GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) has criticised the Penang Island Municipal Council for giving the planning permission for the multi-million Penang Times Square project in the first place.
"The council is the real culprit because they are the ones to approve the planning permission before ensuring the engineering plans are safe and will not affect the surrounding buildings," PHT president Dr Choong Sim Poey told theSun.
Before approving the planning permission, the council should have fully assessed the environmental impact of the project, he said.
"They can't just allow a building to be built when it can affect other buildings surrounding it," he said, when asked to comment on recent news of cracks appearing in some houses near the project.
He said the case is similar to when Prangin Mall was built years ago where it also affected surrounding buildings, especially pre-war houses.
"This kind of situations is actually avoidable and all parties involved from the project engineer, to the council, to the developer should be held responsible although council is the main culprit," he said.
He said PHT is very unhappy with the council's engineering department as the cracks were definitely due to effects of piling works.
"We are also unhappy with the whole project as they had removed some prewar houses to make way for the project, when they could have maintained those houses and restored it," he said.
He pointed out that the so-called heritage Birch House, which is currently used as the corporate head office of Ivory Group, was not even restored according to heritage guidelines.
"They expanded and distorted the whole building, and this is not a proper restoration for a heritage building," he said.
Recently, there were complaints by residents and shops near the Times Square project over cracks in their houses caused by the project.
The council which has instructed its engineers to monitor the situation is now awaiting a report into the whole issue through an independent study by Ikram before deciding on the next course of action.
The RM450mil Penang Times Square project is situated on a 5.3ha plot that used to be where the Datuk Keramat Smelting plant was located.
Phase One of the project comprises a four-storey shopping mall with over 300 retail outlets while there are three other phases which is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
The walk for media freedom on this Sunday (June 1) is initiated as an act of solidarity involving journalists, bloggers, writers, photographers and fellow citizens.
Malaysia badly needs reforms to the existing draconian media laws to lift the threat on every journalist, every blogger and every citizen who seeks to be informed and expresses his/her views on matters of public interest. Such calls have been made for years by journalists, bloggers and civil society groups. We believe the voice would be louder if we make the call together.
This is why CIJ, WAMI, Benar and All-Blogs organized the walk from Dataran Merdeka to National Press Club (NPC), to be followed by a dialogue hosted by NPC involving the de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim, the media community including NUJ and the members of the public.
A 3-point memorandum demanding media law reform launched on May 3 by CIJ and WAMI will be read to kick start greater effort in collecting signatures, to be presented to national leaders on August 31 and to state leaders on September 16.
The walk is on
The walk was never intended to be a public rally. To avoid confronting security laws, participants are invited to walk alone or in pair from the flagpost at Merdeka Square to NPC within a period from 9.30 to 10.15 am.
We believe it is our fundamental freedom to take a morning walk. Should anyone need a reminder, other than Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which guarantees freedom of peaceful assembly, Article 9 also guarantee explicitly that " … every citizen has the right to move freely throughout the Federation …". We cannot see how citizens walking though the Square symbolizing the nation’s independence shall threaten the nation’s security.
We informed the police of our intention to have a morning walk but were unfortunately told that we would need to apply for a permit which would not be granted anyway. The police however did concede that participants of the dialogue may need to walk from somewhere else.
We have chosen neither to apply for police permit nor to call off the walk. We believe it is every citizen’s right to walk through the capital city on a Sunday morning. Taking into account the concerns of individual participants, we have recommended only one change: participants may walk for any distance from any direction.
Take public transport or park your car elsewhere and to walk towards the NPC during the designated time. You may come from any direction. Naturally, if you alight from LRT at Central Market or if you park at Merdeka Square, you will have to walk through the Merdeka Square to NPC.
The meaning of your every step
We call upon the participants of the walk bring a national flag or a copy of Federal Constitution, and to wear a yellow ribbon to symbolize your support for media freedom. If you are a journalist, put on your press card. Whenever you feel a need to assert your constitutional freedom, wave your flag, sing Negaraku, cite Article 9 or 10 of the Federal Constitution, or recite Rukunegara especially the third principle: "Keluhuran Perlembagaan".
Let it be clear to the authority and the wider public this is not just any walk. It is a walk to reflect on the state of media freedom in Malaysia after 50 years of independence and our individual roles to advance that. Let us reflect on what has gone wrong in this country, that the citizens are not allowed to walk freely through their Merdeka Square. Let us ask in our every step: what is national independence without media freedom?
We recognize that this may not be a decision satisfactory to every freedom-loving Malaysian, but we believe it may be the change necessary to bring on board as many individuals and groups as possible. We plead for your support to join the walk even though you may not agree with the arrangement.
Let us come together to claim our media freedom, and by extension, a full democracy which is over due for 51 years. A walk of 50 people may be stopped or invisible. A walk of 500 will not be. Let us all be part of a proud number for a new beginning.
PETALING JAYA (May 28, 2008): Amnesty International Malaysia campaigns co-ordinator K.Shan warned today that Malaysia ignores the call for human rights protection at its own peril.
"Groundswell to demand for the protection for human rights is evidenced by the two mass public assemblies, marches and minimum wage pickets in 2007," said Shan at the launching of the Amnesty International Report 2008: State of the World's Human Rights, in conjunction with the worldwide release of the report.
"People are losing faith and growing impatient with the failure of governments, including Malaysia, to protect their rights and the need for reform,' he added.
This year represents 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations.
The report, among others, highlighted that:
> at least 10 people had died in police custody last year, including two suicides;
>83 people were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA).;
> 24,770 migrant workers detained by authorities and subjected to psychological and physical abuse as well as cruel and degrading punishments like caning;
> places of worship were demolished and restrictions on religious freedom remained.
Shan said in conjunction with the release of the 2008 report, governments like Malaysia should stop being in denial and apologise for its poor commitment in upholding human rights.
"The government has to stop using torture and ill-treatment and claim that it is as an acceptable practice for intelligence gathering," said Shan.
Most of them are alleged members of Islamist groups, including Jemmah Islamiah (JI), while others arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) includes the five leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).
Attempts by the Opposition to get the current Parliament meeting to discuss the ISA were rejected by the Speaker and backbenchers.
Meanwhile, Norlaila Othman, the wife of ISA detainee Mat Sah Bin Mohammed Satray, said ministers need to pay a visit to Kamunting to truly have an understanding of the ordeal ISA detainees face.
"Once you are inside, you become a nobody. You are treated worse than an animal, trapped in a 10 ft room with no fan that you are forced to strip naked to just feel cool."
"How can the government say that men like my husband need couseling? Is this counselling ... this is not rehabilitation. If he is indeed guilty, provide the evidence in court."
"As we are only allowed to talk to him through the intercom ... my son has not been able to touch his father in six years," she added.
KUALA LUMPUR: Mercy Malaysia has trained 180 doctors from the Myanmar Medical Association in Yangon for deployment in the Irrawaddy Delta.
Mercy president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood
Mercy president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood said yesterday the local doctors there had volunteered to either work with Mercy or treat Cyclone Nargis victims at the delta’s southern region.
Dr Jemilah, who left on May 5 for Myanmar, returned on Tuesday night. Her colleagues Dr Heng Aik Cheng and Hew Cheong Yew, who trained the Myanmar team, returned last Sunday.
Medical deployment: Dr Jemilah discussing her experience in helping Cyclone Nargis victims in Myanmar.
She said Mercy had sent out 16 local doctors to the southern part
of the delta where they would serve on a rotation basis with another 16.
Nine of the Myanmar doctors are based at the five joint Mercy and Save the Children UK (SC UK) treatment camps in Myaungmya, Nadupdaw and Pyinkhayang.
Another seven doctors are on afloating hospital which is a converted luxury cruise ship loaned to SC UK by a tour operator in Myanmar.
The hospital made stops between Ngapudaw and Myaungmya so doctors could treat patients, said Dr Jemilah.
About 2.4 million Myanmars are affected by the cyclone.
Dr Jemilah said while the rainy season normally saw a rise in illnesses like malaria and diarrhoea, the effects of the cyclone were making residents more vulnerable.
“If we do not get to them now and give them proper food, shelter and water, they will be at more risk,??? she said.
She said the victims still needed medication, shelter and water purification tablets.
PETALING JAYA: Non-governmental organisations welcome the move to create a new electoral roll but the big question is – will the new roll be free of the problems that dog the current one?
Merdeka Centre executive chairman Ibrahim Suffian said the move by the Election Commission (EC) to draw up a new roll might be able to restore the confidence of the people towards the election process.
“All parties should support EC’s proposal,??? Ibrahim said when commenting on The Star’s front-page report on EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman proposing a fresh electoral roll where existing voters would have to re-register.
“It is time for the country to have a new voter registration system since there is no clear updating system currently,??? he said.
Malaysians for Free Elections (Mafrel) acting chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said he welcomed the proposal because it would clear all doubts about the current roll.
“We would like to know the process in which the new roll will be drawn up,??? he said.
A member of Coalition for Clean and Fair Election (Bersih) Liew Chin Tong said the EC should have an automatic voter registration based on the National Registration Department’s database.
Liew, who is also Bukit Bendera MP, said this should be done rather than a re-registration process and any voluntary re-registration process might deprive more voters from exercising their rights.
“The best way out is to have an automatic voter registration system based on the National Registration Department’s database which, since July 16, 2002, has been linked to the Election Commission,??? he said in a press statement yesterday.
“It is of course comforting that the EC has finally come to realise that the current roll lacks integrity and fails to ensure a clean, free and fair election. However, Rashid’s solution is worrying.???
He said if the EC remained an arm of the Prime Minister’s Department, there was no guarantee that the re-registration exercise might not result in more manipulation of the roll.
