History repeats itself: The proposed undersea tunnel is a hot potato for the Penang ruling coalition which has been under pressure to fulfil past election promises. Idris (bottom left) has decried the tunnel project while Warisan Anak Merdeka president Abdul Ghani Haroon (bottom right) is demanding that the Chief Minister withdraws his statement on the kalimah Allah matter.

An ambitious plan for an undersea tunnel is about to become a hot general election issue in Penang.

THE political chatter in Penang over the undersea tunnel project is growing louder. The tunnel-and-highway project mooted by the Pakatan Rakyat government is about to become a hot election issue in Penang.

It is the most ambitious project ever proposed for Penang and people are naturally keen to know more about it. There have been the usual voices for and against the RM6.3bil project and a string of public forums have been held to explain and discuss the project.

A Penang-based journalist summed it up this way: “People are quite fascinated. They like the idea but they also feel afraid.”

The Barisan Nasional politicians are puzzled why Pakatan is floating such a controversial project so close to the general election. Some of those who had followed events in Penang prior to the 2008 general election think the tunnel project is starting to look like the black swan that contributed to the fall of Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon in 2008.

Back then, a big-time developer whom locals had dubbed “Patrick Badawi” had proposed what would have been Malaysia’s biggest private property project on a 104-ha site occupied by the Penang Turf Club.

Known as the Penang Global City Centre (PGCC), it was an exciting and glamorous idea that was floated just months before Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called the general election.

But NGOs in Penang launched a protest against it on the grounds that it would create traffic and property oversupply problems. The rest is history.

“My first thought when I read about the tunnel was, Oh my God, another PGCC,” said a well-connected Penang lawyer.

Is the tunnel project another black swan in the making? Is history about to repeat itself in Penang?

No need to take a Cathay Pacific flight to see it, just google it. There has not been any strong objection to our plan. - JEFF OOI

Or as Mark Twain said: “History doesn’t really repeat itself, but it has a nasty habit of rhyming.”

The two scenarios are similar yet different.

For a start, said a Penang lawyer, the undersea tunnel project was put on the table by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng unlike PGCC which was imposed on Dr Koh. The state government of that time had no role in the PGCC whereas now, it is the state government which is pushing for the tunnel.

Second, not everyone is against the project. Penang folk are fed-up with the traffic congestion and are drawn to the portion of the package that involves three highways to disperse traffic from congested parts of the island.

But many are not sure about the need for the undersea tunnel. They are not convinced that Penang needs a tunnel given that the second link is near completion. Their concern is that a third link will bring more traffic into the island.

Third, the business groups appear to be for the project. The Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the Penang chapter of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers have openly voiced their support. They said the tunnel was a key feature towards solving Penang’s traffic woes. They claimed they were not playing politics and that their priority was a solution to the transportation problem.

Fourth, the Penang NGO voice is not what it used to be because many of them have taken sides.

They openly support Pakatan and they want to see Guan Eng returned to power even though some of these groups who call themselves the Penang Forum are apprehensive about the impact of the mega project. They have argued for an independent environmental impact assessment before the project proceeds and the state has agreed on that.

Engineer Dr Lim Mah Hui who is part of the Penang Forum has put up a well-argued case for public transportation over highways and his views are much sought after. He has presented his case at a number of forums and he often walks the talk by bicycling to the venue.

The big exception has been the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) whose president S.M. Mohd Idris is on a warpath. He and Guan Eng have exchanged strong words over the project including penning “open letters” to each other.

Idris who is 86 and whose beard is now as white as his trademark white cotton khurtas, is not as riled-up about the mega projects as he is about the way Guan Eng has handled criticism about the project. He was particularly incensed with Guan Eng’s remark that some NGOs had adopted the Barisan line and aligned themselves with Barisan.

Idris had shot back: “Are you taking the people to be fools? If people say anything, then they are BN? Nonsense!”

He told the Chief Minister to be careful about his words and not make wild allegations because “that is what marks a statesman from a quarrelsome politician”.

Reporters have been amused at how Guan Eng’s administration has been showing lovely pictures of tunnels and highways built by the China company which was awarded the project whereas Idris has been showing pictures of all the horrific tunnel disasters from all over the world.

Idris is about to get a taste of the new politics because a Pakatan-friendly NGO has called for CAP to be evicted from its office premises in a colonial bungalow that belongs to the local authority.

Guan Eng has the full backing of his state exco. One after another have emerged to defend the project. The project will go ahead as far as they are concerned and their role is to explain it to the people. Their main line of argument is that they are trying to solve the traffic problem that has been around for 20 years. They intend to use the general election as a referendum for the project.

Even Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu who is known as the “green politician” said the tunnel and highways would alleviate the congestion in his coastal constituency.

One of the most outspoken proponents of the tunnel is Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi who is well-versed in the technical aspects. He has been telling the ceramah crowd of the three tunnels linking Hong Kong and Kowloon and how wonderful they are.

“It works very well. No need to take a Cathay Pacific flight to see it, just google it. Our three roadshows have been well-received, there has not been any strong objection to our plan,” he said.

He said many of the people against it are those who will actually benefit from it.

“They are the ones who wine and dine along Tanjung Tokong, they are part of the Penang elite. They are too self-centric. They should realise the project can take away traffic from the town area without the need to acquire land or destroy the vistas that they enjoy,” he said.

Ooi said the NGOs who opposed the project are “cry-babies who want attention” and described Idris as “a dinosaur who is out of step with the times”.

The Barisan side has been quite strategic in its approach to this issue. They know Penangites are tired of traffic jams and that many of them are interested in the project. Barisan politicians have as such chosen to question the feasibility of the project, the background of the consultants and the tender award process.

They are furious that Pakatan had tried to pin the tunnel idea on them.

“The tunnel was an option when we were considering a second link for Penang but the point is we did not go for it, we decided a second bridge was more practical. It’s ridiculous, the way they blame us for everything. They want to have the tunnel but they are blaming it on us,” said Penang Gerakan vice-chairman Wong Mun Hoe.

Guan Eng has managed to tap into Penangites’ thirst for development, something his predecessor failed to quench. Penang has a large urban middleclass. The younger generation grew up being driven about in cars by their parents and now that they can afford cars of their own, they want to do the same and do not see the need for public transport.

Hindsight has shown that Dr Koh was too cowed by the NGOs. He thought the NGOs’ views reflected what ordinary Penang folk wanted but the tunnel issue has shown otherwise. Nevertheless to have a controversial project being debated on the eve of a general election is not good.

Many were shocked when Guan Eng said he was prepared to lose a few votes for the project to go ahead. It was as good as telling voters that if they did not agree with the project they could jolly well vote for the other side. It smacked of arrogance.

But the undersea tunnel pales beside other more thorny issues confronting Pakatan in Penang ahead of the general election.

Investments in Penang plunged by 73% last year pushing Penang, once No. 1 on the national investment placings, to No. 8.

Pakatan was also hard hit by bad news over a proposed RM2bil solar plant project in Seberang Prai that they had been boasting about since coming to power. Bosch Solar Energy Malaysia Sdn Bhd recently said they had cancelled the project due to global overcapacity.

Job opportunities have dropped by more than 50% from 21,000 in 2010 to 10,000 last year. In the meantime, Malay groups are demanding that Guan Eng retract his Christmas Day statement on the kalimah Allah issue.

Even Dr Koh has joined the fray. In an interview with Nanyang Siang Pau, the former Chief Minister was asked about being labelled as “bo hoot” durian (seedless durian), a term that his opponents used to mock his political style.

He said a durian without seeds is better than a durian which has big seeds (tua hoot) but no flesh (bo bak) because even monkeys would not want to eat that type of durians. It was one of those double entendres because “no flesh” in Chinese also refers to a lack of substance. It was Dr Koh’s way of saying that he may not be a gutsy street-fighter but he has substance.

Penang politics is about to boil over.

>Joceline Tan can be reached at joceline@thestar.com.my

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