Thumbs down for two controversial arches

Two tilting arches at the Penang Botanical Gardens may be removed after all if a public survey by the Tourism Ministry finds there is too much opposition to the controversial project.

On the right hand side of its website, the ministry is asking the public to express their views on retaining or removing the objects, which has recently raised the ire of the local community, especially nature groups and environmental experts.

As of 11am yesterday 89% (or 1,365) of the 1,564 voted against the arches as opposed to only 11% (169) who approved them.

The concrete arches have come under fire by tourists and locals alike for having no historical link or adding cultural value the gardens, established in 1884.

Rather, the two looking like phallic symbols are eyesores, not tourist attractions, to those who frequently patronise the famous gardens.

An intense campaign on the Internet is currently being waged to get people to vote against the project, which intruded into the lives of Penangites two years ago.

Quah Seng-Sun from Bukit Mertajam, who runs the blog ‘Anything Goes', damned the construction of the arches as a "desecration of the Penang Botanical Gardens by the federal government".

He urged Malaysians - whether Penangites or not who live in or outside the island - to participate in the survey.

"Vote with your heart and conscience on the two arches, you can either disagree with me and vote to keep the arches, or you can agree with me and say NO to them," Quah, who is a nature lover, pleaded in his blog.

"Either way, your vote counts, please consider the positives and negatives of the project and above all, consider how your voice can contribute to environmental change in this country we call home," he added.

Activist SH Tan said the project does not conform with any principle or good practices of botanic garden planning.

The arches are part of a RM2.5 million mall entrance with generous helpings of concrete, a large open monsoon drain, decorative fountains and car parks, for which large landmark trees had to make way and a pre-war art cafe was demolished, he said in an email campaign message.

Alternative plan proposed

"The NGOs have proposed an alternative where the arches and fountains are removed, lots of trees planted in the car parks and the pools turned into ponds for water, plants and fishes," said Tan.

"The removal of the arches would at least be symbolic and would allow us to work towards greater transparency and better management of the Penang Botanic Gardens," he added.

Mooted by the Tourism Ministry, there has been vigorous calls for the RM7mil project to be halted, at least until a comprehensive master plan for the garden has been approved.

Penangites opposed the ad hoc destruction of plant houses and plant collections, with natural streams canalised into drains, while oversized glass and steel buildings like an administration block built in place of trees and shrubs.

The Working Group of the Penang Forum, a loose network of civil society groups, said in a statement that "all attempts by NGOs and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) academics to put forward recommendations for the future well-being of the gardens have been ignored".

"The gardens cannot be at the mercy of passing fancies of ill-informed civil servants, politicians and VIPs who might visit and think there should be a ‘Balinese garden' there and a ‘Japanese garden' here or some horrendous arches at the entrance," the statement added.

DID suspends expansion work

But all is not lost yet as the Penang Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) has suspended its expansion work on the gardens until "all issues raised have been thrashed out."

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, too has distanced himself from the project, saying his administration did not have any say in it and neither was it invited to any meetings on the matter.

Adding that the state was given an "ultimatum" to surrender the site for development or lose the federal allocation, Lim urged all parties to stop blaming the state for the project as they "didn't have any opportunity to give input".

During a recent visit to Penang, Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen appointed Friends of the Penang Botanical Gardens Society to represent the Penang Heritage Trust, Malaysian Nature Society, Social Economic and Research Institute and the public to come up with a proposal of what the people wanted done under the expansion project.