“Stand up for Penang”?...Spare us the hypocrisy

Finally, some belated concern in the media over what ails Penang. And when it rains, it pours! It looks like a co-ordinated campaign to highlight the problems of Penang.

What gives? Is it genuine concern (we are assured it is) or simply a case of the UMNO-linked New Straits Times and the MCA-owned Star indirectly putting the Gerakan-led Penang state government in a bad light? This has prompted Gerakan president Lim Kheng Yaik to voice his unhappiness over the lack of federal funding for Penang - a rarely discussed subject previously.

But then, even theSun, which has highlighted the attractions of Penang, and ntv7, which has been promoting the ongoing Pesta Pulau Pinang, have got into the act. So clearly something is up.

Is it because our new PM is from Penang that the media are now emboldened to report on the state’s problems, knowing that they will get a sympathetic hearing from KL?

I shan’t speculate but obviously this looks like a coordinated campaign. And Penangites can identify with some of the problems mentioned in the media: traffic congestion, pollution, lack of cleanliness, etc

Even rarely broached subjects – like the insufficient federal funding, the loss of Penang’s duty free status and the terrible public transport system – have been candidly discussed in the media.

The loss of local democracy

So are our media finally living up to their role of reporting in the interests of the public? Indeed, they do appear to be giving us the kind of reporting that we have long been denied.

But this is deceptive. A closer look will reveal that this apparent newfound openness and candidness has been framed within set parameters, which are not immediately obvious. There are still areas, which are off-limits to the media, which they won’t broach for fear of offending the authorities and other vested interests.

Perhaps one of the most important factors responsible for Penang’s decline – and which the media refuses to discuss – is the abolition of local council elections in the 1970s. Local council elections were replaced with a system whereby the ruling coalition appoints municipal councillors, more often than not as a form of reward. Thus, these town councillors invariably feel more accountable to the ruling coalition than to the people they are supposed to be serving.

Very few people even know who their councillors and so, there is no accountability to the people. Appointed councillors cannot be sacked by the people for not doing their work. Not surprisingly, the drains remains clogged with stagnant water, litter is all over the place, trees are cut at the whims and fancies of the council, rivers are polluted, pavements are blocked by carts, chairs, tables and motorcycles.

The Gerakan-led state government seems afraid to take action for fear of the political consequences especially with ruling coalition rivals, MCA and UMNO, breathing down its neck.

The media, in their so-called concern for Penang, will not talk about local council elections as the cornerstone of a thriving democracy. Without local democracy, there is no accountability, and conditions are ripe for abuse of power. Our media, beholden as they are to the ruling coalition, are allergic to anything that advocates empowering the people to take control of their future.

Instead, they actively censor any reference to the abolition of town council elections as the key reason for Penang’s decline. For instance, opposition DAP MP for Bukit Gelugor, Karpal Singh, issued a press statement pointing to two main reasons for Penang’s declines – the abolition of local council elections and the loss of the island’s duty free status. But The Star (17 December 2004) only reported his comments on the duty-free port status, while blacking out any reference to local council elections. So much for the People’s Paper’s concern when it comes to actually empowering the people.

What about corporate culpability?

The other area that our corporate mainstream media won’t touch with a barge-pole is the culpability of the private sector in polluting Penang and degrading its environment. How did the beaches in Penang get polluted? Who is responsible for discharging industrial waste and effluent into the sea? What are the adverse effects of the privatisation of waste collection and sewage treatment?

It is shocking to hear that the Federal Government has only now approved the first sewage treatment plant to treat the waste from George Town. We now learn that raw sewage from George Town has all along been discharged into the sea around Jelutong and it is a major source of environmental pollution.

Which brings us to the question, who is responsible for treating raw sewage? What about IWK, to which sewage disposal was privatised from the local councils in the 1980s? Why has the Federal Government got to announce the approval of sewage treatment plants? Shouldn’t it have been the responsibility of IWK to see to it that sewage has been properly treated before being discharged into the sea?

Unfortunately our media won’t encroach into anything that is detrimental to corporate interests by raising these and other awkward questions.

Other awkward questions that the media won’t ask: To what extent are the beach hotels in Batu Ferringhi and other property developers in that area responsible for the pollution and silting of the once enchanting blue waters of the sea there? Is any untreated waste water still being discharged into the sea there?

What action has been taken against property developers who flout heritage guidelines and cut the hill-slopes of Penang? Why is there so little provision for public parks? Why is The Star so uncritical of the Penang Outer Ring Road project, which will contribute to even more pollution on the island? Why doesn't it strongly advocate and push for improved public transport systems as an alternative to PORR?

What kind of enforcement action has been taken against factories that discharge untreated effluent into drains that lead to the sea? Just take a look at the black sludge/water in that huge drain at the Bayan Baru roundabout and flyover, just next to the Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone. Is there any attempt to punish those corporations responsible for water and air pollution arising from industrial waste?

Our media, which rely heavily on corporate advertising for their revenue and are themselves controlled by politically well-connected large corporations, are loathe to pick up on any of these issues. It is so easy instead to blame the people as lacking in civic-mindedness. But when corporations pollute the environment, what do you call that?

So the media should spare us their hypocritical calls to stand up for Penang when they themselves remain silent on corporate culpability and the abolition of local council elections. If anything, we should “Stand Up for Local Democracy in Penang.”