Wednesday 21 February 2007

Gerakan Mortgaged Penang Island to UMNO-Linked Companies

From KTEMOC Blog -"Giving away Penang's family jewels': Read Here
The Gerakan-led Penang Government is accused of selling out the rights of its people to revenue and development by allowing UMNO-linked private companies to reclaim and sell coastal land.

Excerpts: Read Here for more

UMNO has cleverly employed the old British colonial strategy of ‘divide and rule’ against Gerakan and MCA, by allocating state seats to the BN component party that would each be less than UMNO’s in Penang.

What’s there to fear about something that could happen when it has already happened – the CM’s post being already occupied de facto by UMNO.

The Penang family jewels have being given away, yes, given away (not sold), to mostly UMNO-linked companies ( read here).

Penangites, read and weep:

(1) Tanjung Pinang Development, an UMNO-linked company, has reclaimed 392ha in the Tanjung Tokong coastal area. The area would be turned into a new township over the next few years. Guess who gets the lollies?

(2) A 13.2ha plot of reclaimed land was given for free to IJM Bhd to develop a new residential-commercial hub, which will house condominiums and a Tesco hypermarket, in Jalan Udini, about 500m from the Penang Bridge. For free? Were we Penangites ever asked?

(3) The proposed Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) concessionaire, Peninsular Metroworks Sdn Bhd, has been bestowed the rights to reclaim 100ha sea land along the Gurney Drive coastline. Who benefits directly from PORR?
Read here for more:
"... And who are the ultimate owners or beneficiaries of PORR? Why, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of course.

....and not many know he is the ultimate beneficiary to this RM5 billion concession

... the very complicated shareholding structure of the companies involved in PORR which have been hidden under four layers of holdings and cross-holdings.

Yayasan Bumiputra Pulau Pinang Berhad owns 100% of Kumpulan Pinang Holdings Sdn Bhd.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Prime Minister) and
Ibrahim Saad (ex-Penang Deputy Chief Minister) are Directors of Yayasan Bumiputra Pulau Pinang Berhad....”

(4) Besides reclaimed land, an existing Penang Development Corporation-owned 300ha land in Batu Kawan was gifted to Abad Naluri Sdn Bhd, another UMNO-based company. Abad Naluri sold half of the land to the Penang Turf Club for horse training and racing development.

So what’s left for the poor Penangites?

According to the DAP’s state secretary Danny Law Heng Kiang, the state government is estimated to have only 80 ha of land on the island and 2,000 ha on the mainland for development purposes.

He lamented that as a state which faces severe land scarcity, "Raja Bodek" ( ask Penangites who is "Raja Bodek") sits quietly while UMNO-linked companies have been gifted with reclaimed land, when those assets should have been developed for new townships to cater for the housing needs of the middle and lower income groups.

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