Kudos Datuk mayor
Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
My View - The Sun Daily
May 20, 2015
ON March 24, I wrote about the parking problem in Taman Pekaka, Penang island, where "parking-violators" were tolerated and "the entire Taman Pekaka community is unfairly 'compromised' by the not-so-smart solution".
I note that the "not-so-smart solution" has been rescinded though the parking issue is yet to be fully resolved. Still it is sufficient to make the Taman Pekaka residents optimistic that they are being heard for now, and look forward to a longer term solution for the community and its neighbours.
The issue was brought up at the time when Penang was celebrating its recognition as a city, which was lost in 1974 when the then George Town City Council was merged with the Penang Rural District Council to form a local government management board.
On Jan 1, 1957, George Town led the country to be the first and only city by way of a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth II. In regaining its city status, the event was no less historic given that a woman, Datuk Patahiyah Ismail, was installed as the first mayor. In 2010, she was also the first woman to be appointed council president to head the Penang Municipal Council.
Regardless of the fact that Taman Pekaka is not part of the new city, its "regaining" of the former status is also a good coincidence.
On that note, I would like to share another impression on what a "smarter" city could be like after having been to Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, Canada, last week.
Located at the tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria, brazenly displays the label "The Best Place on Earth" on its public transport and also vehicle licence plates to make a point.
This has some semblance to what I had experienced after living for four decades in Penang, especially with respect to George Town which is also located at the tip of an island.
"Founded" in 1786, it was named after the then British monarch, whereas Victoria, which was "founded" somewhat later in the 1840s, took the name of the queen! The similarities could not have been more coincidental.
However, Victoria, known as "The City in a Garden", is today renowned as among the best for quality-of-life with very distinct scenic beauty – surrounded by nature, waterfronts and unpretentious facilities and marinas, like the Fisherman's Wharf, where people from all walks of life can relate to.
The city is serene, walkable, safe, clean and green without any imposing billboard and slogan hovering above to remind us that it actually is! In its midst, Victoria too has a university, Royal Roads University, that came out of a military installation, not unlike Minden.
In fact its largest and most reputable campus, the University of Victoria, could easily have been "The University in a Garden" like we once aspired to have. Aptly, the garden-like campus has no fence or guards to secure it.
Not surprisingly then Victoria houses one of the best gardens in the world – The Butchart Gardens. Started just over a century ago it grew out of an exhausted quarry that was left unused in 1904.
It marked the beginning of the signature "Sunken Garden" which is indeed breath-taking – a truly well-designed and manicured labour of love.
In all these Penang and George Town can name an equivalent that it can still try to match based on some genuine efforts. Even the controversial "Botak Hill" can take a new life learning from the world famous "Sunken Garden", if there is a real will to do it.
What is probably not possible is what Penang has lost and can never be recovered as it rushed to "modernise" the "city" and scarred the island at the expense of its unrivalled natural beauty.
For starters, unlike Penang, Victoria has virtually no skyscrapers, no "paradises" on its hillsides, and the waterfronts are opened for the public to enjoy and share. There is no gated-community that "owns" it.
The city takes pride in it being displayed in the Royal British Columbia Museum with large exhibits on the local indigenous people and the natural history. Meanwhile, the architectural and cultural heritage tells a similar story encapsulating the pride of Victoria as a city to be reckoned with.
In short, when all is said and done, George Town has much to rethink and reconsider its future moving forward.
Can the newly minted mayor remake Penang and the city worthy of its status, just like what Victoria has successfully done for itself. For the residents of Taman Pekaka they know that this can be done with Patahiyah helming it. Our hopes are with her.
With some four decades of experience in education locally and internationally, the writer believes that "another world is possible".