3 subjects on penang

ok gonna make this a 3-in-1. 3 topics on penang. so the 3 will be short ones then.

1. bring back local council.
karpal singh urge the PM to restore to penang it’s traditional free port status.
penang was made a free port in 1872 but had it removed in 1967. earlier we heard of talks on penang losing its shine and all that. well, according to karpal singh, it is the abolishing of local council elections which led to penang sorry state of affairs.

2. haze in penang!
this one was kind of old news as the haze started few days ago. on saturday (25 june) it was quite bad. i happened to be out (walking short distance for lunch) on saturday and notice the haze was pretty bad. low visibility and the air was a bit smelly and it irritated my eyes! thank god, because of the rain yesterday, the haze cleared today. well the report here said that the air quality was unhealthy and might cause coughing and sneezing. oh gee… no wonder my cold and cough started again. (it stop for 5 days or so after i had it for more than a week!).

3. millions wasted in landscapping/beautification
the democratic action party (DAP) claimed that the municipal councils of penang island (MPPP) and seberang perai (NMPSP) have been awarding lucrative landscapping contracts to companies linked to barisan nasional and especially UMNO. DAP organising committee chairperson danny law said that the contractors failed to comply with proper procedures while the council failed to monitor and compel the contractors to comply with these rules because of political pressure.
of course the penang gomen denied this. read further what they had to say and read the examples given by danny law, e.g. the beautification project in gurdwara road.

i don’t really care about politics matters but i care that money indeed had been wasted on some beautification/landscapping project like the recent artificial hibiscus at the udini road roundabout. everybody complained they are so ugly looking! and then earlier… maybe beginning of the year… at the jelutong expressway, they put up some replicas of the er… i think seagulls flamingoes birds along the expressway. well, yes they are beautiful no doubt… but were they necessary? no! so this is what i call waste of public’s money.