What is wrong with PTMP and PSI?
I believe the story in South China Morning Post (15
Feb 2020) and letter from Kua Kia Soong have been misinformed regarding Penang
Transport Master Plan (PTMP) and Penang South Islands (PSI).[1]
They are misinformed by a group called Penang Forum,
consists of non-governmental organisation (NGO) members and Opposition political
leaders from parties such as PAS.
Not all NGOs are against the ruling government but all Opposition
leaders are, by the virtue of their political ambition. However, when an NGO
has again and again displayed anti-government diatribe, it becomes evident that
there is something more beneath the surface.
Penang Forum has evolved over the years from a
constructive NGO to an Opposition-affiliated, if not infiltrated, entity. This
is most obvious from their protests against almost all of the state-initiated
projects in Penang.
While the Penang government, led by Pakatan Harapan
coalition, is leading the state into a world-class competitive and high-income
city, these NGOs seem to be trying their best to turn Penang into Kelantan.
Apparently, some of these NGOs have lost their
eligibility to receive grants from international bodies when Penang in
particular and Malaysia in general have emerged out of the ‘Third World’
category.[2]
Is that a motivation for those NGOs to see Penang remains in a ‘Third World’ state?
The PTMP and PSI have become these NGOs’ main complaints
against the Penang government, so much so that they organised a forum with a
string of speakers attacking these initiatives.[3]
But, what is wrong with PTMP and PSI?
The NGOs alleged that these projects lack expertise, but what
they really wanted was to push for their own view to be regarded as “expertise”.
I once sat in a focus-group session with three transport
experts presenting three different proposals to address Penang’s traffic woes.
One argued for on-ground tram, one for bus rapid transit (BRT), and another one
for Light Rail Transit (LRT). It is therefore wrong for those NGOs to talk as
if there is only one expertise view on the matter.
Furthermore, the PTMP’s LRT and PSI have been vouched for
respectively by Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and
professor of transportation engineering, Dr. Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah and eminent
economist such as the chairman of Khazanah Research Institute, Dr. Nungsari A.
Radhi.
Dr. Ahmad has remarked that the LRT “is imperative and
urgently needed for Penang,” while Dr. Nungsari has stated that the PSI “is a
perfectly rational economic project for a place like Penang.”[4]
These are prominent and experienced experts whom those
NGOs, South China Morning Post, and Kua Kia Soong have ignored.
The NGOs have also alleged that the PTMP and PSI are projects
that were adopted by state government to benefit developers. This is wrong.
Those projects went through open tender in the form of
request-for-proposal, a method used by the World Bank and United Nations. The present
PTMP was the result of an evaluation over six different proposals by KPMG and hundreds
of stakeholder engagement sessions.
In fact, the increase of the estimated cost for PTMP from
RM27 billion to RM46 billion came from those stakeholder engagement sessions
that requested transport infrastructures such as LRT, monorail, and longer BRT to
be built on the mainland.[5]
By wanting to smear these projects, those NGOs highlight
only the cost increase but hide the rationale behind the increment. That’s why
the article in South China Morning Post and by Kua Kia Soong make no
mention of this – misinformed by the NGOs.
I used to think that such smearing campaign was only carried
out by the current Opposition political parties, until I came across Penang
Forum.
The open tender method did not end with the PTMP. The PSI
is currently going through a master design competition involving various globally
renowned planners and architects working hand-in-hand with local firms to
provide the best proposal that will benefit Penang in the long-run.
So, what is wrong with PTMP and PSI?
They are definitely not perfect plans, there will be
impact, and mitigation measures will need to be in place to address those.
Nevertheless, they are gamechanger infrastructures that will
path Penang’s future. And Penang Forum and Opposition politicians will continue
to collaborate to do their best to prevent that from happening.
