PENANG Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said his principles have stayed the same even though his position has changed from an opposition MP to a state government leader.

He said this after a group protesting the Pan Island Link 1 (PIL1) highway tried to raise questions about his principles by bringing up his past objections against a proposed Barisan Nasional highway.

Chow, when he was the opposition Tanjong MP, had objected against the RM5 billion Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR), which never took off after BN lost the state to the opposition in 2008.

“The speech I made in 2002 has of late gone viral. It is meant to show that I had opposed the PORR project and to question why I am now supporting the PIL1 highway.

“But my objection against PORR was specifically over the toll that would be collected. The contractor was already going to be compensated with deals like land reclamation.

“Back then, the Halcrow Report on PORR also said the highway would not solve the traffic problem for long. In five years, the traffic congestion would return,” he told a press conference after the state legislative assembly adjourned this afternoon.

Earlier today, anti-PIL1 protestors, who had gathered outside the state legislative assembly to oppose the project, gave the media handouts with a line from Chow’s May 2002 speech on PORR.

Chow also said that the protesting group had taken his speech out of context. He also reminded them that soon after Pakatan Rakyat took over Penang in the 2008 general election, the new state administration wanted the federal government to return the PORR project.

It was one of three mega projects Penang wanted Putrajaya to give back to the state, he said.

“In July 2008, the state legislative assembly passed a motion urging the federal government to reinstate RM4.7 billion worth of projects in Penang.

“The other two projects were the monorail and the Mengkuang Dam. Penang only got back the dam from the BN federal government, not the monorail and PORR.”

Chow also said the group targeting him by implying he had changed his principles have run out of capital.

“Use the right facts. Don’t twist and devalue yourselves as professionals.”

PIL1 is a RM7.5 billion highway that connects Persiaran Gurney in the north and the second Penang Bridge in the south.

The project is part of the Penang Transport Master Plan, a comprehensive integrated public transport plan to address Penang’s worsening traffic problem. It proposed new highways and an LRT line among others.

Critics of the PTMP, which is estimated to cost RM46 billion, are arguing that the government should be looking at improving public transport instead of building more roads. – August 10, 2018.