COMMENT | The people of Penang must make clear to the Penang state government that 'enough is enough', that they do not want Penang to become the Venice of the East and do not want any more talk but real action from the government.
Yesterday was another watery disaster for Georgetown, where after over an hour of downpour from 4.30pm, Penang was again transformed into the Venice of the East.
Most parts of Geoergetown were congested with traffic with flash floods affecting the vicinity of Pengkalan Weld, Komtar, City Stadium, Jalan York, Jalan Masjid Negeri, Penang Hospital, Jalan Burmah, Jalan Perak etc and other major parts of the city.
There were massive traffic jams paralysing Georgetown as it happened after office and school hours.
The 250 residents at the 60-odd double-storey terrace houses in Lorong Air Terjun were stranded when their homes were submerged in more than 1.2 m of flood water. This was not the first time the area was flooded, though the waist-deep water level was by far the worst.
The residents at Lorong Air Terjun as well as the people of Penang as a whole must be quite tired of empty assurances about immediate flood mitigation plans and I call on the Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr Tan Tsu Koon, to personally head a task force on immediate flash-flood mitigation in Georgetown to send out a clear message that the state government has no intention to allow the Penang island to stumble into becoming the Venice of the East.
Does the above sound familiar?
It was a statement issued by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang on Aug 7, 1998.
Fast forward to the floods that hit Penang on Nov 4 and 5, which claimed seven lives, most of them senior citizens.
Will Kit Siang issue the same kind of statement to force his son and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to put an end to the floods in Penang caused by rampant over-development?
To quote Kit Siang from the past: “The people of Penang as a whole must be quite tired of empty assurances about immediate flood mitigation plans.”
So what is being done to ensure the people of Penang now that they would not have to suffer more due to the DAP state government's pro-development stand?
Will Kit Siang and his son walk the talk?
Fast forward to after the 2008 general election - DAP Tanjung MP Ng Wei Aik assures: “DAP will solve the flood problem in nine months.”
Fast forward to after the 2013 general election: Guan Eng promises that if the opposition wins Putrajaya and Pahang, the flood woes in Pahang would be resolved in one term.
Now, let us take a look at the state of his own after DAP and Guan Eng assumed power:
Oct 2013 – Flood in Balik Pulau
Aug 2015 – Flood in Batu Maung, Balik Pulau
July 2016 – Flood at several places in Penang
Sept 2016 – Flood havoc in Georgetown
Oct 2016 – Flood in Air Itam, Bkt Bendera (It has not flooded here in 24 years)
Sept 2017 – Flood in Penang and a minor landslide occurs in Tanjung Bungah
Coming to the end of the second term, and after nine years in office: “Ubah” has happened for the worse.
Oct 2017 – Major landslide at Tanjung Bungah, 11 people perish.
Nov 2017 – Major floods ravage Penang, the state comes to a standstill, Penang hospital flooded (for the first time in history), 10,000 people evacuated.
No more the Pearl of the Orient
It appears that Kit Siang's words were DAP's self-fulfilling prophecy.
Penang is no more the Pearl of the Orient but the neo Venice of the East;
Replace the gondolas with sampans and motorboats.
Replace the crooning gondoliers with Penangites crying over their losses.
Replace Georgetown's tarmac roads with the “Yellow Sea.”
Replace green lawns with stacked rubbish and debris from homes.
Penang flood waters in 1998 were waist-deep but this time around it has climbed to chest height.
Penangites must tell the Penang DAP state government: Enough is enough! We don't want anymore:
Penang hills that grow bald (illegal hill clearing at Bukit Relau)
Land reclamation (for marine-ecology busting undersea tunnel)
Further environmental air pollution (Sungai Lembu illegal sawdust factory)
Replay Kit Siang's words in 1998. Ubah! Just do it!
Lim Kit Siang's 1998 statement can be read here:
TI LIAN KER is MCA's publicity spokesperson and the party's religious harmony bureau chief.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.