Two years ago, after BN suffered an electoral defeat in several states; Malaysians started to believe that we are at the dawn of a new era where corruption, cronyism, and abuse of power will be things of the past. We had every reason to celebrate. We believed that under the leadership of Lim Guan Eng, despite of his inexperience in running a state government, Penang would be a better place for all to live in.

Today, Lim Guan Eng celebrates his success in bringing profitability to the state of Penang. With his vision, Penang is to become an international city. In order to turn his boldest dream into a dazzling reality, Lim Guan Eng seem to be on the path to fast-tracking all high-rise building projects in Penang. Over the last two years, the number of upcoming high-rise buildings under Lim Guan Eng’s administration increased at an alarming speed totaling about 55 units.

This compared to the total number of high-rise building projects built under the administrations of both former chief ministers Lim Chong Eu and Koh Tsu Koon, which was about 194 projects over a period of 40 years. Does this means that both Lim Chong Eu and Koh Tsu Koon were so incompetent and with only an average of five high-rise building projects approved per year?

On Aug 26, 2009, The Star reported: ‘Penang raises density for property development’. The news report caught the imagination of many critics who disapproved the decision. Yet almost all the critics didn’t realise a drastic change had already taken place quietly without their knowledge.

If a high-density development takes place within the corridor of mass transit, we can accept the merit of this high-density development in terms of maximised land use, economies of scale, environmental preservation and quality of life. In reality, Penang is notorious for its lack of a proper public transportation system. High-density development without a proper mass transit system in place will only leave us with massive inequalities and inefficiencies in human landscapes and threatening ecological disasters.

Without any transit supportive land use policy, Lim Guan Eng has embarked on a massive high- density development drive in total disregard to the tenets enshrined in Penang Structure Plan.

This is just the tip of an iceberg. Does Lim Guan Eng really know what he is doing? Why does he seem to be so obsessed with turning the whole of Penang Island into a big ghetto in such a short period of time?

Lim Guan Eng, as expected, put the blame on Koh Tsu Koon for the approval of some of the projects but refuses to acknowledge the number of high-density projects approved by himself. Even if some of the high-density projects were approved by Koh Tsu Koon, Lim Guan Eng still has the obligation to review and revise these projects especially when these projects are flouting the maximum permissible population density rules of the Penang Structure Plan.

The attempt to revive abandoned projects does not give him the rights to ignore rules and regulations. Instead, he should take the opportunity to rectify any wrong committed by the previous administration. Lim Guan Eng can not simply cite possible lawsuits by developers as a lame excuse for his inaction. Lim Guan Eng should realise that he is also a guilty party in approving some of the high-density development projects without any mass transit supportive land use policy.

Koh Tsu Koon is notorious for turning Kaoy Jetty into another Rifle Range slum. Penangites, on March 8, 2008, finally delivered their verdict by voting out the Gerakan state government. We expected that with Lim Guan Eng in charge, things would change for the better. But our nightmare seem to have no ending.

The Tanjong Bunga Residents’ Association’s (TBRA) concern over high-density development in their area is justified. Whether Tanjung Bungah is in the primary or secondary development corridor has no meaning for Lim Guan Eng. Lim Guan Eng just couldn’t be bothered with the Penang Structure Plan in his efforts to turn Penang into a concrete jungle. He would ensure that hill-cutting continue unabated in Penang. The protest by TBRA and members of civil society seem so far to have fallen on deaf ears.

We cannot allow massive hill-cutting to go on without taking consideration the impact on our environment. Using heavy excavating equipment to carry out massive cutting into a hill slope and removing the earth to make the hill slope less steep or even to the extent of flattening it is how vested interests are committing atrocities against nature.

This type of practice, which occurs at high-density project sites in Penang, have a serious environmental impact which might lead to ecological disasters.

Lim Guan Eng appears not to be keen on sustainability. Take the case of Penang Heritage Hotel site’s land title conversion for example. Under no special circumstance, he converted the land title from leasehold to freehold, citing profitability, ie, the 50% shareholding as the primary reason for the land title conversion.

His tendency for resorting to the release and conversion of public land, without going through market mechanism, to help fill the state’s coffers is most alarming. Can we continue to tolerate this our quest to topple the BN government?