Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP)'s proposal to fell 44 trees along a major traffic line as part of a road widening project has incurred the wrath of many.

Although the MPPP says 20 will be transplanted, Penangites are not happy that out of 80 trees in the Bukit Gelugor area, only 16 will remain standing.

Even PAS - a Pakatan Rakyat partner - expressed support with protesting NGO activists, urging the MPPP to practise a more dynamic landscape policy where trees will not be sacrificed when road and traffic systems are upgraded.

"Such policies are available in the MPPP as they have just launched a Green City project in September by planting 180 trees at the centre of the main road in Jalan Dato' Keramat," said a PAS Youth leader.

"If MPPP were proactive and practises a proper landscape transformation policy before there are proposals to widen any roads, such differences of opinion will not happen," said state PAS Youth environment bureau chief Firdaus Mohd Ali.

Stop all road projects

He was referring to recent protests by Bukit Gelugor residents, Consumers Association of Penang and Sahabat Alam Malaysia over the announcement to fell the trees along Jalan Masjid Negeri.

NONE SM Mohamed Idris ( right ), who represents the two NAOS, said there should be a stop to all road projects, including the construction of highways and roads.

"The government should be reducing traffic on the road instead of encouraging more cars.

"The ministry had released figures that 7,000 people die on the road every month and 400,000 accidents occur annually," he was quoted as saying in the Malay Mail .

MCA has thrown its support behind the protestors, with its Penang advisor Koay Kar Huah reminding the DAP of its 2008 general election manifesto to "Provide and protect green lungs for densely populated urban areas."

Koay added that Pakatan's Common Policy Framework (or Buku Jingga) expresses that "our environment is a national treasure that must be preserved for the sustainability of the future generations."

"Or is it a case of convenient amnesia by the Penang state government and DAP to neglect abiding by its election pledges?" Koay, the former Seri Delima assemblyman had asked.

Meanwhile, two environmental activists lamented that the success rate for removing and replanting full grown trees is not very high.

NONE Activists Ahmad Chik and Loh Lim Lin Lee ( right ) said that the Landscape Department has fully admitted it lacks this skill in the recent Francis Light Cemetery damage.

"Telling the public these trees will be ‘replanted' is really just to pacify us. We know that this futile effort will result in most if not all the trees being lost," they said in a statement.

Improve enforcement  call

The duo said that no amount of road widening will help improve traffic flow as long as enforcement remains "non-existent, slack or biased".

They provided a few examples to clarify their point:

  • Along Jalan Utama at the hospital section. Two-way traffic was made one way but the section remains chaotic due to total lack of enforcement for illegal stalls, parking on yellow lines;
  • Gottlieb Road where dozens of massive royal palms were removed to widen the road, but at school times, double and triple parking continues to hinder traffic flow; and,
  • Junction of Jones Road and Kelawei Road where all the food-stall customers park wherever they like, next to ‘official' cars, and total disorder reigns.

The activists said that increasing building density and lack of serious efforts to pressurise the federal government to prioritise public transportation in Penang will only lead to "short-sighted views" that the only way to improve traffic flow will be through chopping down trees and widening roads.

"Many cities facing our problems, instead use a multi-faceted approach of limiting cars with city entry fees, higher parking charges, traffic calming, improving and increasing public transportation," said the duo.

"They generally take a long view that might not be immediately popular but will have more feasible results eventually," they said.