in the subsequent postings.
The Prime Minister has now stepped in to urge the school board to build a new school quickly, but that won’t disguise the fact that Koh has abysmally failed the school’s students, staff and parents.
For a start the school board doesn’t have that kind of money that can call upon a construction genie to have a replacement building up in a jiffy. Koh as Chief Minister, and supposedly as one of the Gerakan Party’s articulate Chinese scholars, had 3 years with nothing to show for those poor students, who have found themselves in such a predicament.
The Gerakan Party should look at themselves real good for selecting this man to be its deputy resident.
KTemoc
Koh Tsu Koon should go (2)
Unlike Dr Lim Chong Eu, Koh Tsu Koon has shown that he is not really his ‘own man’. The sorry tale of the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) project immediately leaps up to remind us of Koh’s leadership deficiency.
While PORR may be a federal project, the Chief Minister of a State in which PORR will be constructed has at least the right to, and indeed is expected to assess, comment on and even object to any adverse impact on Penangites. But we hear deafening silence from Koh in this regard. Yes, we were treated to his sandiwara-ish (theatrical) sparring with Works Minister Samy Vellu as to when the PORR project would commence.
Penangites, who have been fairly tolerant of Koh, are now actually pissed off with him for not daring to say anything about the dodgy contract for PORR's construction. In fact they don’t even want PORR, not especially when a so-called ‘RM2’ company gets to develop a RM2,000,000,000 project, and then, only with the help of a soft government loan.
A concerned Penang group of citizens raised perceptions of dodgy issues about the contract and contractor with the Prime Minister. While I know they have some good questions, after having read their letter, I feel they might have diluted its impact somewhat by over-doing the complaining and over-exaggerating minor points, making their case sounds a wee negative. Thus I have extracted only those points that I feel merit serious considerations, and edit them for better reading – if you are interested in their letter to the Prime Minister, please read here:
Their complaints have been that of:
(1) awarding the contract to a company without open tender.
(2) the company awarded the RM2,000,000,000 project having no track record in construction.
(3) the company with only a paid up capital of RM50,000 raising more question on its suitability for such a major project.
(4) some directors of company were ex-bankrupt.
(5) the company being provided free, 6 pieces of public recreation and reclaimed lands, with an additional 50 acres of reserved lands. These are on top of the company being awarded the collection of toll for 30 years or more.
(6) no current up-to-date EIA [environmental impact assessment] justifying the Penang government’s hasty decision to demolish government quarters in Taman Jesselton to be surrendered to the developer.
Note the last point. If true, it shows just how keen the Koh’s government has been in supporting a questionable award. As for Point No 5, how and where in the world would a contractor benefit from such a State government largesse?
Koon Yew Yin, former secretary- general of Master Builders Association Malaysia and member of the Board of Engineers, was shocked to hear Works Minister Samy Vellu announcing the Cabinet decision to award the RM2 billion contract directly to Peninsular Metro Works Sdn Bhd. Well, he was not only shocked but disgusted as well, saying that such a multi-billion ringgit contract without inviting open tender would foster corruption. Indeed his words were that the amount of money involved would even tempt a saint.
But Chief Minister Koh knows that PORR is UMNO’s baby so he remains silent on the probable impact of such a dodgy contract on his charge, namely the ordinary people of Penang, because he doesn't want to upset Ah Hniah ('Big Brother’ in Bukit Mertajam dialect). Many Penangites have said Koh is where he is only by the good grace of Ah Hniah.
But at the same time he also knows that Penangites are against PORR, so what has he done? On 10 December 2005 I posted in BolehTalk blog Koh TK okays PORR commencement where I highlighted Koh’s usual hand-wringing theatrics, but actually meant to prepare Penangites to favourably expect PORR, soon. I wrote:
"Penang Chief Minister Koh TK bemoans his frustration with the impossible traffic problems of Penang. He cries out for help from the federal government, averring that he wants to be answerable to the Penang public for improving the situation."
That's the hand-wringing part with a touch of his projected heroic duty to Penangites. Now of course the PORR will be presented as 'THE' solution to those traffic woes!
I continued with what I perceived through his theatrics, "He groans and moans, but in reality he’s priming the Penang public up to accept the PORR as one of the 'solutions' towards meeting this traffic woes that he has suddenly, out of the blue, started to cry about."
I wasn't very far off because shortly after that, Humpty Humpty announced that PORR will kick off. But since the majority of Penangites had voted for him and his party, well, then those Penangites Deserve PORR. I feel sorry for those who didn't (ie. vote for him).
Engineer Koon Yew Yin reminded Penangites not to forget that they would be the ones paying toll to cover all the construction costs, interest charges as well as the contractor’s profit.
He stated that if PORR has to be built to solve Penang's traffic problem then it should have been provided free to the people, because it behoves the chief minister and his government to provide a good and free city road system as an essential need, much like education, health care and clean air.
When he considered that Penang afterall is similar to Singapore in so many ways, he wondered why Penangites couldn't enjoy the good planning that the Singaporean government gives to its people. In this deficiency, we must certainly look at Koh Tsu Koon and his government, not so much for the disgraceful PORR contract alone, but in all matters afflicting Penang and Penangites since he assumed the leadership mantle from Dr Lim Chong Eu.
KTemoc
We heard tis before culminating to the 13/5, Penang to follow the route of singapore through dap stewardship. Haa little singapore, little china. Well done kedah
Dear KTemoc,
Comments are for comments. Yours is fit to be an article. I'd appreciate if you had written it in a proper site, put up credible sources and post the link here.
Great...i will be there for the forum.
forum is to be held in macau, bye
If you take the episode where the Sultan of Kedah had to walk to the Malaysia Cup Final due to traffic problems, one could say that the state of affairs in Penang is abysmal for something like that to happen.
People who continue to consider chinese and indian Malaysians as immigrants should go back to school and read Malaysia's Constitution. Otherwise, you are not even qualified to be called a Malaysian. Please read before you post any comments that reflects stupidity, which in a way, represent groups/ethnicity you're associated with.
By the way, people who are lack of knowledge about the "Asal usul" please do your research before claiming others as immigrants.
Can DAP win in Penang in next GE?
How and who is going to be Penang CM? What happen if DAP can't win the majority seat, will Umno take the CM post because MCA and Gerakan will lose most of their seat to DAP. Then will DAP, Gerakan and MCA team up to challenge UMNO to ensure chinese still hold the CM post? If this question DAP can make clear to Penangite I believe DAP have a good chance to win in Penang!
Best of luck DAP, YOU'RE NEVER WALK ALONE!
this should be more reflective of the people's will. As it stands mca and gerakan are planted by umno. Fight on dap
Just a quick note to clarify to readers that the 2 posts on articles by KTemoc isn't "posted" here by the man himself.
I'll leave them here, despite their length for they are relevant to the topic.
However, in future, readers are advised to post relevant links to long articles, or just excerpts instead of the entire essay.
Thanks! ;)
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