Reflections

On Deepavali Day, 17 October 2009, residents of Pearl Hill Townhouse and Solok Tan Jit Seng in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, organised a protest against dangerous hill slopes development, which they labelled as ‘Deepavali Tea Party’, because the protest was followed by a tea reception.

About 60 residents turned up, supported by the Tanjung Bungah Residents Association (TBRA). They all hold banners and placards with catchy slogans like ‘Hell on earth with Hill Slopes Development’, ‘Mistakes cost lives’.  However, what was more interesting was that some of them were armed with pots and pans, which they will bang hard, making a noisy din, each time a speaker made a pertinent point.

This was the third ‘Tea Party’ in this year, organised by the Tanjung Bungah residents. The first one was on Valentine’s Day, 14 Feb at Chee Seng Gardens, and the second one was at Solok Tan Jit Seng on 23 March.

In the recent Deepavali Tea Party, the residents hope that the State Government will adhere strictly to the newly Cabinet-approved ‘Guidelines for Hillside and Highland Areas Development’ (12/8/09).  which bans any development on slopes of more than 35 degrees gradient.

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this is my second third project as a citizen/video journalist. the first was during pakatan’s 1st anniversary gathering at the esplanade on 7 march, where 4 of us, lilian, lim and leow were there; second one on 14 march when 5 of us (the same 4 L’s, plust koh) were out on the streets after 11.00am to interview the homeless people. yesterday, there were only 2 of us, lim and i where we went to the tanjung bungah residents association (TBRA) ‘tea party’  hill-slopes protest.

it was actually a ‘coffee party’ as coffee was served instead. this was the 2nd protest the TBRA held. the first one was in feb where they used pots and pans to bang. this coffee party protest was held at solok tan jit seng (behind the tg bungah secondary school) because it was where the dangerous hill-slopes project can be seen. seemed that over 20 trees had been cut down for the project and the hill-slope has a gradient of 68 degrees!

TBRA members wants the penang government to ban class 3 (a gradient of 25 – 35%) and class 4 (a gradient of over 35%) it seemed that, this hill project’s gradient is 68%! imagine! so much higher than class 4! can’t blame the residents for living in fear that some disaster is waiting to happen.

there were a number of press present for this protest. the VIP present ere YB teh, the assemblyman from tanjung bungah and YB phee, exco for social welfare and environment department.  the CM was invited but he sent YB phee instead. YB phee said that halfway through, the CM called him to check if the turned up!

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the speakers l to r: choo choon kai (suaram), YB chow kon yeow (PR), the moderator, lim kah cheng (councillor), teh leong meng (gerakan)

i attended the suaram forum ‘CAT ruling: change or same?’ as announced  in my mental jog blog. i was late… arrived about 8.30 of which when i walked in the 3rd speaker was just about to finish (there were 4 speakers).

my friend, christina reserved a seat for me next to her and she was seated right in front! alamak! i walked in and all eyes were on me.   anyway there were quite a number of empty seats. the room (2nd floor) was big but there were not too many people… maybe about 50. nevertheless, it was an interesting forum with lively debate from the speakers and the floor. i did not take down notes but let’s see what i remember here and there.

the 4 speakers were mr choo chon kai from suaram, ms im kah cheng, councillor, YB chow kon yeow, who is the state local government, traffic management and environment committee chairmanand mr teh leong meng from gerakan.  it was a pleasant surprise to not the presence of an opposition member – mr teh from gerakan.

well, when i walked in, mr teh was speaking.  i heard something “the CAT government not living up to its promise…” blah blah. sitting down for just 5 mins, his speech ended! pity i missed his speech as i’m sure he had a lot of criticisms of the present penang government, label the ‘CAT government’. never mind, there were still summing up time and Q&A.
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