30 stage protest over plan to build Penang Hill hotels

GEORGE TOWN: Thirty activists staged a protest outside the Penang Legislature Assembly here, against the plan to build two Penang Hill hotels at 9.30am this morning.
The protest took place on the first day of the assembly’s sitting. The protesters also want the state government to scrap the Penang Island Link (PIL) 1 highway, as well as the reclamation project in the south of the island.
Penang Forum steering committee member Khoo Salma Nasution told reporters that Penang Hill should be protected at all cost.
She said a total of about 200 landslides had been reported at the hill last year. "Who is behind the hotel development?" she asked.
Peka's spokesman Pam Ooi said Penang has changed in the last few decades. She said the state's hill had not previously been bald in patches.
“That is why I join this Penang Forum to voice out my concern,” she added.
They reminded the state governemnt that former chief minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu, who formerly held Padang Kota, lost to DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang in the 1990 General Election because voters were unhappy with plans to develop the hill.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow yesterday announced that the state had granted planning approval for the hotels to be constructed.
One, with about 200 rooms, will be located near the disused Convalescent Bungalow, while another will be near the hawker centre.
Chow had said the hotels would not be more than five storeys tall as they would be in the Special Area Plan.
Construction is expected to begin next year as the hotels are currently in the design phase.