Abad Naluri – A New Dawn for Penang

It has not been wet lately but today’s shower left Penangites abit cool and yearn for some hot stuff to fill our hungry stomach. But for the Committee members of the Penang Turf Club, hot soup will certainly be off their menu as the entire committee was sued by its own PTC members over the deal made with developer Abad Naluri Sdn Bhd to develop the controversial Penang Global City Centre (PGCC).

The legal action – commenced by Tan Kok Ping and Lee Choon Hoe in their own capacity and on behalf of all club members – was filed today at the Penang High Court.

In 2003, PTC and Abad Naluri, signed a preliminary agreement for the sale of some 260 acres of the club’s land for RM488 million in order to develop the PGCC. Abad Naluri was expected to raise that sum and manage the financing for several years before the PGCC project starts contributing back.

From the RM488 million, RM375 million was designated to build a new racecourse in Batu Kawan in the mainland, relocating PTC’s existing racecourse on the island’s prime Batu Gantung Road while the remaining RM113 million would be paid to PTC in cash. However, this agreement had allegedly lapse and Abad has paid only RM10 million in advances to PTC so far.

Earlier, Tan Kok Ping and 12 other ordinary members of the turf club previously lodged a police report on May 8 alleging that the PTC committee had abused its powers in its dealings with Abad Naluri while the Wiz published the Myths & Facts of PGCC here.

When our Pak Lah announced that Penang will get our own Penang Global City Centre – a mirror site to the famed KLCC with its Twin Tower as its landmark, many Penangites including myself were feeling very proud that Penang was looked highly by our PM with so many projects to improve our infrastructure. I’m pretty sure Penang was going the right way to be an important player in our Northern Region and Penangites will definately stand to enjoy all the benefits.

How wrong was I. How ignorant I used to be.

Myth no. 1-
When Pak Lah launched the project in a big funfare environment, everyone thought that everything has been finalised and all red tapes have been cut to gain ‘fast track’ approval for the project to begin. PGCC will be a reality!

Fact No. 1 –
Nothing has been approved yet! CM Lim Guan Eng has came up clarifying that nothing has been approved at the State Government level and urged PGCC developer Abad Naluri to abide by the rules before submitting applications for approval.

HUH? Not yet approved one ah? Then how come Badawi can break the ground and tell to the world that PGCC is set to be built at the site currently occupied by Penang Turf Club ASAP? What kind of PM is this? Say one thing, but things happen the other way round. Similiarities also happened to our 2nd Bridge and Monorail. Janji janji but after defeat in General Election, everything jadi kosong! Next time hor… dun claim that you are the PM of all Malaysians! You’re PM to BN rule states only. Somemore hor… please be more responsible abit in your office as PM. You can’t simply going around places, giving promises and then break them later. You won’t last long if you continue to follow Dr. M’s hipocritic ways of doing things.

Myth No. 2 –
PGCC will bring growth and benefits to many Penangites with its strategic locations to serve as a hub to many economics activities such as Monorail.

Fact No. 2 –
PGCC’s developer Abad Naluri is a company owned by Patrick Lim (a.k.a Patrick Badawi by our Dr. M) has close ties with Pak Lah and his family. If this mega project has its way, it will only bring benefits and lots & lots & lots of money to its developer as it is situated in a prime land area which would fetch high price for all its high class residences and business offices.

Yesterday, a group of 12 Penang Turf Club members lodged a police report alleging the Penang state government lost an estimated RM200 million in revenue when it took upon itself to re-zone the turf club land to ‘mixed development’ for the PGCC project. Hmmm… strange isn’t it? Even without the request from PTC to re-zone the land, our previous Penang State government “took the initiative” to do so and thus, lost around RM200 million in revenue from Abad Naluri. Wow… instead of putting money into one’s pocket, Koh Tsu Khoon threw it away into the sea??!! If this is TRUE, what kind of a CM was he?

As what our CM has said, many Penangites have been misled (including himself) by our Pak Lah. He realli can be the best movie maker for Malaysia. Now you see it, now you don’t! It happened to Government projects. It also happened to private sector’s projects as well. The obligations he made (most of them, if not all) for the 9th Malaysian Plan seemed to go down the drain. Flushhh…. it’s gone! In one of my earliest post, I praised Bodowi for being the Father of Democracy.

Sigh… Again how wrong I was. Again how ignorant I used to be!