Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the opening of the Pengkalar Kota DAP Branch Annual General Meeting held at DAP Penang Hqrs, Kinta Lane on Monday, 16th March, 1992 at 8 pm.
Tan Ghim Hwa and the 24 MPPP Councillors should leave their cars at home and travel only on public transport for one week, and there will never be any more four-minute MPPP full Council meetings in future.
The MPPP Councillors are a special breed of people’s representatives in Malaysia.
The greatest complaint of DAP Assemblymen and MPs for instance, is that there is not enough time for them to raise arid discuss the people’s problems, grievances, needs, hopes and aspira¬tions in the State Assemblies and Parliament.
But the greatest fear of the MPPP Councillors is to have meetings of MPPP full Councils, for they could think of nothing to say or discuss about the problems, grievances, needs, hopes and aspira-tions of the
600 ,000 people in the Penang Island Municipality.
This was why the first MPPP full Council meeting chaired by the new MPPP President, Tan Ghim Hwa, last Thursday disposed of the business and problems of the 600,000 people on the Penang Island in four minutes.
The new MPPP President had nothing to say about his vision for Penang City or his mission to wipe out the triple Municipal ills of ‘decadence, impotence and inefficiency’ and the 24 MPPP Councillors were equally blind, deaf and dumb about the many problems faced by the people of Penang as a result of the continuous deterioration of Munic¬ipal services by the appointed MPPP.
I just cannot believe that the new MPPP President and the 24 MPPP Councillors have absolutely nothing to say about the failure of the MPPP to date to ensure that the people of Penang enjoy a satis¬factory quality of life and the teeming problems on the Penang island, whether it be cleanliness, clogged drains, traffic jams, flash floods, river, sea and air pollution or poor public transport.
If Tan Ghim Hwa and the 24 MPPP Councillors could not think of anything to discuss at full MPPP Council meetings, I suggest that they leave their cars at home and travel only on public transport for one week, and I am sure there will never be any more four-minute MPPP full Council meetings in future.
Tan Ghim Hwa and the 24 MPPP Coun¬cillors will have enough experience and views to last several days of MPPP full Council meetings!
The Penang island public transport system is one of the greatest disgraces of the MPPP, but Tan Ghim Hwa and the 24 MPPP Councillors have been so cut off from the problems faced by the ordi-nary men
in the street that they have literally become the traditional three monkey who have eyes that see not,
ears that hear not and mouths that speak not.
It would appear that Tan Ghim Hwa and the 24 MPPP Council¬lors also do not read newspapers, for they could not have missed the numerous letters complaining about the public transport system in Penang.
The following recent complaint, for instance, is very typi¬cal:
“While travelling home in the evenings and weekends, buses No. 66 and 78 are often filled to capacity right from the Weld Quay terminal. Commuters along the rest of the way for example at the Prangin and KOMTAR termi¬nal are ‘stranded’. I sympathise especially with those along Jalan Jelutong, Glugor and Batu Uban head¬ing towards Bayan Baru. Even when buses stop for passengers to alight, they do so a few metres away from the bus-stops. Commuters can only watch in anger and frustration”.
“On two occasions after visiting a friend near Bukit Dumbar, off Jalan Jelutong, I had to take a bus down to Weld Quay in order to return to Bayan Baru where I live. (Of course I passed Jelutong again on the way home). What choice did I have with all the taxis and buses packed! So much time was lost”.
Who is responsible for this shocking state of public trans¬port on the Penang Island? The MPPP of course, but the new President and the 24 MPPP Councillors could think of nothing to talk and discuss during their full MPPP Council meeting last Thursday!