Monorail derailed

On Tuesday (22/4/08) Pak Lah told Penangites that the 32 Km Second Penang Bridge project will be delayed for another nine months due to problems in buying land (land acquisition), design and the rising cost of building materials. (Pak Lah should be consulting the ex-DCM Rashid about the land part.He was the wheeler-dealer on land matters with the previous state govt.) Any developer knows that land acquisition should be cleared up first before planning any project. micro or mega. Land-owners are smarter now, not like their grandpas in the old days. Hope that our bridge contractor from China is not hopping mad for being made to wait to start work. Original estimated cost RM3.6 billion, now shot up to RM4.3 billion.In nine months time RM 10 billion ? (I say, if you can't get the site or you don't have the money, drop the project, or move it to a shorter route.) On Saturday (26/4/08) MOF2 Nor Mohamed, told the state Federal Action Council meeting that some proposed mega-works in Penang have not been approved yet, namely the mono-rail and Penang Outer Ring Road. (I hope the islanders can live without these projects. I'd be very glad if both these projects are dumped.) On Sunday (27/4/08) Ex-CM Tsu Koon clarified that he had stated that federal projects commited to before elections will go on. Today, Nor Mohamed came down off his high horse and said the Federal govt is sincere about working with the Penang-PR govt and has no intention of cancelling projects under the 9th Malaysia Plan. He said the purpose of the Penang FAC meeting was to call for more cooperation from the state govt. (Well now, who's the next minister to come and punish Penangites for voting PR ?)

If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them !

Lee Kah Choon (former deputy sec.gen. of Gerakan) has proven to us Penangites that he is ready,willing and able to put the Penang rakyat's interests above political loyalty. Since he was appointed as a director of the PDC and chairman of InvestPenang by Penang CM Lim Guan Eng, he had been attacked from all sides by the BN people. Acting Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon (under pressure from BN) issued a 'show cause' letter to Kah Choon. Instead of replying to that letter, Kah Choon chose to quit the party. That's the trouble with sore losers, hate to see one of their own being appreciated by the winners. They should be contemplating this instead - If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them !

No tourist ringgit

Tourism minister Azalina makes her move to weaken the tourism industry of the PR states. She stated that all MOUs (Tourism Action Councils) with the PR -led states will be terminated because of the change in leadership. All programs planned earlier by the previous govt will go on as planned. The difference is that all funds will be handled by the federal govt, not by the state govts. That means no tourist-ringgit is coming to Penang,Kedah,Perak,Selangor & Kelantan states. The federal govt gets the tourist- ringgit instead, is that how it goes ?

No Petronas money for Second Bridge

At his first official 'one to one' meeting with the PM , Penang CM Lim Guan Eng's request to use Petronas money to finance the Second Penang Bridge project was refused by Pak Lah. Pak Lah's reason ,Petronas does not finance infra-structure projects. Wonder if Petronas helped finance the annual T'ganu Monsoon Cup show, or the Crystal Mosque or the T'ganu Islamic village, or the development of luxury houses and resorts on T'ganu's islands ? Pak Lah setting an example for his ministers to follow, bully the PR governments.

Tun Dr M lost faith in Najib.

Ex-PM Tun Dr Mahathir, has lost faith in DPM Najib Tun Razak. Now he says he is not supporting Najib to take over from PM Abdullah. It looks like Muhyiddin Yassin has caught his eye. Muhyiddin is quite 'vocal' these last few days, disagreeing with most of Pak Lah's and Pak Lah's latest 'apple polisher ' MM Taib's views. That's MM Taib's way of showing his gratitude to his benefactor.

Pakatan Rakyat

PKR (KeADILan),DAP and PAS leaders proposed to consolidate the co-operation among the three parties under the name 'Pakatan Rakyat' ( People's Alliance). Their pledge is to uphold the rights and interests of all Malaysians no matter what race or religion. The state govts of Kelantan,Kedah,Penang,Perak and Selangor will be known as Pakatan Rakyat governments (not PAS govt,DAP govt,PKR govt, not PKR-DAP-PAS govt). Anyway, this name is a little better than Barisan Rakyat or Barisan Alternative. Why not ' Rakyat Muafakat' ? RM more value than PR.