Exposed! Guan Eng’s Low Cost Housing Scam!

Is this what the future holds for Penang?

Source: Ong Eu Soon

At the heart of George Town along Jalan SP Chelliah, the state government plans to build 4 blocks of 20 to 25 storeys of low cost housing with total 1,320 units on a 6.9 acre plot of land. This give a development density of 1320/6.9 or 191 units per acre which is far beyond the maximum density of 87 unit per acre as planned by the authority.

The World Health Organization (WHO), in its concern for public health, produced a document on the subject stating that every city should have a minimum of 9 m2 of green space per person. An optimal amount would sit between 10 and 15 m2 per person.
1 acre is equal to 4046.86 square meter. 6.9 acres is equal to 27923. 33 square meter. Let assume each units having 3 persons, 1320 units will have 3960 persons.

Even without any building, the 6.9 acres of lands can only provide 7.0 m2 of green space per person. Normal site coverage which include roads and drainage will take about 70% of the land. That mean after construction the green space is only 0.3X7.0 or 2.1 m2 per person.

I just can’t imaging how one can build a high density of 191 in the heart of George Town. The developer might end up having not enough space to even cater for the  roads and drainage.

This is the stupidity, our local NGOs particularly Penang Forum has no eyes to see.

This is not the first time, Guan Eng had betrayed us on low cost housing. Remember the low cost housing at Halaman Kenaga, this is another low income ghetto, after Rifle Range, Koay Jetty and Macallum,a typical apartheid housing separated the poor from the rich and famous and squeeze into a mere 4.31 acres of land with 712 unit of household. The more than 165 units per acres density is almost double the 87 units per acre as planned by Lim Guan Eng administration. With such a high density development, can LGE tell us is this Halaman Kenaga within a mass transit corridor which is efficient, affordable and accessible?

Did the high density development ever help arrest the escalation of property prices over the last few years? There is no policy debate or public participation with regard to these massive increases in development density. In the end the poor like always have been betrayed by their so called hero or champion. Yet  Lim Guan Eng is thick face enough to claim that the state put the interests of the people first!

List of Low Cost Housing in the hall of shame:

SP Chelliah housing density:
1320 units/6.9 acres= 191 units per acre

Halaman Kenaga housing density:
712 units/4.31 acres=165 units/acre

Koay Jetty housing density:
2315 units/14.0 acres = 165.4 units/acre
OR 2304 units/ 4 blocks) = 576 units/block

Rifle Range flat’s density:
3888 units/41.2 acres = 94.37 units/acre
OR 3888 units / 9 blocks = 432 units/block

Macallum Street Ghaut density:
4500 units/ 60 acres = 75 units/acre

Density is higher than usual – at 191 units/acre, compared with the MPPP’s normal density of 30 units/acre. Exceptional circumstances allowance: 120 units/acre

(Source: http://www.theooifamily.com/ThePenangfileb/may-2006/KoayJ46.htm)

If we look at the 18,000 units to be built on 77 acres of land for the second phase low cost housing projects. The average development density is 18000/77 or 234 units per acre. This is absolutely outrageous. Should we give LGE another 2 terms before we do something?

Penang Forum, Aliran and Anil have chose side protecting the incredible CM in order to get rid of BN, refuse to look into the issues at hands.

Those day the NGOs mourned the death of Koay jetty, now the NGOs celebrated with their hero LGE for his generosity in helping the poor to build a poverty stricken ghetto slum. When will we ever learn? Just because we want to get rid of BN, we should tolerate this arrogant ego centric no brainer who simply spin at any opportunity to make himself look good?

A disheveled and filthy ghetto slum riddled with crime and all sort of social ills in the making. Tell us overtime that it won’t stood out like sore thumbs! Tell us overtime that it won’t suffered from decades of relative neglect with shoddy infrastructures! Can’t image! The gift of Lim Guan Eng for those who voted for him is a ghetto slum! After 308 the heart and soul of all the social activists has been  blinded by hate and stupidity!

Tell us how are you going to undo the damages when you find out later. We need to stop this stupidity like the way we stop the hill-slope development. We just can’t stop doing anything to let it happen without mounting a serious challenge. If you believe in fair play, justice, equal rights, it is time for you to abandon your partisan stand and face the truth! Act now before it is too late. Alone I can’t do anything, together we can be a force to be reckon with.

It is now or never! Stop Lim Guan Eng now before it is too late!

- Stop The Lies