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Penang button Ashes and  other matters

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The Tip of the Iceberg

THE MALAY MAIL'S  Pauline Almeida reports of a "Land Scam Shock." Land transfers and titles in Selangor were being transferred within two weeks. In some cases, faked documents for such matters were even accepted by the land office.  Michael Chong, head of the MCA public service and complaint department, had claimed that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

"We have had five such cases since last year...  we are calling Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo to tighten land procedures and look into such matters urgently," Chong had said. "In all the cases, there is a possibility that it is the work of a syndicate together with 'inside' help at the land offices."

Chong said the culprits would use forged identity cards ...   "While in some cases the IC details were the same, the photograph was of a different person. And in other cases, they used forged signatures of lawyers to authorise the necessary documents for land transfers," he said. " In normal circumstances involving land matters," Chong said, " it would take a minimum of between one and three years to finalise them at the land office."   "We suspect it is the work of a syndicate aided by accomplices working in the land office that enabled such transactions to be done at such speed."

In Issue 12 for February-March 2001 we drew attention to the astonishing judgment of the Federal Court in the case of Boonsom against Adorna Properties. We pointed out that this case, which gave no reasons for ignoring some thirty precedents,  had given a blank cheque to the thieves specialising in stealing land. We called  for corrective legislation by Parliament. But not one MP has shown interest.           


Judge consultants

WHEN MR JUSTICE EUSOFFE ABDOOLCADER was removed from the bench following the sacking of the Lord President, Tun Salleh Abbas, he appeared as an active consultant at a law firm,  a position which earned him a fabulous fee. Ordinarily this would have been considered improper but no one complained simply because he was one of the victims of the "Tun Salleh Abbas Affair." Neither did the other ex-judge consultants, active or nominal, draw any flak. Tun Salleh Abbas, after he was ignobly sacked (as a disastrous consequence of the towering fury of the chief executive of government, a storm  caused by a letter both ill-considered and legally illiterate, went down to practice at the law courts. But he was rafting on a high tide of public sympathy was not rebuked by public opinion. However  when retiring Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin became a consultant there was an outcry. Tun Mohamed Dzaididin and the legal firm he joined had misread the times. These days bench and bar have drifted apart. Today the courts are suffocated by the poison of acrimony, humiliation and suspicion. The outcry was an expression of the unhappiness of the legal profession.

 
Ashes

Some 50 years ago, the Labour Party, elected to power in the City Council,  dreamt of building a garden city around the Prangin River. Prangin River was to be restored.  Boat rides would be organised for locals and tourists alike. Restaurants and coffee houses would line the banks of the reborn river.   Some twenty years later,  the monstrous Komtar Building, rising to an upstart 40 floors of concrete, destroyed this dream. It signalled  the end of a grand concept and the beginning of Penang's obsession with the Manhattan Skyline

Today, developers can do what they like. There is no more zoning. The first to demonstrate this truth was Green Lane. This residential area gradually turned into an area of illegally converted commercial shops. But in the end corruption triumphed and all illegal conversions were instantly granted legal recognition . No area is spared while the commericial interest runs amok. Codrington Avenue is now occupied by offices, a library and a pet shop. A restaurant and a hospital have established themselves in Peel Avenue. Tower blocks have sprung up everywhere;  in Northam Road, Pulau Tikus , North Beach, Tanjong Bungah, anad even Batu Ferringhi  Six storey restrictions? Eight story limits? All are brushed aside if the developer has the money and the strings to pull.

Northam Road , once the show off piece for "the Pearl of the Orient"  is now a row of restaurants, offices and banks in high-rise buildings. The latest addition to the variety is the proposed  the proposed columbarium. No doubt tourists will be invited to admire the immense three block structure and concentrate on the main exhibit - the  pot containing the ashes of the Pearl of the Orient.



We have asked Lim Kean Siew, who was involved in the proposed rejuvenation of the  Prangin River, for his comment and he writes:

ANYONE involved in planning a town has to have a concept, an idea  which he intends to put into a concrete structure upon which the success of failure of his concept is to be judged. The idea of the Labour Party which was responsible for the Penang City was to maintain what we thought was the idea of Penang when it was taken over by the East India Company as a "Sweet Water base" for  ships sailing to the relatively unknown waters of the East. It was as a dream island where sailors could scramble ashore and bathe in its clean waters and rewater their ships before they sailed further into the seas of China.

So we planned to have a garden city to welcome sailors, travellers and visitors to the island. Prangin and Maxwell Roads were to form this hub at the confluence of Penang and Burmah Roads. We intended to touch as little of the buildings as possible since Prangin Canal leads from the Sungei Pinang River which was used by the sampans from Province Wellesley; and  Burmah Road was part of the "canal"  bringing water from the Waterfalls to the ships and sailors at Port.

This scheme, we thought, would help to enhance to attraction of  Penang. We asked an architect to draw out the ground plan on the understanding that he should not tender as architect for the job. Unfortunately, the Town Council was absorbed into the State structure. In the elections after Confrontation we failed to win the State and council  was taken over. It seems that the file on this huge project was lost and the monstrosity,  Komtar, replaced the modest changes we had planned for the City payment office and the Central bus terminal.

With this monstrosity came traffic congestion and the truncation of Penang Road which was divided into three parts and the loss of an integral symbol of Penang. Then came the "Formula One" one way road system of Penang to fit the congestion of Penang with its flat system of roof around Komtar so its phallic symbol could be seen with its outdated  design.

And now the Columbarium which rings the death knell of Penang as a  "Sweet Water" tropical paradise island  with its beautiful beaches and  waterfalls.

For, whether we personally believe it or not, is not the Columbarium  where it is now supposed to be an anathema of the healthy "Fung Sui" of  Penang City?

The graveyard at Northam Road spelt the doom of British colonialism, -  they shifted it to Western Road too late. The Columbarium is a symbol of the graveyard of Chinese beliefs and should belong to our graveyards. Is it right to take it away from the graveyards to plunk it straight into the heart of the grown area of Penang without spiritual repercussions? But there is no concept in having a columbarium where it is intended unless it is to tell  everyone that Penang has come to the end of its healthy days as a Chinese immigrant city. #




Foong Kim Chong
Paya Terubong
The Best Thai Food in Town
Phone:  825 5643
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The Penang File  Issue 29