Category: Development EN

CAP fully supports the Penang state government's 30% compliance clause imposed on housing developers. Under this clause, 30% of the housing units built by developers have to be of the low-cost (RM42,000) and low medium cost (RM72,500) types. However, the state leaves it to the developers to do the sales of these units and it keeps a blind eye to the fact that developers are not selling the units...

Last week U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, announced that Malaysia had been fudging its poverty measurement and that it’s poverty rate is much higher than official reports. Instead of an official poverty rate of 0.4%, Malaysia’s real poverty rate is at an estimated 15%. What it means is that Government policies of the recent past have not been...

The recommendations of the State Commission of Inquiry (SCI) on the Granito tragedy in Tanjung Bungah that led to the deaths of 11 workers on 21 October 2017, must be urgently translated into action and given effect by all the relevant government agencies. This has to be done in order to avert future tragedies related to hill-site and hillslope developments, not only in Penang but throughout the...

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is heartened to learn of the Government’s commitment to battle poaching by increasing manpower through a special battalion assigned to aid the Wildlife Department in the patrol of the country’s jungles. The number of wild tigers estimated to be left is only about 250. This is alarming.  All efforts in the past are not working to save the tigers.  At best they...

Both the Penang Island and Seberang Perai City Councils, and the company HeiTech Padu Bhd (HeiTech) are answerable to taxpayers because of the seriousness of the multimillion Ringgit ‘glitch’ regarding installation of sensors on 647 council parking lots in Penang. It is more than a ‘glitch’ because out of the 647 sensors, only 30 (4.6%) had been installed. The company had failed to...

The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) is disappointed that Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990 amendment Bill does not make it mandatory for employers to provide their workers with housing. This is a major step backwards in terms of the government dealing with the plight of foreign workers and even local workers who work far from home. Employers should provide...

The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) is unable to comprehend the statement by Penang CM Chow Kon Yeow that there were “certain people” manipulating information on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project and the Penang South Reclamation for their own benefit, as reported in a daily dated 24 July 2019.  Chow had stated that the Penang government is not hiding any information and urged...

The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) calls on the Cabinet not to approve the RM 6.2 billion offer made by the Ministry of Finance to Gamuda, Litrak and other highway concessionaires to acquire four tolled highways. A committee of experts should be set up  to find a solution to the much-criticised toll concessions,  that will bring real benefits to the consumers and not burden the...