JELUTONG LANDFILL PROJECT – Time to Close It Down

Lai Cheng March 16, 2026 0 Comments

Four EIA rejections should mean the end for the Jelutong landfill site. No more time extensions should be given. The Penang state government must honour its promise made to transform the site into a quality public park for all the people of Penang.

The Protect Karpal Singh Drive Action Committee (ProtectKarpal) calls on Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow to publicly reaffirm that no time extension will be granted to the developer of the Jelutong landfill-related project.

This follows the lapse of the environmental impact assessment deadline.

ProtectKarpal wants the state to immediately pivot the state’s approach towards a safe, science-based closure of the Jelutong landfill without reclamation.

The community also calls on the Penang state government to honour the promise it made to the people regarding the Jelutong landfill site – that it would be transformed into a quality public park for all the people of Penang.

That promise, first made in 2008 and repeated publicly for over a decade by senior DAP leaders – including the current chief minister – has been supplanted by a commercial coastal reclamation scheme that Malaysia’s Department of Environment (DoE) has now formally rejected four times.

Four rejections in 22 months

In nearly two years across four separate attempts, this developer has failed to produce an impact assessment that satisfies Malaysia’s independent environmental regulator. The DoE is the statutory guardian of the Environmental Quality Act 1974. It has delivered its verdict four times, in the same terms: tidak diluluskan.

That verdict is not a procedural inconvenience to be managed. It is the authoritative technical judgement of the institution designated by law to make precisely this determination.

We note that the fourth submission was received by the DoE on 26 February 2026 – the date of Chow’s stated deadline. A document filed on the eve of a government-imposed deadline and returned unapproved is not evidence of compliance in good faith. It is a procedural filing designed to manufacture the appearance of effort.

The DoE was not persuaded. Nor are we.

Lapsed without honour

On 24 June 2025, Chow gave an unambiguous public commitment to ProtectKarpal’s delegation: the state government would grant no new extension to the project developer if the environmental approval was not secured before 26 February 2026. This commitment was reported in Buletin Mutiara (July 2025).

It was this assurance that led the community to engage through process rather than escalate through protest.

That date has passed. The impact assessment remains unapproved. By any plain reading of the chief minister’s own stated condition, the threshold for terminating the developer’s mandate has been met – determined not by the community’s advocacy, but by the developer’s own regulatory failure and the passage of time.

The chief minister gave his word publicly. It must now be honoured publicly, in writing, without ambiguity.

Promise and betrayal

Understanding what was promised – and precisely where that promise was broken – requires an honest account of how the Jelutong landfill vision evolved over 17 years.

ProtectKarpal presents that account here, based entirely on the public record.

The following is a factual chronology of the Jelutong landfill project, sourced entirely from official documents, government publications and public records.

It shows precisely what was promised at each stage – and where and by how much the project’s reclamation component expanded beyond any public mandate.

  • 2008: DAP takes over Penang. Rehabilitation of the Jelutong landfill is pledged as a signature environmental commitment. The dominant public vision: a park.
  • 2009 (Guang Ming Daily): Then-MP for Jelutong Jeff Ooi, also the former Chief Minister’s Chief of Staff, articulates the community vision in Guang Ming Daily — a public park on the rehabilitated site, “a precious gift from the state government to the people.”
  • 2009 (November, The Star): A Penang state delegation studies landfill-to-park conversion in South Korea. The Star’s headline: “From rubbish dump to dream park.”
  • 2012 (Buletin Mutiara, Issue 2/08): Then-EXCO Member Chow Kon Yeow — now Chief Minister — states publicly that the site will become “a park and a site for mixed development projects” through a Landfill Mining and Reclamation process. PDC is appointed to manage the project. He calls it “one of our green projects to improve the environment for future generations.” The changed vision: on-land rehabilitation plus development. No sea reclamation is mentioned.
  • 12 March 2015: The Penang State Government issues a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to rehabilitate and redevelop the Jelutong landfill site.
  • 28 July 2016: PLB Engineering Berhad submits its revised proposal in response to the Tender Clarification. Coastal reclamation is not proposed. The developer’s own submission, at this stage, contains no sea reclamation component whatsoever.
  • 2017: PLB Engineering Berhad is reportedly appointed to undertake the rehabilitation and development project following the 2015 RFP process.
  • 2018 (Free Malaysia Today): Jeff Ooi, still MP for Jelutong, reportedly reaffirms that a recreational park at the landfill remains the goal.
  • 21 February 2020: A Joint Development Agreement (JDA) is signed between PLB Engineering Berhad, the Penang State Government, and PDC — a RM1 billion agreement. At the signing, CM Chow states publicly that “up to 10 acres of additional land would be reclaimed.” This marks the first public mention of sea reclamation — introduced not by the developer in its 2016 tender response, but by the State Government at the JDA stage, four years later, without any prior public consultation.
  • 12 February 2025: The EIA is made available for public display. The reclamation component is now stated as 70 acres — seven times the “up to 10 acres” cited by CM Chow at the 2020 JDA signing. No public consultation, no state legislative debate, and no formal public notice was issued to explain or justify this sevenfold expansion of the reclamation footprint.
  • May 2024 – February 2026: The EIA is submitted four times. The DoE returns it as Tidak Diluluskan on each occasion.
  • 24 June 2025: CM Chow commits publicly to no extension beyond 26 February 2026 if EIA is not approved.
  • 11 March 2026: CM Chow’s deadline lapses. The EIA — most recently received on 26 February 2026 — remains unapproved.

The precise point of betrayal

What was promised in 2012 – and what ProtectKarpal has never opposed – is development on the rehabilitated landfill site: a park and mixed-use development built on land that has been safely remediated.

What was never promised, never publicly discussed and never submitted for democratic scrutiny is the use of excavated landfill material to reclaim sea area beyond the existing shoreline – destroying coastal ecosystems, eliminating Middle Bank, and permanently altering Penang’s coastline for private commercial gain. That is the line that was crossed.

That is what the DoE has rejected, four times.

“My dream of Jelutong Landfill is to be able to hold hands with my family, stroll along the park covered with flowers and trees, and then slowly reach the top to enjoy the rising sun… Having a quality park in the city is a precious gift from the state government to the people.” – Jeff Ooi, then-Jelutong MP, Guang Ming Daily, 2009

Seventeen years after these words were spoken, the people of Jelutong and Bandar Sri Pinang are still waiting – not for perfection, not even for a park alone, but for the honest version of what was promised: a safely rehabilitated site, a public green space, and land-based development that benefits the people.

Instead, they have been presented with four rounds of a failed environmental impact assessment for a coastal reclamation scheme that serves a private developer’s profit agenda and threatens irreplaceable marine ecosystems and public health.

Six demands

ProtectKarpal calls on the Penang state government, the chief minister and all relevant authorities to act – without delay – on the following:

  • Honour Chow’s public commitment of 24 June 2025: Issue a formal written statement confirming that no extension – administrative, procedural or otherwise – will be granted to PLB Engineering Berhad. The chief minister’s own stated condition was not met by the developer. His public word must now be kept in public.
  • Formally terminate PLB Engineering Berhad’s mandate: Four DoE rejections and a lapsed government deadline are unambiguous and sufficient grounds to terminate the agreement between the developer and the Penang state government. This termination must be confirmed in writing and made public immediately.
  • Honour the evolved promise: a park and on-land development, built on safely rehabilitated land: Redirect state resources toward the delivery of what was publicly promised – a quality public recreational park alongside responsible on-land mixed development on the rehabilitated landfill site, as articulated by Chow himself in Buletin Mutiara (August 2012). What must be permanently removed from any future plan is the coastal sea reclamation component – which was never part of any public commitment, at any stage.
  • Pursue safe landfill closure without sea reclamation: Undertake responsible, phased remediation of the landfill site – including landfill gas capture and treatment, leachate containment and controlled waste stabilisation – in full compliance with DoE’s published landfill closure guidelines, entirely independent of any coastal reclamation activity. The landfill can and must be made safe. That work should begin now, without being held hostage to a reclamation agenda.
  • Gazette Middle Bank as a marine sanctuary: The ecologically significant coastal waters adjacent to the Jelutong site – in particular Middle Bank – must be formally and permanently protected. ProtectKarpal calls on the Penang state government to initiate the gazetting of Middle Bank as a marine sanctuary under applicable national environmental legislation. A gazetted marine sanctuary would preserve an irreplaceable coastal ecosystem.
  • Commission a mandatory health impact assessment and establish a joint community oversight committee: An independent health impact assessment must be completed and published under Section 34A of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 before any site works commence. A formally constituted joint oversight committee – comprising state government and Penang Island City Council representatives, independent environmental and public health experts from local academic institutions, civil society groups and community representatives including the Bandar Sri Pinang Residents’ Association – must oversee all rehabilitation and development planning with full access to technical documents and a mandate to report publicly at regular intervals.

Standing for – and against

The position of the Bandar Sri Pinang and Jelutong residents has been consistent, documented and proportionate: 98.6% of respondents in the formal public feedback process opposed the reclamation component.

The developer’s own environmental impact assessment documentation acknowledged the risks of landfill gas migration, leachate contamination and toxic material release during excavation – hazards that fall disproportionately on children, older people and low-income households who cannot simply relocate.

ProtectKarpal has maintained three distinct positions throughout this campaign, and restates them here with precision:

  • We fully support the safe, responsible rehabilitation and closure of the Jelutong landfill site. This is urgent, necessary and long overdue.
  • We accept in principle the development of a quality public park and appropriate mixed-use development on the rehabilitated, on-land area of the site – consistent with the vision publicly stated by the state government itself in 2012.
  • We firmly and irrevocably oppose the coastal sea reclamation component: the extension of land into the sea using excavated landfill material. This component was never promised. It was never mandated. It has been rejected four times by the DoE. And it threatens permanent, irreversible damage to Penang’s coastline and to Middle Bank’s marine ecosystem.

That is not an anti-development position. It is a pro-promise position. We are holding the state government to what it actually said – no more, and no less.

The community remembers. We hold the Guang Ming Daily clipping from 2009. We hold Buletin Mutiara Issue 2/08 from August 2012. We remember what was said, who said it, and what was never mentioned.

Coastal sea reclamation was not mentioned because it was not the plan. It became the plan later, for reasons that have never been explained to the public, who live with the consequences.

We are not opponents of progress. We are its custodians – guardians of our community’s health, our coastline’s ecological future and the inheritance we owe our children. Those responsibilities are not negotiable, and they will not be abandoned.

ProtectKarpal requests a formal written response from the chief minister’s office addressing all six demands above.

– Protect Karpal Singh Drive action committee, 12 March 2026

The Protect Karpal Singh Drive action committee (ProtectKarpal) is a residents-led civic body, operating under the auspices of the Bandar Sri Pinang Residents’ Association (PBSP), representing the communities of Bandar Sri Pinang and Jelutong, Penang.