Those opposed to Penang projects don’t care about locals

Published by New Straits Times • 12/05/2019 • 08:25 pm

THE group of people opposing the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) and Penang South Reclamation (PSR) have shown us repeatedly that they don’t really care about us. When we protest against their petition to cancel PSR, they regard us as supporting a dictatorial regime. Obviously, they have not lived under a dictatorial regime.

Talk a lot they may, but they are not listening.

For all their clamouring, they have not been able to articulate a satisfactory response to our concerns. Let me repeat it to them again: “What do you know of our concerns, and what plans do you have to address them? Are our concerns unimportant to you? Are you going to continue dismissing our concerns as the product of childish, warped minds, not worthy of address?”

What do they have to say about that?

We have said it over and over: we want a better life, for ourselves and for our children. Not just for a small elite group of people, but for everybody. We want job opportunities. We want high-paying jobs. We want to live in comfortable homes. We want to travel comfortably and speedily.

We are not protesting to support the government of the day with blind devotion. We support the government because it understands our concerns, and is taking steps to improve our lives. We don’t support those who oppose PTMP and PSR because what is issued from their mouths does not demonstrate an understanding of our concerns, or even begin to address our issues.

Read my lips: if they who oppose PTMP and PSR can give us a satisfactory solution, we will listen.

Don’t give us the “let them take the tram” solution. It’s as repulsive as Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake” and reflects a disregard for our hardships. And don’t tell us: “Oh, you must do your part for the environment. Suffer a little bit, lah. It’s not forever, mah. It’s only for this lifetime.”

What we want them to know is: “It’s possible to have our cake and eat it!” The environment is more resilient than they give it credit. When done properly, the environment will rebound and the people will have a better life. What we are planning to build is nothing compared to what Singapore has built. We cannot be a people so afraid of taking necessary action, that we live in fear the whole time.

Look at Singapore. It has lots of green space, and it continues to build highways when necessary. They do reclamation in Singapore, too. Can you say that as a result of the reclamation, the fishing grounds in Singapore are now depleted and their citizens are starving?

Do they see trams in Singapore? Why not? If they can convince Singapore to dismantle the mass rapid transit and replace it with trams, they can come back and talk to us about it. Until then, please go away! We want them to take their argument to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and other places, and stop being a nuisance to us in Penang.

If the government is building highways for the fun of building highways, and killing us with tolls, we, too, will oppose. But the government is doing it to create better lives for everybody. That, we fully support.

For a group of people that appear so obviously educated, they can also be so oblivious to people’s concerns and hardships. Possibly because their heart is not in the right place. And by their action, they show that they don’t really care about us. – May 13, 2019.

* Timothy Tye reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight.