THE commission of inquiry into the landslide in Tanjung Bungah which killed 11 people last Saturday must be open to the public to ensure transparency, a residents’ association said today.

The Tanjung Bungah Residents Association (TBRA), which has been critical of developments in hilly areas, said an open hearing would serve public interest.

“It must also allow the full participation and engagement of all stakeholders, including TBRA,” its chairman, Meenakshi Raman, said in a statement today.

The Penang government on Wednesday announced the probe into the incident at a 50-storey affordable apartment construction site on Lorong Lembah Permai 3. 

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the commission would determine the cause of the failure of the temporary slope at the site, scrutinise the approval procedures, whether procedures were in order and guidelines were followed, as well as recommend improvements.

The commission will also review matters related to the project, such as whether the site is on flat land or a hill slope and whether the nearby quarry is among the main reasons for the failure of the temporary slope or if it is a construction-site accident.

It will also determine the parties responsible for the temporary slope failure and make and take appropriate action, including legal action, against those responsible.

The developer, Taman Sri Bunga, is also conducting its own post-mortem into the landslide which killed 10 foreign workers and a Malaysian site supervision. 

Meenakshi said it was good that the commission would also look into how the apartment project was approved.

“We hope that this will also include, not only the relevant guidelines, but also laws related to the granting of planning and other approvals, as well as monitoring and enforcement aspects with a view to improving them.

“This must also include a review of the guidelines on ‘hill site development 2012’, as well as in ensuring sufficient capacity exists in the relevant authorities to monitor and enforce any condition imposed.”

The state government and Penang Island City Council have said the landslide was a construction-site accident. 

They also said the construction was on flat land, not on a hill slope.

They also said despite the Environmental Department’s rejection of the developer’s planning permission in 2015 because the project was near a quarry, the distance between the two exceeded the department’s minimum distance requirement.

The Minerals and Geosciences Department also did not object to the apartment project, they said. – October 27, 2017.