A signature campaign to garner residents’ support against the ‘Moulmein Rise’ project in Lengkok Moulmein in Pulau Tikus is gaining steam.
Penang Citizens’ Awareness Chant group said they have received about 300 signatures through their online petition since the campaign started last week.
“Our stand is that the project need to be scrapped or at least reviewed by Penang Municipal Council (MPPP),” said group advisor Yan Lee .
He said they hoped to collect 1,000 signatures in a month.
The ‘Moulmein Rise’ project comprises a 27-storey commercial luxury project in a residential area.
In the petition, the group claimed that MPPP did not take into consideration the livelihood of the Pulau Tikus Market traders, did not find an alternative car park for the public and did not take into account the traffic congestion in the area.
A letter had also been sent to MPPP president Datuk Patahiyah Ismail on the matter but to date, we have not received a reply, said Yan.
“They should reply because this a public interest matter and the residents deserve an answer,” he said.
Yan Lee is worried that the market-goers and traders would not be able to park in the proposed basement car park once the developer passed it to the building management committee upon completion of the project.
“It’s the committee that decides who will run the car park, not the developer.
“They should hand the car park to MPPP. If it’s run by them, the car park fees will be reasonable,” he said.
Chant group also held a protest on March 9 with the Pulau Tikus residents.
For details of the campaign, visit http://www.change.org/petitions/no-moulmein-mppp-and-pggov-stop-this-project. - By The Star
25 comments
fully support the people to object it. i went there last weekend and have to go elsewhere due to lack of car parks!
To be fair. This land does not belongs to MPPP but private. If I own this land, I can do whatever I want to this land without any obligation to people around Pulau Tikus. That obligation belongs to MPPP to solve and not private owners.
Evon - I do not agree.
Even if you renovate your house and it has made your neighbors inconvenient, MPPP still have rights to oppose your renovation.
moulmen Rise is with a public car park if not mistaken. this is a commercial tittle as i enquire from the developer before.
moreover there are alternative carpark at axis building. i hope the building owner will do something to the carpark to take this oppotunities to make money.
Aiyo, signature campaign for what?? Don't waste time lah, you think LGE gives a damn?? He thinks he is very popular in Penang right now, while enjoying the financial support of all the developers that made big bucks this few years through increased plot ratio and questionable project approvals that did not meet guidelines! He's thinking "Screw you all lah"!!....:D
LGE is popular among the people of Penang, no matter he "thinks" he is or not...
Its not whether LGE thinks he is popular or not... LGE is indeed popular among the people of Penang, its a fact and it will be a fact
Hi Ho,
I voted for DAP the last election becasue I thought chicken koh was useless, only a puppet to his masters. DAP is no better.
What have they done so far? Increased plot ratio so that developers make more money, yes....:D Plan for more roads to jam up penang roads, yes...:D.
What have they done to better equip penang to attract long term productive investment? What have they done to bring Georgetown as a world heritage site to the next level? Oh one thing for sure, they have been allowing the locals to sell off their heritage properties to foreigners by the blocks...:D.
I will go for Gerakan this time. I think Teng is worth given a shot. We should have monorail now instead of tunnel. I am sick of hearing LGE blaming the previous admin. I am sick of hearing LGE telling us what cannot be done. We need a leader that inspires, with can-do attitude.
Hi Comdomana,
What do you mean what has LGE done? You have given him just 5 years to prove what we have mistakenly choose for the the past many years.
I don't understand why someone insist on monorail. If given the monorail, will it sustain the operation cost? There are only 1.6m population in Penang which include the mainland. I dont think monorail is the solution for now. We can build mororail anytime but expressway it need to be plan before more land is taken up for development.
With his plan for new expressway, places like Batu Feringghi, Air Itam, will be more access-able,where will create more development, rather than development centralize in certain area only.
Why not letting local to sell their heritage? With foreigner coming in, they are willing to spend to beautified the old building.Do you think that local will do that? Unless you do not want heritage area to be prosper and stay where it is for the past 50 years. Then we should not get the heritage status as well..just keep the old georgetown forever.
I do not know what he had done to equip Penang for the future. Then what has the previous government equip you and me? One thing I can see, is more and more people is migrating to Penang comparing to last time and its a more livable city now..maybe to you, is "jam up penang" again.
Other than FDI, I see more and more corporate office being set up here in Penang. This is a good sign, as we cannot be dependent too heavily just on factories.
We don't want development but we want monorail...think about it, isn't is ridiculous?
I am not against the resident of the Pulau Tikus, this is their right to protest. I hope that LGE and current government will solve your issue well.
Hi Condomana,
If you want to talk about politics please don't do it here.
It is a property blog and not a blog for you to talk about politics.
People like you thrash talk whenever there is an opportunity to showcase your so called "intelligence".
People like you are hypocrites as well.
Example no.1:
Brezza Condo.I was reading the previous comments from Condomana and Tedd and it proves to me that the both of you are just amateurs.
At the end of the day you ended buying the Brezza upon completion.
Example 2:
You shit talk about the Peak recently. The fact still remains the price has already appreciated. If it is not your cup of tea you don't have to spoil for all the new home owners that are looking forward in moving into their new home.
You remind me of Tedd when he was thrash talking about the Brezza. In the end he was proven wrong.
My advise to you Condomana. If you have nothing good to say it is best to keep it to yourself.
Provided what you say comes with a solution and not just a complaint that does not benefit society but yourself (self interest)
I would also like to remind you that we do not practice communism since this country was built based on how hard/smart an individual works and gets rewarded.
Coming back to the topic of Moulmein Rise.
Let me remind you guys that the piece of land is private land. The private land owner has the right to develop it.
Instead of being grateful for being able to use that piece of land as a car park for over 20 years. All of you ungrateful people decided to protest?
What is with this squatter's mentality?
I have to agree with Derrick.
The foreigners are the ones reviving Georgetown back to its glory days.
Without their investments and ideas we wouldnt be able to proud of what we have.
A lot of money has been placed into the restoration of the heritage site.
Look at China House for example. It is owned by an Australian and she has done a beautiful job in restoring the building.
Before that, Georgetown was nothing back in 2007. Some of the Heritage houses there were on the brink of falling apart.
It is good that foreigners invest in our heritage houses. Besides, it is something that they can't take away when they leave Penang. It will forever be in Penang. So i don't see why it is wrong from them to own a piece of it.
Before that, the locals didn't even give a shit about these heritage houses. It is because of their efforts in beautifying the town area that prompt the locals to be green eye towards their success.
It is such a childish mentality that shouldn't exist in a developed state such as Penang.
For Penang to progress further we need the participation from every single possible party available.
As for the monorail,if you build a monorail through georgetown you would lose the UNESCO Heritage Title. It has been highlighted already.
That is the reason why they have opted for a tramp system instead.
In many countries like San Fransico, Berlin, Amsterdam, they operate tramp in their city.
Tramp operate will not take up much space and noise. In Penang, I suggest that our government build tramps go around Georgetown and light-rail outside Georgetown.
Totally agree with Kok Tiong. There is no such thing of "Only Tramp" or "Only LRT". To develop Penang to greater city, we just need to adopt what other advance city have put in place. Certain quarter comment, penang does not need LRT coz number of population still low. Its just chicken and egg issue. When u hv infra, population and economy will grow.
I agree with Dennis. When you have the infra. Economy and population will grow. With a good LRT system it will attract more people and economy will grow with it. I remembered going to Shenzhen 10 years ago. They built super highways and blocks of residential with no occupant in sights. Now lord and behold all these blocks are fill up and the super highways are fill with cars. Peangan need a monorail system. We should scrape the tunnel project at Tanjong Tokong and use the money to build monorails. Make more sense since we already have 2 bridges.
for those ppl, when properties price shoot up, they complaint, when goverment control for bumi to buy more, as this will control the chinese to speculate, they also complaint. when goverment allow development, they also complaint. i really dun know what they want. give solution lah. dun just complaint.
ewelee, that's natural as Chinese says man's desire can swallow an elephant. :-) Having said that, allow me to say a few things here. First of all, I do agree LRT does help in reducing the traffic jam on the road but I do not think that transport system is what Penangite needs most NOW. We do have LRT system in KL but does that mean KL is free of congestion. The answer is definitely No No No. Thanks to our govt's national car policy and Now everyone can drive on the road. Malaysian is so used to driving car on the road and convenience of door to door transport. I believe it would take years to get people to take LRT even it's fully operational. For those who are affordable cars, taking LRT would be the last thing on the to do list. While those who cannot afford cars, then they have no choose to take public transport. Unless charges of LRT is low, else bus is still the most preferred transport. To improve passenger volume for LRT, that could also mean some forms of subsidies has to be bear by govt, in this case federal govt as it's under federal control. So, I think what Penangite needs the most NOW is still putting more expressways and improve public transports such as having more buses and reorganize bus routes since we do not expect car traffic on the road to come down anytime. Indeed, it's expected to increase in years to come due to cheaper cars on the road. :-)
overall i agree with Bryan as for the past 18yrs under koh tsu koon, there are only 3 main road with flyover which is sungai nibong to bayan lepas, jln majlis negeri and jalan tun dr lim chong yew. having said that even the ex goverment allow messive development in ayer itam for the past 30 yrs, but sad to say they just want ppl vote but not giving the ayer itam, farlim and payar terubong ppl good transport system. the PORR compensation to a terrace house is 200K++ that time from koh tsu koon, you think that ppl will agree that price to sell the related company at below cost during yr of 2000? that is rob, not development.
Hi Derick Corithians,
Glad you shared your thoughts.
"What do you mean what has LGE done? You have given him just 5 years to prove what we have mistakenly choose for the the past many years" - OK, it looks like you also agreed with me that he has pretty much done nothing the last 5 years due to limited time, but I think he should at least clearly draw out his vision and strategies for penang.
"There are only 1.6m population in Penang which include the mainland." - monorail is for low population not more than 3mil.
"We can build mororail anytime but expressway it need to be plan before more land is taken up for development" - I think no one is against expressway, sea tunnel is the only issue because we already have 2nd link.
"I do not know what he had done to equip Penang for the future" - neither do I.
"Then what has the previous government equip you and me?" - that's why they were replaced in 308.
"One thing I can see, is more and more people is migrating to Penang comparing to last time" - really? you mean those foreign labours who serve us at secret recipe restaurants?
"Other than FDI, I see more and more corporate office being set up here in Penang" - would you kindly give some examples of corporate offices being setup here?
"We don't want development but we want monorail...think about it, isn't is ridiculous?" - we surely want development. Protesting against non-sensible building that would eventually cause a traffic gridlock doesn't mean anti-development. In fact I call that pro-development as the only meaningful development is a sustainable development.
"I hope that LGE and current government will solve your issue well." - they should not have created this issue (by approving this project) in the first place, as fixing it would need DOUBLE the resources now.
Hi Bryan,
KL is a good reference. You are right, with LRT+monorail already in operation, KL is still stuck. Take a train ride during rush hour, you'd realize a lot of people are using the trains nowadays. So imagine if they had not built the trains 10 years back, KL would be deadlocked today....:D....Unfortunately, they did not built the trains early enough, but fortunately they are working on the MRT now. KL learnt their lesson after building so many highways (so as to make car travelling convenient) that it will no longer be sustainable.
Coming back to Penang, we should not make the same mistake of trying to make car travelling convenient by building more roads. We should instead make car travelling INCONVENIENT while we build our rail system to provide a more convenient alternative. That's how you get people to use public transport.
But here's the road block. The state can't build public transport on its own. It needs the fed....:)..so how?...change fed or change state? You'd have to calculate your chances and place your bet very soon....:D
Condomana,
I quote you
""I hope that LGE and current government will solve your issue well." - they should not have created this issue (by approving this project) in the first place, as fixing it would need DOUBLE the resources now.""
So why did you buy the Brezza? Didn't you contribute to these so called approved projects as well?
Stop being a hypocrite lar...just saying.
Talk is easy, i can do that as well.
Condomana,
You remind me of all the NGOs that are protesting against hillside development but they themselves stay in a house up in the hill.
They would say no to chopping down a few trees to widen the roads but would complain about the horrible traffic around that area. Btw, these trees would be replanted or relocated for the betterment of everyone.
They would protest against a private land owners wish to develop his piece of land which he has every right to do so because they have used that piece of land for 15 years as a car park. Instead of being grateful for being able to use all these while they protest! Besides, the developer has agreed to build basement car parks for the public.
Squatter's mentality, self vested interest and hypocrites! : )
Hi Condomana,
First of all, Transportation system in KL is far from 1st class. KL is the highest car registration city (btw, KL is running out of car plate no of WWW) and duty collection is one of the main stream of income for govt and do you think govt wants to discourage the public not to own car and go for trains instead? Moreover, we all knows who owns the national cars company nowadays and do you think our current govt have the political will to discourage car driving among malaysians? In this case, who do you think would be more likely to improve transportation system in the country? :-) Meanwhile, expressway in KL does not come free and we easily spent rm10 to rm20 daily if we choose to use expressway all the way. The has deterred many car users from using the expressway, not to mention the expressway planning and obviously it's numbers is still not sufficient to cope with the traffic volume. For those who opts for cheaper fare, Bus is still the preferred option but obviously, it's managed commercially and do not cover enough areas for general public that needs it, not to mention its frequencies to support the volume. For train, we need real efforts to plan the proper routes and add more cabins for the trains on hot spots. SIngapore is a good example that we can Benchmark. However, capital expenses always looks extraordinary substantial for train and Whether it's subsidized by federal or not (people's money anyway), i am yet to see it has business model that makes sense. most countries do not make money out of it and that mean we need commitment from govt to continue subsidize this transport system for an extended period. I think public transport system, either buses or train or car needs to be owned and managed by government in order provide an efficient system, at least money making business like bus can compensate the losing one and we need a govt that has freehand/ political will to make changes and serious efforts to improve public transport system.
those so called NGO never protest when the condo was built without suficient carpark? they kept quiet when the messive development was done in sunny ville, e park, n park yet no flyover was proposed to be built by those so called PHD lead goverment. they never qurrey the goverment of abusing the so called sinking fund that has sunk...... now a building is built with public carpark, yet they complaint no carpark? i really dun know what is their motive.
Hi ewelee,
Huh? Which government abused sinking fund?