these 2 projects are shelved! not totally canceled!  or as DPM najib put it, ‘deferred’.

malaysiakini reported that the economic planning unit of the PM’s dept. announced these 2 projects had been shelved… and what reasons do you think they gave? these projects are not ‘people centred’.

it seems that many bloggers had taken it to mean that the federal government is canceling these 2 projects… and while some were not happy, there were some who are happy.

not happy - why? they felt it was the government way of punishing penangites for voting in DAP!
happy - why? good they said as they don’t need these 2 mega projects anyway. notably read anil netto’s take on this.

me? i’m glad that PORR had been canceled…. er… deferred. right in the beginning, together with some NGOs, i had been against PORR. thus i wish that it was canceled and not deferred.

OTOH, the monorail project should go on! thank god it had been deferred only and not canceled. er… but when will it ever made a comeback? will it ever?

as you know, much had been said of penang’s transport system, therefore to me, i believe the monorail would help lighten the traffic situation. of course the best is to improve on existing transportation but we still need the monorail.

in the meantime, malaysiakini reported that the penang government was not happy over the scrapping of the projects.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng did not mince his words after learning about the double-blow, describing it as "a fallible, irrational and irresponsible decision based on political vendetta and malice".

He accused the federal government of forsaking public interests, rights and economic benefits to replete its desire to punish Penang voters for the March 8 political tsunami.

If the federal government was sincere and honest in scrapping the projects under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, he said it could have discussed the matter first with the state administration.

"It did not," he charged and felt that he was right to hit out at the federal government’s hypocrisy by pulling out promised projects for Penangites.

Lim’s fury was comprehensible when the ruling Barisan Nasional had promised during election campaigns to deliver these two projects to the people of Penang, but is now complaining of financial constraints.

Acknowledging that the projects were vital for Penang’s future growth, Lim said the state government will now work on other alternatives to improve the state traffic management system and ease city congestion.

penang umno and civil societies seemed to be happy though! well, of course penang umno was happy. remember right in the beginning, after the election, the umno head, azhar ibrahim had ‘merajuk’ and called on the federal government to scrap all mega projects. i believe if i’m not wrong, he himself had said something about since penangites didn’t want BN, they shouldn’t have these mega projects funded by BN. and now he was singing a different tune, saying this move to scrap… er… deferred the projects was not politically motivated.

yes i know, at that time when he called for all mega projects to be scrapped, i was very happy as to me (and many others) all these mega projects will only benefit the top BN people, ministers and cronies. we don’t need those mega projects - even the 2nd bridge - to me i’m not in favour of the 2nd bridge. however, i do feel that monorail might help to ease the traffic situation.

well, let’s see what interesting development will happen regarding mega projects in penang in time to come.