AT FIRST IT APPEARED that dumping of the tons of Jelutong rubbish on the island of  Burung had been put on hold because of the growing opposition to the proposal (click on The  Penang File, Issue 10, “Concerns” for earlier comment). Tan Cheng Liang (Jawi) told the press that she had collected 30,000 signatures and claimed that she had the support of four  exco members. Dr Toh Keng Woon, exco member of government was reported to be one of those in support of  Burung on the issue. 

Tan Cheng Liang’s opponents say it is wrong to treat Province and the Island as two separate territories which, if we may so, is neither here nor there. The troubling question, which has not been answered, is: should Pulau Burung be destroyed in the interests of the “Jeletung Expressway”? Put in other words: is the building of a highway and the destruction of an island the  “sustainable development”, the keyword in the Penang Draft Plan? Then we read in the papers that the government was to look into another site. 

The DAP has supported the state government and stressed that there should be no more delay completing the Jelutong Expressway. Its solution to the rubbish problem? - part should be dumped on Pulau Buruang and and the rest, somewhere in Balik Pulau! This unexpected brainwave by the opposition must have taken Dy CM Dr Hilmi the "protector" of Balik Pulau by surprise. 

But it seems that Tan Cheng Liang and the islanders have lost the battle: the CM now says that the plan will go ahead.