LETTERS: The Penang Peduli Rakyat forum was recently organized by Penang Forum to provide a platform for citizens to articulate their concerns. It was not the usual Penang Forum meeting because of the 20 speakers, only 5 were members of Penang Forum.
The topics included water management in Penang; plastic waste in Sungei Petani; sand mining in Perak; acquaculture and destruction of mangrove in Ayer Tawar; overcrowding of hostels for foreign workers; stop human traffiking; Tolak Tambak PSR (Penang South Reclamation); assessment hike; affordable housing; save Mount Erskine Road; Cukai Pintu; climate change; tackling food waste; Pan Island Link; Public Transport; PTMP (Penang Transport Master Plan) Debt; flood vulnerability; Tolak Tambak Butterworth Waterfront; current agricultural issue; hillslope risks, marine mammals and deforestation.
10 DAP state representatives accused Penang Forum of a “publicity stunt to trap and tarnish the PH state government because the invitations were sent out last minute.”
Penang Forum held a press conference on Wednesday Feb 12 to notify members of public about the event.
On top of that, I personally wrote to 40 state representatives and about 10 MPs in Penang to invite them to attend. The email invitation was sent out on Feb 11, 4 days before the forum. If they could not attend, they at least could have sent representatives.
Alas, only three replied and all said they could not attend. The 10 state representatives accused me of being political because I had spoken twice in Gerakan events – one on the PTMP and more recently on local democracy.
Have they forgotten they were proud to be associated with civil society and even jumped on our bandwagon to oppose the previous government on issues ranging from development in Penang Hill, to the construction of the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR), to the mammoth Penang Global Convention City (PGCC) and the destruction of heritage buildings?
Today, Chow Kon Yeow is chief minister and pushing for the Pan Island Link, an extension and expansion of PORR.
Finally, the 10 state representatives claim this state government has done more engagements with the public than any previous governments. A 2017 study on public participation and citizens engagement in Malaysia by MIT researchers found that the type of engagement is more pseudo-participation than genuine participation.
The hundreds of public engagements on the PTMP by the state are nothing more than top-down public briefings on projects that they have already decided on. The questions that we and other scholars raised regarding the inconsistencies and factual errors in the PTMP have not been addressed adequately.
As an example, back in 2015, we questioned the validity of SRS’ claim that the LRT would have 42 million ridership in its initial years of operations. We estimated that 8 million ridership may be more realistic, with the forecasted annual operating and maintenance expenditure of RM170 million, with the state annual deficit at RM140 million.
Instead of engaging with us, the state government persisted to push for the LRT. Five years later, in 2019, they suddenly appeared to accept our estimates, and reduced the initial ridership forecast to 7 million. However, they also scaled down its annual operating expenses from RM170 million to RM32 million.
I questioned this in a meeting with the chief minister and the SRS – that it is not possible to cut the operating expenditure to that level unless the operator plans to reduce the frequency and number of trips, to which the answer was no.
Until the state government shows it is willing to genuinely engage with the public, civil society will continue to play its role to press for more transparency, accountability and public participation.
LIM MAH HUI
Penang Forum Committee Member
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times