News from the New TBRA Committee

News from the TANJONG BUNGA RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION

(20 March, 2017)

New Committee Elected

Kindly be informed that at the Annual General Meeting of the TBRA held on Saturday, 25 February 2017, a new Committee has been elected as follows:

Chairperson: Meenakshi (aka Meena) Raman.

Vice-Chairperson: Agnes James

Secretary: Peter Boyd

Assistant Secretary: Annelies Allain

Treasurer: Cheong Ah Hoo, Alice 

Ordinary Committee Members: Shirin Chan, Zulfikar Abdul Aziz, Dr. Rajeswary Raman, Murlidhar, and Jerry Lang.

The new Chair, Meena is associated with several NGOs in Penang such as the Consumers Association of Penang, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia) and the Third World Network, who are all based in Penang.

New Committee meets

The new committee held its first meeting on Saturday, 11 March 2017 and discussed several issues that were raised during the AGM, which included the Taman Komuniti Tanjong Bunga, (commonly referred to as the ‘Sore Thumb’), the North-Coast Pair Road, and trees being cut down near the Guillemard Reservoir.

The Committee resolved to follow-up actively on these matters to address the concerns of Tanjung Bunga residents in this regard.  

The Committee also discussed the need to recruit more members to join the TBRA and to also reach out to other residents’ associations on Penang Island.

Dr Lim Mah Hui’s resignation speech to Penang Island City Council

Excerpt from Dr. Lim Mah Hui's December 2016 speech of resignation as MBPP councillor after serving six years:

"One of the most serious threats facing the council is over building in the city. I will not call this development. Development is not about erecting more high-rise buildings in every imaginable plot of land all over the island, with scant regard to neighbourhood, street scape, traffic congestion and liveability. Buildings with heritage value, even if not yet designated as such, are torn down illegally, as with the Khaw Sim Bee mansion, or legally as in the dismantling of a heritage value building along Macalister Road, to make way for the Tropicana project.

Last month building guidelines on height control along Scotland Road, a designated protocol road, were changed to allow a developer to double the number of floors he can build from 12 to 22 on a small plot of one-acre land. In another case, submission for approval has been made for construction of a 38-storey hotel on a small plot of land measuring 29,000 sq ft in a residential area along Jln Tanjong Tokong and Pantai Molek. There is good development and there is bad development. Such practices, in my mind, do not constitute good or sustainable development.

Let me now touch on the running of the Council. The Council exists to serve ratepayers and the public. Section 23 of the Local Government Act 1976 states that all meetings of the local authority shall be open to the public and to representatives of the press unless the local authority by resolution at the meeting otherwise decides, although this clause does not apply to any committee unless such committee decides otherwise."

For full speech, see http://anilnetto.com/democracy/civil-society/dr-lim-mah-huis-resignation-speech-penang-island-city-council/