Outraged residents in Tanjung Bungah, who recently suffered a landslide due to heavy rainfall, have condemned the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) for being a ‘lackey of developers’ for their alleged failure to monitor and enforce standards in development projects along the risky hill slopes.

The residents, who claimed that roads leading to their houses were deluged by a “sea of orange mud” after the rainfall last Wednesday, complained that the council has turned a blind eye to developers who do not comply with safety standards.

NONE Tanjong Bungah Residents Association chairperson George Aeria ( right ) said MPPP should exercise its “legally required and proper role” in the approvals of such projects, instead of just waiting for disasters to happen and then clearing-up the mess.

“This is not the job of the council. It should be ashamed if it thinks that clearing up the mess of developers is its job,” said Aeria, who was visibly upset about the recent episode.

“The council currently acts like the lackey of the developers; this should not be the case. Why does the council want to take up this role?” he queried.

Koh Tsu Koon’s mess    

Penang residents continue to lock horns with developers and the state authorities over hillside development projects around the island.

NONE Mostly approved during Gerakan-BN’s Koh Tsu Koon’s ( left ) tenure as chief minister, these projects have placed the current administration in a precarious balancing act between residents’ and developers’ demands.  

Over the past 20 years, the state government has  indiscriminately approved development projects at the great expense of the island's landscape.
 
Lim, who took over the chief ministership after the 2008 'political tsunami', continues to p lead for vocal NGOs to understand that reversing the projects may cost Penangites billions in terms of legal compensation to affected developers.
 
The state had in 2008 set up a supervisory and enforcement committee to oversee hillside development projects with the Town and Country Planning Committee acting as the secretariat, but it is uncertain how effective they are in handling controversial projects.

MPPP not enforcing safety      

A common point of dispute is the safety guidelines, which developers always insist that they have complied with.

Only last week, Aeria shot a scathing email to MPPP chairperson Patahiyah Ismail, listing the various grouses and demands of residents who want a developer to stop work, until the hill slopes were properly covered to prevent mudslides and a water retention pond is deepened to prevent flooding.

In his email, Aeria urged the council to take decisive action against the errant developer, Bolton Surin, who has received  several temporary stop-work orders before the present incident.

tiles broken by stones from blast site penang The same developer had its blasting permit revoked on May 26 following residents’ complaints.

The police had assured the residents that its blasting permit will not be re-issued until it complies with all measures ordered by the various state departments.  

However, the developer reportedly resumed work on June 21, two days before mudslide incident.      

Aeria expressed great disappointment that all his attempts to contact Patahiyah on the day the mudslide occurred failed. 

'We always clean up'       

In an immediate response, Patahiyah clarified that her mobile phone was in ‘silent mode’ as she was in a meeting with Penang Development Corporation officials in Bayan Baru at the time.

Patahiyah claimed she had instructed a group of workers to attend to the affected area immediately upon hearing about the mudslide.

“The situation is also being monitored by director of engineering Leong Kok Khaw, who was present at the site the whole afternoon on that day,” she said in an email reply to Aeria on Jun 25.

NONE “For your information, whenever there are floods or landslides, the council will always send a special squad to attend to the problem, to clean up the mess and to control the situation from worsening,” she added.

She also defended herself claiming that projects in Tanjung Bungah and Batu Ferringhi ( right ) were approved about four or five years ago, before she was appointed council chairperson.

She has called for a meeting with the angry residents on Monday, July 19, at Komtar to quell the growing discontent.

The residents, however, are still upset and said they cannot be appeased by “unacceptable replies of quick clean-up jobs done after a mess-up by the developer”.   

Tourist spots turned ‘muddy orange’

Meanwhile, another resident from Batu Ferringghi, Hymeir Kamarudin, lamented how the previously clear blue seas of tourist spots Miami Beach and Moonlight Bay, have turned “muddy orange” after the rain.

NONE “This isn’t a one-off occurrence, this has been happening for as long as the steep hills of the coast have been stripped off its vegetation and development started on the steep slopes,” he said in an email to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, copied to the media.

“It is an embarrassment to local residents, local businesses and mostly to the Penang state government,” he added.

Hymeir claimed he personally knew of many Penangites and foreigners residing in the area who were planning to move away due to these environmental “disasters”.

“They feel helpless. Penang used to be known as a beautiful island with great sun, sea and surf, but what we are left with now is mud and concrete,” he added.