Chow Kon Yeow: 曹观友

I asked the Works Minister on 28 March the reasons why the Penang Outer Ring Road project is still unable to take off and why were there so many changes in the ownership of the concessionaire company.

Datuk Seri Samy Vellu in his written reply said the company Peninsular Metro Works Sdn. Bhd. had not submitted their share holding agreement to the government. This is a prerequisite condition before the concessionary agreement could be signed.

As such, the PORR project is still unable to take off.

Well, is this related to the rumours that Pak Lah’s cronies are all trying to get a bite at the bite.

Press Statement by DAP Penang chairman and MP for Tanjong Chow Kon Yeow on Saturday, 17 February 2007.
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Prime Minister should direct the scrapping of the Sungai Nyior toll plaza
at the Butterworth Outer Ring Road
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It is a minor victory for the people when the government announced the suspension of toll collection at the Sungai Nyior toll plaza.

It is not often that the government is forced by public opinion to reverse an unpopular decision, especially those that involved privatization of roads and highways.

However it is totally untenable for the government to justify toll collection at Sungai Nyior as the toll plaza was built on an existing road not directly related to the Butterworth Outer Ring Road project.

Toll should not be collected there in the first place.

The people can only claim final victory when the toll plaza is scrapped altogether. The move to build alternative roads now by the State Government is just a public relation exercise to pacify the angry electorates.

The DAP therefore calls on the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to heed public opinion in Penang and direct the removal of Sungai Nyior toll plaza.

TNB issues pay-up order

BY PRISCILLA DIELENBERG

PENANG: At least 24 people have been or-dered by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to pay a total of more than RM150,000 in compensation for alleged meter tampering over the years.

Four of them are disputing the allegation and the compensation they were ordered to pay.

They are calling on others in the same boat to contact them.

Aquarium owner Tong Soo Hong, 25, said the four of them would help those in similar situations to file claims as a group.

“We already have more than 20 people and we intend to file our claims next week,” he said.

“But we will continue to help others who contact us after that,” he told a press conference at the state DAP headquarters here yesterday. (more…)

Really, Penang is to get a monorail over Penang Bridge. I do not know when and whether it will materialise but it will be a piece of good news. Read about it:

Melewar keen to build monorail over Penang Bridge
By Zuraimi Abdullah and Francis Fernandez
bt@nstp.com.my

June 23 2006

MELEWAR Industrial Group Bhd is interested in building a high-speed monorail network over the current Penang Bridge as part of its wider plan to construct a mass transit system for Penang Island.

“There is a plan to build a monorail over the current Penang Bridge and we mentioned it during our presentation to the Prime Minister,” the group’s head of business development Datuk Eric Lim said in an email reply to Business Times.

The cost of building such a network is believed to be in range of RM150 million.

“The monorail over the Penang Bridge will probably be in stage 2 because what is most important is to ensure that Melewar concentrates on the proposed monorail within the island,” said Lim.

Melewar is proposing to build a 51.12km Hi-Track ultra light loop monorail system in Penang within 28 months, if it gets the nod from the Government.

Its total fixed lump sum cost for the project is RM1.58 billion, documents provided by Melewar show. The same documents also show that Melewar expects the rail network to start churning profits in its ninth year of operations.

“This is one monorail that will be linked from point to point unlike what you see in KL. Once the proposed project is completed, we need to work with the relevant authorities on the extension to the mainland province,” said Lim.

Meanwhile, at a press conference yesterday, Melewar managing director Tunku Datuk Ya’acob Tunku Abdullah said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was pleased with its proposal for the Penang monorail system, and had asked the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) to study it. (more…)

Dr Mahathir has been speaking a lot the recent months. Some feel he should not criticize government’s policies as it would weaken the credibility of Pak Lah, his anointed successor.

I think Dr Mahathir has every right to speak up, after all Malaysia is also his country.

Maybe Dr Mahathir should now speak up on the predicaments of Tenaga Nasional and to respond to Ani Arope’s views that the utility company got a raw deal with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

Ani Arope was former TNB executive who headed the company from 1990 to 1996. It was during his tenure that the first generation IPPs was created.

When asked by the StarBiz on how the Malaysian model of IPPs was created, Ani simply replied: “Ask our previous Prime Minister.”

Asked how he was affected by the process of awarding the IPP contracts, Ani answered: “I felt sick. It was morally wrong and not fair.”

Tenaga’s predicaments are linked to a certain extent with the raw deal they got from the IPPs, a move that have benefited Dr Mahathir’s cronies.

How long are we going to be stuck with these raw deals?

Dr Mahathir should break his silence and give his two-cent worth on the matter.

All the call-in listerners to AiFM radio station this morning rejected the move by Tenaga Nasional to raise electricity rates by 12%. Those sending SMS to the radio station talk show also shared similar sentiments.

They do not accept the reasons given for the hike and most of them either criticised or ridiculed government leaders for making unacceptable statements on the hike.

They felt that the crux of the problem should be fixed. They said Tenaga should resolve the problem with the IPPs over energy reserve level and not shift the burden to consumers.

One listener hit out at Penang CM Dr Koh Tsu Koon for saying our tariff rate was still low compared to several SEA countries. Such comments from government leaders are unreasonable, listeners said.

Several disputed the figure that the increase would only affect about 60% of the households. (I think almost all households in the towns and cities would be affected)

One used a funny analogy to illustrate the predicament of the rakyat. He likened the people to medical insurance company which have to pay whenever the policy holder is sick. “Whenever the government is sick, we have to pay”.

The underlying message sent out by the listeners is “The rakyat should be blamed for their strong support to the government WHO think they can do what they like, WHAT CAN THE RAKYAT DO?

Prime Minister Abdullah said a few days ago he realised something amiss in the Sarawak elections even before the people went to cast their votes last Saturday.

His intuition was proven right as the urban electorate sent a strong message that they are fed-up with his government’s management of the economy.

Abdullah had the foresight to postpone announcement of the increase in electricity tariffs. Minister Keng Yaik was ready to announce the 12 percent increase after last Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

Abdullah put a stop to it. He knew the announcement, if made three days before polling days in Sarawak, would cause an avalanche of protests.

It would have brought devastating effects on the electorates especially the urban voters who would received the greatest impact. Any increase in electricity tariff would not mean much to rural Sarawak voters as many interior villages are still without the basic amenity.

Had the announcement been made last Wednesday, DAP would have capitalised on it. It would have unleashed greater anti-BN votes.

I think DAP would have won another three to four seats where BN won by very thin majorities.

In hindsight, Abdullah’s timely intervention saved the day for BN and SUPP in particular.

If not, it would have been a much glorious victory for the DAP.

Now let’s see how the 12 percent hike in electricity tariffs will impact the country’s economy and voters’ sentiments.