Criticism has been mounting on the Penang government’s land reclamation initiative, with many pundits analysing how the politicians voted and what it means for the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, meanwhile, justified his act of admonishing the sole DAP rep and five PKR reps for not supporting the Penang government with the following reasons:

• BN had done more of these land reclamation exercises when they were in power;
• BN is too arrogant to admit fault and culpability for such exercises; and
• The Penang government would pay millions in compensation for delaying the projects when the detailed environmental impact assessment (DEIA) studies have already given the projects the green light.

All these arguments seem to be missing the point. Yes, there are political and economic consequences to consider, but why is the Penang government not defending the projects itself as environmentally safe and economically viable?

See, the DEIA report isn’t just a legal impediment where the developer ticks the box on a checklist of things that must be done before a project is given the go ahead. It is done to satisfy the government and the public that the proposed project is both safe and sound.

A DEIA study also includes getting public feedback and providing raw data and statistics on how the project is deemed environmentally safe - it has to because the Department of Environment (DOE) must reject a report that shows there are safety hazards that have not been addressed by the project proponent.

So why is Lim ranting off about economic consequences and accusing Umno of culpability in the whole exercise?

As a just, transparent and accountable government, all the Penang government has to do is show the DEIA report to the public and tell all their critics that the government was wise and just in proceeding with the land reclamation projects using the DEIA report that they approved.

Lim has nothing to fear and all the political mileage to claim by making the DEIA report public. Lim does not even have to do the job himself; just instruct the consultant that did the DEIA to explain the findings to the people of Penang at a town hall meeting and be done with it.

All this can be done while the land reclamation proceeds because the DOE had already approved the report and the justifications contained within will - without any doubt - convince the public that the project is safe. So there’s no fear of paying millions in compensation to the developer as well.

About the only reason the government does not want to do this is because they don’t want people to pay close attention to the reports itself.

So what will it be? Will the Penang government show the ‘ace’ card in their possession or are they just playing poker with the public while holding on to a ‘joker’ card?