He said as Tanjong MP at that time, he had demanded that any new road in Penang should be toll-free and only built if considered necessary by the experts.
Chow said furthermore, a transport expert at that time found the proposed Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) would be an exercise in futility as it would be “back to square one in five years”.
He said he had then demanded that the Penang government acknowledge the transport expert’s findings, but never got a reply.
Chow said hence, in his 2002 speech, he had demanded that the then CM, Koh Tsu Koon, refute the findings of the transport expert’s report.
“I only opposed the tolls, but never roads. I even supported a motion by the state government in 2008 to urge the then prime minister to bring highway projects to Penang, but minus tolls,” he said during a press conference at the state assembly lobby today.
To prove his point, Chow showed a news report on July 30, 2008, where the state assembly passed a motion demanding that the federal government quickly approve the RM2 billion Penang Monorail, the RM1 billion PORR and RM1.2 billion expansion of the Mengkuang Dam.
He said he voted in support of the motion but at that time, the BN federal government only approved the Mengkuang Dam expansion project.
Chow was responding to a group protesting against the state’s proposed Pan Island Link 1 (PIL 1) highway, which would involve tunnelling through the hills.
The group claimed that Chow was a changed person today as in 2002, he had objected against the PORR, but was now pressing ahead with PIL 1.
To prove their point, they also distributed excerpts from Chow’s speech in 2002 where he doubted the effectiveness of PORR.
Meanwhile, Chow said the protest group today had “terpesong” (deviated) from the facts by using his old statement against him.
“I hope this group gets its facts right.”
You once objected to highway projects yourself, protesters tell Penang CM