Thesun 2008-11-19 Page04 Penang Warned On Heritage Status

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Penang warned on heritage status REVIEW WILL TAKE INTO ACCOUNT APPROVAL OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS: UNESCO OFFICIAL

One could certainly call into question the sincerity of pushing through (building) permission after an application (for heritage listing) has already been submitted.” – Richard Engelhardt Unesco regional adviser for Asia-Pacific

by Himanshu Bhatt [email protected]

GEORGE TOWN: A senior Unesco official has warned that plans to have new high-rise structures in George Town could affect its World Heritage Site status, now shared with Malacca, when it is reviewed in July next year. Richard Engelhardt, the Unesco regional adviser for Asia-Pacific, said he has been told there there was “quick scrambling” to approve certain projects between the time the application for Unesco heritage status was

made and when it was approved in early July. He noted that Unesco had stripped a German heritage site of its status after an inappropriate modern bridge was built there. At a talk on “How to Manage a World Heritage Site” organised by Khazanah Nasional here yesterday, Engelhardt said the review is a “very serious” process with vetting of reports from various heritage sites. He said the sincerity of an authority would be put into question if inappropriate structures were approved after application for heritage status has been made.

“I am sure the World Heritage Committee (WHC) will look askance to that and take it as a sign of not serious management,” he said. He said new development projects should ideally be submitted to the WHC and reviewed by its advisory body before being implemented. While a “good” government would submit such projects beforehand to the WHC, a government that neglects such an obligation would be taken to task. “One could certainly call into question the sincerity of pushing through (building) permission after an application (for heritage listing) has already been submitted,” he said. It has been reported that the Penang government had approval four hotels in the heritage zone, including a 23-storey property on Jalan Sultan Ahmad, on June 26 – just 10 days before Unesco heritage status was granted. The other projects are a 17-storey hotel on Farquhar Street and two hotels on Weld Quay. The Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP), however, is understood to have drafted stringent new conservation guidelines prohibiting new buildings within the heritage zone from exceeding a height of 18m or about five storeys. Engelhardt also lamented that the site inscription of Malacca and Penang had been done without a detailed management plan. “We don’t have a sufficiently detailed management plan for people to know what their jobs entail,” he said. “The World Heritage Committee has asked the Malaysian government to do this and do it fast because everyday we are losing something.” He said he will be meeting the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry to discuss progress in devising separate management plans for Malacca and George Town.

Stop obsession with cabinet posts: Tee Keat by Tan Yi Liang [email protected]

SHAH ALAM: MCA members should stop their obsession with holding cabinet posts and focus instead on resolving the woes of the grassroots, party president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said yesterday. “Having the people’s aspirations in mind would be something more positive than being obsessed with personal political gains, particularly in relation to ministership,” he said. Ong praised his deputy, Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, for his willingness to head the party’s government policy monitoring bureau, which will keep tabs on the ministries headed by MCA ministers. “This is in line with what I said earlier because when I said that we needed to form such a bureau to handle the people’s feedback, we must keep the people’s aspirations in mind,” he said. “I am glad he shares my view.” Ong said Chua, a former health minister, was

“perhaps the best person” to advise new minsters appointed after the March 8 general election. “As a former minister, he would be in a very good position to tell us about some of the issues currently confronting us. Issues do not come into place suddenly or abruptly,” he said. Ong, who is the transport minister, told a press conference his ministry is re-examining the e-Kesihatan programme, which it cancelled earlier. “For now, the concessionaire has been informed of the government’s decision to discontinue with the agreement,” he said. “The project has been referred back to the Road Transport Department (RTD) to re-look at the format as well as the details of the agreement. We need to look at it again, to look at the limitations and, at the same time, we need to come up with something that will serve the public’s purpose. “We need to ensure medical certification of the fitness of public transport drivers, that is a must. But we do not want to make it burdensome. So we have to strike the right balance between both.”

| WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 19 2008

Responding to calls to use the Emergency Ordinance to curb the mat rempit menace, Ong said: “In my opinion, the nation is not short of laws. If we, as a nation, were able to defeat a militant insurgency, we should be able to handle a social ill like this.” Asked about the moves by PAS to open up to Chinese supporters, Ong said such overtures were not new. “Any party, including PAS, has a right to reach out to any segment of the populace. We shouldn’t have qualms about it,” he said. “The current outreach proposal is not something new ... if we were to trace back 22 years, to 1986, when the Chinese Consultative Council (CCC) was mooted and formed by PAS. The CCC has been defunct for years, without any explanation. It would be good for PAS to explain why the CCC was defunct before they came to a new initiative.” Ong had earlier launched Jalan Multimedia in i-City and welcomed the initial batch of tenants to i-City at Concierge@i-City here.

Raja Petra quizzed by police again by Charles Ramendran [email protected] KUALA LUMPUR: Raja Petra Kamarudin was questioned by police yesterday over four reports lodged against him by four Islamic agencies for allegedly insulting Islam in his weblog Malaysia-today. The reports were lodged by the Selangor Religious Department, Department of Islamic Development and two other organisations in September. Before being questioned at the Sentul police headquarters, Raja Petra lodged a police report in the same station against the Kamunting Detention Camp and the Perak Religious Department on certain issues during his detention last month. “I refused to answer any of their questions. I was detained under the ISA over these reports and the Special Branch had questioned me for 10 days during my detention and I have been punished for it. So now they call me again for a second round of questioning over the same reports. They are trying to punish me twice for the same offence,” he told reporters. He said police told him the attorneygeneral had ordered them to record his statement. Raja Petra was accompanied by his wife Marina Lee Abdullah, lawyer J. Chandra and supporters. At the police headquarters, the MIC Youth lodged a police report against a new Tamil newspaper, Jana Sakthi, over a report that allegedly insulted Hindus. MIC Youth secretary C. Shivarraaj lodged the report.

223,000 copies in Klang Valley » From Front Page Currently, theSun distributes 223,000 copies in the Klang Valley, with 80,000 distributed in the Golden Triangle, where most of the urban readers are centred. “Certainly these numbers are more realistic than the standard Nielsen Media Index which is a nationwide survey, whereas theSun is an urban paper and we felt that the numbers in that survey did not clearly reflect our readership numbers,” said Sun Media Corporation managing director Chan Kien Sing after the presentation. “With Malaysia Prime, media agencies are able to utilise the readership numbers needed in order to convince their clients that theSun is the right channel for them,” he said.