THE landslide at an affordable housing project site in Lengkok Lembah Permai, Tanjung Bungah in Penang is proof of the stubbornness of the DAP-led Penang state government, which refuses to listen to people’s complaints about uncontrolled land development, especially on hill slopes.

Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya said the disaster could have been avoided if the state government had heeded repeated calls to stop the projects in the area.

“DAP’s Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu had protested, however, the state government led by Lim Guan Eng ignored it. This attitude is not surprising, because Lim prefers to lay blame on the federal government and the previous state government for everything, rather than to solve the problems at hand.

“Ultimately, the people become the victims,” he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Parti Cinta Malaysia vice-president Huan Cheng Guan described the landslide as  the worst in Penang’s history and questioned the state government’s move to approve the risky project.

“The problem had been raised in the Penang Forum, and the Tanjung Bungah assemblyman and Tanjung Bungah Resident Association also objected to this project. So why do they pretend not to hear anything,” he said when met at the scene, here today.

Parti Alternatif Rakyat (PAP) vice-president Rahmad Isahak urged the DAP-led Penang government to call for an emergency state assembly sitting to debate the landslide so that a motion to halt all development in the highlands and hillsides could be tabled.

“An official decision through the state assembly sitting should be made, so that a permanent policy for development on highlands and hillsides could be formed,” he said. – Bernama, October 22, 2017.