By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Thursday , January 20th, 1994:
Is Tsu koon advocating that Penang practice facadism as replacement of heritage building conservation – where the façade of Hotel Metropole need not be kept at the original site and could be moved and preserved in a museum?
Pennag Chief Minister , Dr. Koh Tsu Koon should explain how he could justify the MPPP decision last Oct 28 to surreptitiously remove Hotel Metropole from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritahe buildings which prohibited demolition or development , and plced in a new Category 2 List which allowed its demolition and redevelopment provided its façade is preserved.
Dr. Tsu Koon does not seem to know that under the 1989 MPPP conservation guidelines for Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah , was identified as one of the areas worthy of conservation.
Dr. Koh Tsu Koon will be making a complete mockery of the concept of conservation of Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah if he now advocates that heritage buildings could be demolishe so long as the façade of these buildings are preserved.
The nest proposal will be for these historical facades to be moved to the front of side of the land concerned , so that they would not form a stumbling block to the full redevelopment and profit maximization of the land.
Is Tsu Koon advocating that Penang practices facadism as replacement of heritage building conservation – where the façade of hOtel metropole , though it would be a copy when rebuilt , need not be kept at its original site and could be moved and preserved in a museum?
Tan Gim Hwa should apologise to the people of Penang for trying to hide the fact that he had surreptitiously removed Hotel Metropole from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings for Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah
For 18 days after the scandalous and outrageous demolition of Penang heritage building Hotel Metropole on Christmas Day , MPPP President , Datuk Tan Gim Hwa had maintained that he had not surreptitiously removed Hotel Metropole from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings for Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah.
However , on 12th Janaury 1994, MPPP councilor Dr. Goh Ban Lee publicly admitted that on October 28 last year , the MPPP surreptitiously removed Hotel Metropole from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings and out it in a new Category 2 list , without any public consultation or notice whatsoever.
The removal of the Hotel Metropole from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings to the new category 2 list involved a major appreciation in the market value of the property , because when it was under the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings, Hotel Metropole could not undergo any demolition , alternation or extension.
However , when Hotel Metropole was surreptitiously removed from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings and placed in the new Category 2 list , it could be demolished to give way for major redevelopment except that the façade of the building must be preserved.
Bow, That the full facts have come out , Tan Gim Hwa should apologise to the people of Penang for trying to hide the fact he has surreptitiously removed hOtel Metropole from the 1989 MPPP list of 2 0 heritage buildings for Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah , and placed it in a new Category 2 list without any public notice or consultation.
Malaysians had been urged to’ look east ‘ but political leaders in the Barisan Nasional do not practice the standards or responsibility and accountability of the East , like Japan/
This is because in political systems and cultures with higher standards of political and moral accountability , an official in the position of Tan Gim Hwa who had been publicy caught as having been guilty of dishonesty in not maing any disclosure of the material information that Hotel Metropole had been surreptitiously removed from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings would have submitted his resignation.
Alternatively , he would have been dismissed from his post . In Penang , we have the Penang Chief Minister rushing to announce his re-apponitment as MPPP president although his present term would not expire until next month!
Why must Tan Gim Hwa and Koh Tsu koon be forced to yield bits and pieces of information about the Hotel metropole demolition Scandal instead or coming out to give all the facts?
It is clear that both the MPPP President and the Chief Minister , Dr. Koh tsu Koon , are not prepared to give the Penang People and the Malaysian public all the facts about the Hotel Metropole demolition scandal – and that the public would have remained in the dark if the DAP had not dug and forced out facts and information from the authorities concerned.
Gim Hwa and Tsu Koon should explain why they must be forced to yield bits and pieces of information about the Hotel Metropole demolition scandal instead of coming out to give all facts?
Of course , if the public have all the information about the Hotel Metropole demolition scandal , they would then be denied the power and liberty to manipulate events.
DAP demand for all facts , circumstances and background on six major aspects of the Hotel Metropole demolition scandal
DAP demands that the MPPP President and the State Government should stop its stone-walling tactics and should immediately public all the facts , circumstances and background on six major aspects of the hotel Metropole demolition scandal namely:
The price ,terms and all particulars related to the sale of Hotel Metropole Sdn. Bhd by Gim Hwa and other shareholders to cempaka Sdn. Bhd ;
The Price , terms , and all particulars related to the sale of Hotel Metropole to Dolphin Square Sdn .Bhd ;
The real ownership of RM2 company , Dolphin Square Sdn . Bhd and why they paid three times the price for the property as a heritage bulding under the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings;
All details of any discussuins and arrangements made between the new owners and the former owners of Hotel Metropole – whether Cempaka Sdn . bhd or Hotel Metropole Sdn Bhd – about removing Hotel Metropole from the 1989 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings , and
The circumstances , reasons and persons involved in the surreptitiously removal of hotel Metropole from the 199 MPPP list of 20 heritage buildings and its classification in a new Category 2 list;
The terms , Circumstances and parties involved directly in the actual demolition of hotel Metropole On Christmas Day.