‘Do you want to follow Liverpool to settle heritage issue?’
City Councillor and Penang Forum member Dr Lim Mah Hui addresses his peers in an impassioned speech on saving George Town’s heritage status or follow Liverpool on building highrises.
GEORGE TOWN: A city councillor here provided a worse-case scenario on what would happen if Penang carried out its ambitious transport master plan without due consideration to its famed World Heritage Site status.
Councillor Dr Lim Mah Hui, the sole NGO appointee in the Penang Island City Council, said there were limited options left if George Town lost its heritage listing if the proposed Sia Boey transport hub took off.
“The first option is to ignore Unesco, proceed with the project and accept the delisting.
“This is what the city of Liverpool did when faced with the choice of preserving its heritage status or building high-rise buildings.
“This is a conscious and deliberate choice that Penang can take,” Lim said in his adjourning remarks at the regular council meeting at the city council here today.
Lim, a Penang Forum member, has been vocal against components in the Penang Transport Master Plan, particularly the Light Rail Transit (LRT) system and the proposed highways.
Lim said the second option for the Penang Government was to comply with Unesco’s requirements and build a matching transport system for the heritage site.
“This could be transport systems, such as Bus Rapid Transit or trams, that do not threaten its heritage status, as in Istanbul.”
Lim said another choice was to move the transport hub to another area.
“But what if the state has signed a binding legal agreement with SRS to build the LRT in Sia Boey?
“If it wants to comply with Unesco’s conditions, it will have to amend the agreement but face the liability of paying hefty compensation.”
Lim and the Forum (a grouping of NGOs) have been in a bitter argument with Penang Government officials following a letter it sent to Unesco in Paris on concerns over the transport hub being built at Sia Boey.
Sia Boey, a disused market near Komtar, has been earmarked to be the LRT hub for two rail lines under the transport master plan. It is located just outside the World Heritage Site.
The Forum has said that Sia Boey’s close proximity to the heritage site meant it required Unesco’s intervention before going ahead with the LRT hub plan.
Lim’s lecture today on the tram versus LRT plan elicited a angry response from fellow councillor Chris Lee.
He took a shot at Lim and Penang Forum’s “Better, Cheaper and Faster” (BCF) alternative transport plan, which called for tramways rather than the LRT.
“Should Lim call on the state government and its people to support him, and believe in the words of Penang Forum, when he himself is not equipped with complete and accurate information?
“The BCF is created based on assumptions and a fairy tale, which Penang Forum considers suitable to be implemented in Penang.
“After studying the BCF in detail, I find that it is just an imitation of part of the Halcrow report, which is to be taken as a guide, and not to be used literally as no detailed studies have been undertaken to determine the issues and efficiency of the suggestions.”
Lee said BCF was nothing more than a Penang Forum fantasy story that was not based on fact, reality, safety risk or cost.
Lee told Lim that it was normal to have disagreements. Lee said the other councillors were also doing their job and Lim was not the only one concerned about the state.
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After the meeting, a visibly upset Lim, who was sitting beside Lee, told him that disagreement was different from uncivilised discourse, where words like “backstabber” and such were used.