penang boleh!

gosh, i almost forgot today is 11111, as if it is 11111 i have to blog, being kind of a historic day. on the first 11111, which is new year’s day, i did blog... but of course since being new year, gotta blog to wish everyone happy new year.

ok so today what am i going to blog about? ahh! what better topic then my own dear beloved hometown – penang! just saw this on the malaysian insider – ‘penang is proof that pakatan can delivers, says guan eng’.

yes, looks like of all the PR states (i’m excluding kelantan which is ruled by PAS before march 8 but meant states ruled by PR after march 8), penang seems to be facing the less problems. i mean compare that to perak – a quick fall no thanks to our PM and selangor, now and then you always hear of this trouble and that trouble and especially at this time with an umno appointed state speaker, selangor might suffered the same fate as perak. kedah… well, not much in the limelight i notice.

the only trouble penang faced is that the ‘DAP lead govt.’ (as the trouble makers like to call it when in fact it is the PR govt), is always being accused as anti malay or anti islam… by who else but umno. umno had all the time trying to create trouble for the penang govt.  then there is this ‘mamak’ problem (mamak = indian muslim). many penangites had been very fed up of penang mamak because most of the time it had been them who were the ones protesting and creating trouble. the latest protest (and yes, it is, as always, a after friday PRAYER  protest) a group of mamak protesting at komtar against the CM’s political secretary, ng wei aik.  then there was this trying to be a hero mamak, mohd ghani, the president of the komtar’s merchants association, who was always out to find fault with LGE. yes many of us penangites are now very fed up of mamak and many had contemplated boycotting nasi kandar stalls or any stalls run by these mamak.

coming back to what  the press conference of LGE as reported in  the malaysian insider, yes it is very good to hear that penang had hit a record RM88 million surplus in 2008 and RM77 million in 2009 through “the dividends of anti-corruption” measures.  the second good positive point was when the state’s administration had been praised by both transparency international and the auditor-general who had also rated penang as the best managed state. see? it was the transparency international and the auditor-general who said it, not LGE himself.

LGE said that with the budget surplus, they managed to initiate a number of programmes like the RM100 for senior citizen and RM100 water rebate for each family. the others are:

• RM11.3 million in allocations in 2010 for religious, Chinese and Tamil schools;
• Elimination of hardcore poverty by ensuring each household had an income of at least RM500 a month;
• Funeral allowance of RM1,000 for Penang residents.

i do not agree though on the elimination of hardcore poverty.  i’m a long time member of the society of the st vincent de paul (church based charitable organisation) which helps poor people, and i know there are still poor families who earns less than RM500 a month. i don’t think poverty can be eradicate at all. it can be decreased but not eradicate.  it is only the poor families who are registered with the govt that the govt are aware of. what about many others who are not registered? they are still living in poverty with income below RM500.

well on the whole, i as with many of my fellow penangites friends are very happy and satisfied with our present govt.  we were glad we managed to kick BN’s ass during march 8 and come next election, hope to kick their ass harder!!