'I say that the former state government(BN) is wise and farsighted in selling land. The current state government(DAP) sells land but it is short-sighted. On the surface, it has allowed the state government to rake in millions in profit. However, people are unable to benefit in the deal. They continue to live their hard life.'
Kwong Wah Jit Poh
'Penang People deserves the Gomen that it Choose, in this case they have chosen DAP for two terms already, with DAP policy of sellling land to the highest bidding developer, its becoming more difficult now to buy homes in Pulau Pinang as developers will have to build expensive houses to recoup money paid for State Land. Enjoy your time with the DAPlah.'
Me
Triple Win vs Win-win
Posted: July 2, 2014 in Article
By: Hu Dong Qiang (translated name)
Kwong Wah Jit Poh, 01-07-2014
Those who observe Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for long term would know that he is good at diverting issues when faced with problems. Few days ago, Chief Minister Lim issued a media statement on former state government of Penang selling land 35 times more than Pakatan Rakyat into its sixth years of running the state. This is obviously diverting people’s attention on the issues of expanding Penang International Airport.
After reading Lim’s statement on former state government selling land, it would not be difficult to find misleading points in the statement. The statement seems to be leading readers to a false phenomenon, intentionally or unintentionally, that the former state government does not only sell land but also sell it at extremely low price.
In fact, many issues are like double-edged swords. Now when I look at it I feel that the former state government is a far-sighted state government with vision. The state government may be selling land to developers at lower price but it has imposed a condition for developer to build thousands of low cost homes (selling at RM50,000) and medium cost homes (RM72,500) to people. Thousands of people benefited from this.
If the Barisan Nasional state government had opted to Lim’s way of handling by selling state government’s land to the highest bidders, how would developers be able to build low cost units for medium and lower income group under the pressure of increasing land cost? In order to recover its high cost, developers would be constructing high-end property for sale. Hence, property price in Penang would have increased. How many Penangites would be able to afford houses ranging from RM700, 000 to RM1 million? Indirectly, the state government has collaborated in helping the property price in Penang to escalate.
The Pakatan Rakyat and DAP have been stressing on highways and bridges without toll charges. They have urged the Barisan Nasional-led Federal Government to abolish toll booths for highways and Penang Bridge. But the undersea tunnel planned by state government is collecting toll charges from the people. The former state government built Tun Lim Chong Eu Expressway (formerly known as Jelutong Expressway) free of charge. This was the condition set by former Chief Minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon to the developer for selling land to developer. The condition was to build a free-of-charge expressway, 5,000 units of low-cost and medium-cost homes for people.
Since the expressway was open to public, it gives great convenience to people in Southwest part of Penang commuting to George Town. The journey only takes 15 minutes to reach the heart of the city.
As reclaimed land along Lim Chong Eu Expressway was sold to developers, more than 10,000 units of homes were built. This has indirectly increased the revenue of Penang City Council in terms of assessment rates.
The former state government’s act of selling could be described as triple win for developers, state government and the people!
Hence, I say that the former state government is wise and farsighted in selling land. The current state government sells land but it is short-sighted. On the surface, it has allowed the state government to rake in millions in profit. However, people are unable to benefit in the deal. They continue to live their hard life.
On the expansion of Penang International Airport, the Pakatan Government has ruled for six years but never bother about expansion plan of the airport until Kedah announces building a new airport. The Penang state government is worried now. Once the new airport near Kulim is ready, transport facilities in the area is also approaching maturity. As rental and sale of property in Kulim is relatively much cheaper than Penang, many foreign factories would relocate to Kulim to set up their plants by that time. This is a huge threat to Penang.
The issue of Penang airport expansion is evident that the state government does not have a long term plan. To divert attention to the so-called sale of land, the former state government’s act is triple win but the current state government only achieves win-win that is both state government and developer win but the people lose out.
Original Source: 三赢VS双赢
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