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Monday, February 16, 2009

Ban on Highland Development Lifted


Now, the Minister of Work has announced to lift the ban on highland development.

While I agree that there should not be a total ban on highland development, I am surprised that when announcing the lifting of highland development, there was no detailed information about how highland development should be supervised during the project implementation, who should be the monitoring agency since there are many agencies involved.

It cannot be left to local council where there is a lack of expertise.

If private and government consultants are involved in highland project, they should be held accountable. When the project is completed, who is supposed to monitor and for how long.

I regret to say that while the government has not announced its detailed findings in Bukit Antarabangsa tragedy, it has chosen to pre-empt the study by lifting the ban.

Every landslide provides an opportunity to the authority to investigate the actual cause of the landslide – what went wrong and who is responsible. Often nobody seems to be accountable. The usual finger pointing and blame game starts. There seems to be lack of political will to ensure safety in highland development.

Meanwhile, buyers must be more careful in purchasing hillside houses. We have never seemed to learn from the human tragedy that strikes residents of Bukit Antarabangsa.

(文告)
吉隆坡16日讯)马华署理总会长拿督斯里蔡细历医生认为,公共工程部应该先公布国际山庄土崩的调查结果,才决定是否让山坡地区发展解冻。
他认同不该全面禁止国内的山坡发展计划,但政府尚未公布土崩调查结果,却率先为山坡工程亮绿灯的决定让他十分惊讶。
“工程部长宣布解禁,却未加以说明政府将会采取的监督措施。山坡地区发展涉及多个机构,究竟谁将负责监管进行中的山坡工程?要如何监管?我们总不能把所有责任留待严缺技术专才的地方议会处理。”
蔡细历也是马华政府政策监督局主任。他今日发表文告指出,如果有关计划的咨询专家来自政府和私人界,双方都有责任。此外,政府也须鉴定竣工的工程,该由谁执行监察工作?监察为期多久?
他认为,每一起土崩事件给关当局机会深入调查土崩真正肇因,包括查出问题的症结、鉴定该负责的单位。惟事发后,没有任何一方愿意承担责任,互相指责则司空见惯。政府也似乎缺乏政治决心来确保高原发展的安全。
“我希望国际山庄的事件能让各造引以为鉴,勿重蹈覆辙。”
蔡细历也提醒购屋者日后必须加倍小心选购山坡地区的屋业。

7 comments:

Chu Kong Ming (朱刚明) said...

Datuk,
I was also extremely "shocked" by the unexpected announcement too.

I remembered someone mentioned banning the highland projects regardless of ....

Well, who the hell cares about the well being of the people?

If you stand on the people side, you're viewed as anti-establishment; and if you're on the government side, you're anti-people. Life is really difficult.

Robert Lua Khang Wei said...

Yes, Dr Chua good point. The government should publish and announce the investigation and detailed information.

FelineRulez said...

A good day to you Dr Chua,

I've been following your blog for a while and you seem to make the most neutral remarks so far among BN politicians... so I would like to hear your take on the victimization of Elizabeth Wong, I feel it's apt to comment on this particular topic of yours since Elizabeth is a strong activist against uncontrolled hillside development prior to her political career.

Your colleague in BN, another Dr by the name of Khir Toyo, equate a single woman being photographed nude sleeping in her own room as 'immoral'.

This issue is beyond partisan politics, I hope Dr Chua will prove to be a voice of reason among the dirty politics taking place.

cheers.

Pearls said...

Didnt I say all this ban on Hill slops, highland development and what have you with the hill is just a 'HANGAT HANGAT TAHI AYAM" thing to appease the then victims, this round were Bukit Antarabangsa and Medan Damansara folks?

Now that the heat is off, so many other heat is happening, here we go again la... APA LAGI!! Havent we all lived in Malaysia long enough to learn and know that our law makers/enforcement/guardian of the country are people of no integrity!? This is not call no integrity ah?? Than call what? FICKLE MINDED?? My ass!

Now that the mangkuk has lifted the ban, I am sure whatever hills we are left with will come down, people will continue to die from it and of course! developers will grow richer, get all sorts of alphabets to their name (conferred by all those ugly royal fatsoes who talk rubbish and act like idiots)and of course get away with murder!

ONLY IN MALAYSIA.. ONLY IN MALAYSIA!!

saji said...

Datuk,

Saya telah menulis /mencadangkan sesuatu kepada PM dalam laman warkahnya yang ada kaitan dengan apa yang Datuk bincangkan ini tetapi masih tidak berjawab.

Cadangan saya ialah keperluan mewujudkan entiti "independenat chacker c&s consultant" dalam organisasi yang dipertanggungjawabkan memberikan kelulusan kerja tanah bagi projek pembangunan melibatkan kawasan tanah tinggi dan lereng bukit.

Ia berdasarkan pengalaman saya melaksanakan projek konservasi bangunan lama Sekolah Victoria di Jalan Tun HS Lee KL untuk dijadikan Kompleks Taman Budaya yang di bawah penyeliaan Ibu Pejabat JKR.

呉 和豪 said...

YB Dato Seri Dr.Chua Soi Lek

我家人告诉我林冠英亲力亲为地去检查高风险建筑区,希望国阵不要输给他们。福建人讲
输人无输阵,输阵真无面

Unknown said...

I wonder if Work Ministry can update over on their web-site and explain in more details of "Ban on Hoghland Dev. Lifted". There could be very lengthy resons why it is so and Internet will be the plat form to explain this to the public.

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