RM5.0 Million new jetty at Sg. Pinang Kecil, Pangkor will be left to rot?

Press Conference by Ngeh Koo Ham, Perak State Opposition Leader at the DAP Perak Headquarters on 5/2/2007 at 12.30 p.m.


The RM5.0 Million new jetty at Sg. Pinang Kecil, Pangkor – confirm that it cannot be rectified and will be left to rot?

The State Executive Councillor, Dato’ Dr Zamby Abdul Kadir, who is also the Assemblyman for Pangkor, when relaunching the use of the old pontoon to be used as a jetty at Sg. Pinang Kecil, Pangkor on 30/1/2007 was in a jubilant mood. He was happy that the Perak State Government has finally allocated RM80,000.00 to repair the old pontoon to solve the problem of the Sg. Pinang Kecil residents after the new RM5.0 Million jetty was built.

The relaunching of the floating pontoon at Sg. Pinang Kecil, Pangkor as a jetty for boarding the ferries plying between Lumut and Sg. Pinang Kecil, Pangkor confirms that the new RM5.0 Million jetty built by the Marine Department is not safe for use. The authorities denied that the new jetty was unsafe when I first raised the issue about 1½ years’ ago. On 31/10/2005, the floating pontoon was taken away and the people were asked to use the new jetty about 1 Km away.

The ferry operators found it unsafe to use as it gets submerged during high tide. Even if it does not get submerged, the ferry may overturn if pushed by strong waves, when berthing at the new jetty as the jetty was too low.

I appreciate the State Government’s allocation of RM80,000.00 to repair the pontoon as a temporary measure. However, the State government must clarify how much was actually paid for the repair of pontoon because a sum of forty plus thousand ringgits was quoted by the firm repairing the pontoon when the ferry operators initially wanted to share the costs of repair. The plan failed when the ferry operators could not come to an agreement. Why has the repair costs gone up just because it was financed by public fund?

The people of Sg. Pinang Kecil has been inconvenienced for more than 2 years when the pontoon was towed away and the new jetty could not be used.

What is more important is that the people of Sg. Pinang Kecil want a permanent solution to their problem. The repaired pontoon can be used for only about 2 years. Why was the new jetty not fully rectified after more that 2 years? Can it be rectified? Will the RM5.0 Million jetty be left to rot? Why was the jetty built without considering the water tide? The authorities owe the Malaysian public the answers to the said queries.

I call on the authorities to be accountable for what has happened.