Teng to DAP: Own up, stop blaming BN
A bungalow associated with Sir Stamford Raffles and ancillary buildings at the Runnymede site were turned to rubble on the second day of the Chinese New Year holidays.
(Free Malaysia Today) – The Barisan Nasional (BN) has rebuked the DAP-led Penang state government for always blaming the previous state government when it wanted to cover up its own administrative faults, even after eight years in power.
Referring to the recent demolition of heritage buildings at Runnymede, Penang BN chairman Teng Chang Yeow said that the present state government should accept responsibility and accountability for its own actions when something had gone wrong.
A bungalow associated with Sir Stamford Raffles and ancillary buildings at the Runnymede site were turned to rubble on the second day of the Chinese New Year holidays.
Teng said the state government always took the easy way out when something had gone wrong by blaming everything on previous state administrations run by the BN.
“Stop blaming the previous government. You have been in power for nearly eight years and you’re still blaming us? Eight years is enough for you to be responsible and accountable for everything that happens in Penang,” he said on Saturday night.
The Runnymede demolitions have been justified by the state executive councillor for local government, Chow Kon Yeow, who said it was carried out in accordance with the planning permission approved by the municipal council 17 years ago on November 10, 1999.
Chow said the council’s approval of the demolition was valid under the Town and Country Planning Act, and that the planning permission was still active as development in the area started in July 2000, and that the Employees’ Provident Fund building, next to the demolished heritage buildings, was part of the Runnymede planning permission.
In response, Teng said he was unsure whether the 17-year-old approval of planning permission was still valid.
He recalled that the Penang Island Municipal Council under the late Tan Gim Hwa had drawn up a policy in 1993 that planning permission could only be renewed 10 times, meaning it could be valid only for 10 years.
Teng said he was a municipality councillor then. “I don’t know whether any changes have been made to the policy now,” he said. “But then the EPF building project is (part of) phase one, while Runnymede is (part of) phase two, and 17 years is too long a period.”
The current state government has tried to cast blame on the previous state government under the BN for the demolitions and claimed that it would be forced to pay millions in compensation to the developer if it had disallowed the redevelopment project to go ahead.
In response, Teng said: “Penangites already rejected BN eight years ago. Now it’s your government, you take responsibility. Don’t just blame BN any more.”
He quipped: “It’s almost as if one couldn’t sleep if one didn’t blame BN!”
Teng chided the state government of trying to portray itself as being powerless to do anything against developers.
“Everything is being blamed on the previous government as if the current government has no power to stop it. Yet the current government has the power to take over public-organised functions, but no power to stop demolitions of heritage buildings?” Teng said of the DAP-led state government.
Seven ancillary heritage buildings in the Runnymede enclave, located on North Beach fronting Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah in George Town were flattened to rubble by developer Warisan Pinang Sdn Bhd on Tuesday, the second day of the Chinese New Year public holidays.
Only the main building, which was used as the Runnymede Hotel and which houses a big ballroom, was spared from the developer’s wrecking crew.
Teng said the demolition, carried out during a public holiday of a community festival, showed the developers “did not have good intentions.”
Local heritage groups are in an uproar over the demolition of the Runnymede heritage buildings, which were built in the early 1800s.
Historians said one of the demolished buildings was built and lived in by Stamford Raffles and his family when he was assistant secretary to the governor of Penang for the East India Company. Raffles later left for Singapore and became known as the founder of Singapore City after the island was bought by the company from the Johore sultanate.
