By New Straits Times
June 18, 2008
GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Heritage Trust has defended its action in constantly speaking out against projects which were approved without due concern to public interest.
It also dismissed allegations that non-governmental organisations in Penang had overstepped their boundaries when objecting to certain projects.
PHT president Dr Choong Sim Poey said the body and other NGOs were not anti-development but just against unsustainable development.
“We don’t indiscriminately criticise all development. We are just against unsustainable development which does not contribute to the quality of our urban environment,” he said.
He listed the Prangin Mall project which had caused damage to 396 houses and a hotel extension project which damaged Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion as examples.
Dr Choong said most recently the local council had repeated the same mistake by approving the Ivory Times Square project which had damaged adjacent buildings.
“We also have the Gurney Paragon project which has been allowed to ignore traffic implications made by their own traffic consultants,” he said, adding that under such circumstances, NGOs had been playing an essential role in initiating public debate on controversial approvals.
He said this was an important process in any democratic society, especially in the face of the previous state government’s reluctance to allow public participation in local planning.
He was responding to a statement by the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) Penang branch which last week slammed NGOs here for overstepping their boundaries.
Rehda claimed certain Penang-based NGOs had gone overboard by criticising and calling for projects that had been approved to be reviewed.
Its chairman, Datuk Jerry Chan, said NGOs should not try to put themselves in the place of the state government or dictate what should or should not be approved.
Chan said the NGOs had been acting as a pressure group to force the state government to reverse decisions without any legal basis and claimed this would have an adverse effect on all.
Dr Choong said the present state government should re-look planning approvals which were clearly out of line with its competency, accountability and transparency slogan.
He cited the practice of considering only the objections of immediate neighbours within a 20-metre radius of any development regardless of its size and environmental impact and the policy of holding closed-door meetings of the local government planning committee as examples.
“If these two issues were addressed, the council and political leadership will be more mindful of public interest in making planning decisions.
“Responsible developers will have nothing to fear from this change,” he said.