A gathering of civil society groups is having a meeting with the Penang Chief Minister to thrash out issues that they say are making Penang more unliveable by the day.

NO politician who takes his or her work seriously would want to play the fool with Penang’s civil society groups. These NGOs do not have the network that political parties have but they can be very vocal and a thorn in the side of the government.

For instance, the Penang Forum, a coalition of Penang-based NGOs, is believed to have played a supporting role in unseating the Barisan Nasional state government via their opposition to the Penang Global City Centre (PGCC) project in the run-up to the 2008 elections.

“We like to think that we were a contributing factor because it was an unpopular project,” said Dr S.P. Choong who was then the president of the Penang Heritage Trust which is a member of the Penang Forum.

The Penang Forum is holding its annual gathering on Saturday and it will involve a face-to-face with Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. The meeting has drawn interest because it is coming on the heels of a spate of development controversies in the state. It is what some have called a time for reckoning.

The Chief Minister is scheduled to speak about his ideas of Penang as an international liveable city.

But with a general election around the corner, these NGOs are also looking for answers to a host of issues that have continued to plague Penang under the Pakatan government.

The Penang Forum has been rather soft on the Pakatan administration. The public perception was that they are pro-Pakatan but individuals in the Penang Forum said they had wanted to give the state government a chance to perform instead of jumping to judgment.

Besides, they had helped usher Pakatan to power, individuals within the NGOs have been co-opted into various public bodies under the government and one of their figures was recently made a senator under the DAP ticket.

“We have high expectations of the government and we have been very patient. But what is being done so far is not going in the same direction as what is being said,” said Penang-born author and heritage advocate Dr Neil Khor.

Saturday’s forum will not only be an occasion for Lim to say his piece but also for the civil groups to offer their ideas of a liveable Penang or what the organisers term as “civil society’s presentation of the present reality”.

Some imagine there will be fireworks at the meeting. For instance, activist Ong Eu Soon is planning to ask some penetrating questions about some of the land deals that have taken place and even to hold a rock and roll performance at the event.

But members of the Penang Forum generally hail from the Penang intelligentsia and their track record has been quite civil even at the height of their discontent with the government of Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

They are, by and large, still politically inclined to the Pakatan side but they are also beginning to question decisions coming from the ruling coalition and like everyone else, they are growing tired of the politics of hate and blame.

Most of all, they are concerned that Penang, especially the land-scarced island, is getting more unliveable by the day.

“The last government gave in to development proposals with little regard for the impact on the environment and traffic. We thought things would improve but Penang will not be liveable if we let developers build as high and as dense as they like,” said Dr Choong.

A part of their grievances has to do with the pace and type of development being allowed. Many of them were horrified to learn last year that the state was planning several multi-billion ringgit mega-projects that involved an undersea tunnel and super-highways.

CAP, Penang’s most established NGO, was the only NGO to voice concern about the mega-projects. These were exactly the kind of projects they used to oppose under the Barisan government and it was now coming from the Pakatan; even the aborted PGCC project came nowhere near in terms of scale, cost and potential impact.

Incidentally, CAP is no longer a part of the Penang Forum. There has been some sort of falling out because CAP felt that certain groups in the Penang Forum had taken political stands and were reluctant to criticise the state government.

“We act in the interest of the public. We are not politically inclined to any side. If people do good, we support, if they do wrong, we speak out,” said CAP president S.M. Mohd Idris.

Dr Choong, on his part, is angry with the bureaucrats for allowing blanket extensions to projects that had been approved but were not implemented. He said the situation changes and a plan that was approved one or two years ago needs to be reviewed in line with recent changes taking place.

“Both governments are to blame.

“The previous one approved, the present one is not doing its part,” said Dr Choong.

A number of residents’ associations also want the authorities to define what is meant by “special projects”, an excuse that has been used by the local government for allowing a string of development projects on hillslopes and which have caused misery to adjacent neighbourhoods.

“We hope the CM will say in concrete terms how Penang will become an internationally liveable city and what he has done to achieve this in the last four years.

“It is hard for us to visualise given the uncontrolled development on the hills, the massive traffic problem and the thirst for low-cost housing,” said Dr Khor.

Quite understandably, some are sceptical that anything major will emerge from the meeting. Lim is a consummate politician and he is unlikely to let himself be tripped or tied down by the NGOs.

Moreover, the Penang Forum is not the vociferous group that it was when it convened to tell former chief minister Dr Koh what they thought of the outlandish PGCC project.

While the meeting will certainly enable participants to hear out the Chief Minister and speak their minds on issues, some think it will just be an avenue for the Penang Forum to justify its public voice, albeit a subdued one.

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