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The Penang Dream Series ( 2 )...
Copycat and unashamed sham

There were new developments on the 3-Star MPPP disgrace I raised earlier this week, April 19 in the Press, April 20 on this blog.

Firstly, there were copycats -- wholesale copycats -- with a lot of Gerakan hindsight (See The NST, Tuesday, April 21), a lot of shameful Gerakan political innuendos, but none of the saving grace to bear full responsibility for running the local council to the ground after over 38 years under Barisan Nasional/Umno.

Yesterday, MPPP told me that it was visited by officials from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) on March 18, 2008 -- just 10 days after Penang changed hands in GE2008 -- for the preparation on the Star Rating.

Evaluation of MPPP by the KPKT was conducted on June 10, 2008, followed by a public survey conducted on July 16, 2008.

Results were released on April 14, 2009, and MPPP was graded 3-Star and placed on the 21st ranking out of 98 local authorities assessed, achieving 68.75 points.

In contrast, MPSP (Majlis Perbandaran Seberang Jaya) which is largely perceived as a weakling, was also graded 3-Star, but placed five tiers ahead of MPPP on the 16th ranking, achieving 72.05 points.

Both councils missed out the RM200,000 special allocation given by the Ministry as incentives to qualifiers of a 4-Star rating.

'The pie comes back to smack'

Yesterday, my colleague MP Chow Kon Yeow, who is the state Exco in charge of local government committee, told the Press that the BN must share the responsibility for the low rating given to the MPPP, because the assessment was made just three months after the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government came to power.

Source: theSun, April 22, 2008, Page 8

"Much of the assessment was done based on the previous government’s performance. “We (PR) could not have moved a mountain in such a short time,” he said. “But there are (BN) politicians who have said they feel shocked, horrified and disappointed with the rating.” Quote theSun:

Chow said the state government took the assessment seriously.

“We are mindful that we have taken over the government and we have to takeover all the assets and liabilities of the local councils,” he said.

In other words, the pie has boomeranged to smack on Gerakan's face.

And that's exactly the rebuff I made in Kwong Wah and China Press today, that Gerakan can't run away from their failure to put MPPP into good governance while still posturing to protect the Little Napoleons who perpetrated MPPP's 3-Star rating for the next two years.

Same face, new post

Meanwhile, Dato' Zainal Rahim bin Seman, the immediate former chairman of MPPP who reigned from May 2007 through April 19, 2009, was promoted to be the new State Secretary of Penang, with effect from Monday, April 20.

Image downloaded from Guang Ming Daily

Zainal Rahim positioned himself as the bridge between the federal and state government. He promised to leverage his new position and authority to foster a change in the work ethics of the civil servants.

Penang Dream, anyone?

RELEVANT READING:
- Kwong Wah Yit Poh: 让槟民得多背2年黑锅 黄泉安：民政应扪心自问！
- Kwong Wah Yit Poh: 槟市局星级评估表现差　曹观友：“那是评估前朝市局”
- China Press: 曹觀友：評的是前朝表現; 民政自打嘴巴
- Malaysiakini: 槟政府驳市政局表现不彰指责; 三个月内将向房地部提出重估