PENANG Island City Council (MBPP) Mayor Yew Tung Seang has promised civil society that no stone will be left unturned in the fatal Bukit Kukus landslide.

The city council is the owner of the road construction project at the Paya Terubong site, where a landslide killed nine foreign workers last Friday.  

Yew, who met with representatives of civil groups including Penang Forum this morning, said MBPP shared the same views on some of the points and concerns raised by civil society over the landslide.

“We also want to know why it happened. We also have the same questions that you are asking. We had issued a stop-work order at the site immediately.

“We also demanded explanations from the contractor and engineering consultants, as well as the independent checkers,” he told the representatives during their brief meeting at the City Hall.

“The state government has also formed a special committee to investigate the main cause of the incident while the police, Occupational Safety and Health Department, and Construction Industry Development Board are also running their investigations.

“Let us wait for the investigations’ findings. If there is any negligence, we will surely take action.”

Yew said the MBPP had its own committee of technical professionals, which he is heading, to investigate what went wrong.

“We promise you we will leave no stone unturned,” he said.

Earlier, representatives from Penang Forum and several other civil groups as well as some concerned citizens had gathered outside City Hall, where Yew was chairing the council’s full meeting, to show solidarity for victims killed in the Bukit Kukus landslide and last year’s Tanjung Bungah landslide that killed 11 construction workers, including a Malaysian site supervisor.

Learning of their gathering, Yew invited three representatives from the group of about 50 people to see him after the meeting to listen to their concerns.

Penang Forum’s Khoo Salma Nasution asked Yew whether any firm had been blacklisted over the fatal landslide last year.

She said that without blacklisting of responsible parties by the authorities, there would be no deterrent.

“We want to see MBPP create deterrence by either blacklisting them or suspending their projects for 10 years.

“If there is no deterrent, it will be business as usual and no accountability.

“Any developer or contractor will not hesitate to do the same thing because the fine is only RM35,000,” she said.

Salma was referring to the George Town sessions court’s decision on Wednesday to fine the main contractor of the landslide hit apartment project in Tanjung Bungah last year only RM35,000 in lieu of two years’ jail.

“RM35,000 for 11 people who were killed. If you are a contractor and can cut costs, why not. The fine is too cheap. Is that fair? Is that justice?” Salma said.

Yew said the city council still has to wait for the commission of inquiry’s report on the Tanjung Bungah incident.

“Let us wait until the findings are out,” he said.

The commission held its first public hearing in January this year, three months after the tragedy. – October 26, 2018.