THE THIRD FORCE
Apparently, the possibility of there being landslides owing to unregulated development of hillslopes may never have been a problem for Lim Guan Eng.
Back in September 2017, during a site visit to a flood hit area, Lim implied that the movement of earth down hillslopes was not a problem as long as it did not obstruct traffic (READ HERE).
The area in question is located in Penang, where Lim, while serving as Chief Minister, was forced to contend with the ravages of a massive flood that wrecked havoc on the island state.
Activists and politicians alike pointed to the wanton deforestation of hillslopes by his administration as the root cause of the deluge.
TTF made note of the seemingly haphazard, hush-hush and solicitous manner in which his people contrived and approved projects.
It struck me as weird that he quietly gave the developer of a Tanjung Bungah hillslope project the go ahead even before an application was submitted to the DoE (READ HERE).
A portion of the hillslope eventually gave way and claimed the lives of a Malaysian and several Bangladeshi workers.
Technically, there is no way the project could have obstructed traffic as the area was a construction site.
Perhaps that may be the reason why it didn’t bother Lim that the site was not too far from a granite quarry and within a distance that didn’t warrant the approval of construction projects.
Perhaps Lim knew, that even if a landslide occurred, it would not pose a problem as it couldn’t possibly “obstruct traffic.”
Bangladeshis are living people, not traffic, you see…
