Sustainable Development and Worldviews

There is a common saying in the public transport policy debate that, "Supplying more highways simply creates more demand for their use." No. This is wrong. This is lazy thinking resulted from simplistic comparison between increase in highway and increase in cars.  The real factors that create demand for private cars in a city with good public transport system are two: increasing population and increasing capital flow.  When (A) people who can afford private cars move into the city, and (B) people in the city becoming more able to afford private car, there is increase in private car usage and increase traffic jam, despite the availability of good public transport.  Unless the city restricts population growth and capital flow, there will always be increase demand for highway even when there is good public transport in place.  Take Hong Kong as example. The city has one of the best public transport system in the world. About 90% of the city's po...

We are pleased that our article that raises critical questions about Penang’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has elicited responses from members of the public, including a transport expert from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). We wish to offer a response in view of the interest from the public, especially among the NGOs. Our previous article affirms that the society needs constructive contribution from good NGOs to grow. NGOs play a big role in society. As one of us (Timothy Tye) is a spoke person of the civil group AnakPinang, we certainly encourage NGOs to be constructive. Therefore, the allegation that our article “attacks” NGOs in general or belittles the role of NGOs in society is a gross misreading. The gist of our article remains that NGOs, given the role they play in society and their capability to sway public opinion over policies such as the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP), should be held accountable for their action. This, alas, is presently ...

Our society needs constructive contribution from good NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to grow. Unfortunately in Penang, NGOs have descended to rally unwholesome causes that are discriminative, destructive and divisive. There are more than 5,000 NGOs in Penang, according to Penang2030 Guide . Some of these are actually NGI (non-governmental individual). NGI is a civil group that claims to be representative yet led and managed only by one individual. These NGIs often issue statement under the individual’s name, conduct press conference by the individual alone, and do social media Live video in selfie-mode. Certain NGOs are at the forefront of criticising Penang State Government’s projects. We want to be clear that we support critical questioning of government’s projects, regardless they are at State or Federal level, as long as those questions are constructive and proposals are subjected to accountability. However, more often than not, we find that these NGOs have fail...

Earlier this week I was in a working group organized by Penang Green Council on the topic on sustainable mobility and connectivity. The objective of the group is to prepare an official recommendation to the state authorities. As part of the deliberation, we interacted consecutively with three experts on transportation. All three were academically qualified and experienced expert in the field. All three had different view on the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP). The first one was of the view that Penang needed a good hierarchy of transport system, with the Light Rail Transit (LRT) given top priority. The second expert dismisses the LRT and recommended on-ground tram. The third expert promoted the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. This should not surprise anyone as it is common for experts to disagree among themselves. One just need to read enough doctoral theses to know that it is necessary for each expert to outsmart every other expert. This is not to deny scholarly c...

"[Sustainable cities] must promote efficient economic activities, ensure that all citizens can benefit from them, and must do so in a way to preserve the biodiversity, safe air and water, and physical health and safety of the citizens..." (Jeffrey Sachs, Age of Sustainable Development , 366) Hardly can one find fault with such utopian ideal. The problem is that it is talking about heavenly city and its angels, not earth and its humans. How to promote efficient economy that all citizens can benefit? Any market-influenced (efficient) economy will definitely have competition, which means not all citizens can benefit, not to mention the other elements in the sentence. History has shown there is no such thing. Simple case, if I only have enough money to buy one book from two books on sustainable development that I have shortlisted, I can only choose to buy one and contribute the book royalty to one of the authors and not both. Unfortunately many undiscernin...