Story by Victor Seow and Christopher Tan
CHIEF Minister Lim Guan Eng on Oct 25 announced the formation of a three-member state Commission of Inquiry (SCI) that will investigate the causes of the Tanjung Bungah construction site accident on Oct 21.
The SCI is chaired by former Malaysian Bar Council president Datuk Yeo Yang Poh with its two other members being prominent civil engineer Datuk Gue See Sew and University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Skudai’s Professor Ramli Nasir of the Department of Geotechnic and Transportation. Datuk Ng Wee Kok is the commission’s secretary.
Lim made the announcement by having the declassified papers of the exco meeting which deliberated on the matter distributed to the media during the press conference.
“Wait for it (the Commission of Inquiry) to be gazetted first and that will depend on the normal procedures where the Governor will need to give his assent and then we send it to the printers to be gazetted,” Lim replied to a question on when the Commission of Inquiry would convene.
Lim also ordered the developer of the Tanjung Bungah incident to meet their affected buyers in a week from Oct 26, or the state would intervene.
The Institution of Engineers Malaysia president Dr Tan Yean Chin said construction failures and accidents could occur during the construction stage (temporary works) and after construction stage (permanent works).
“The ‘general perception’ of the recent Tanjung Bungah landslide is that the incident (occurred) because it is a hillside development.
“However, based on observations, the development is not on the hillslope but on the land adjacent to the hillslope.
“This type of constructions are common in areas with land constraints such as Kuala Lumpur, and many other developed cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore,” he said.
Tan added that the engineering consultant of the project should have full-time representatives at the site to supervise and monitor.
Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the Penang government would continue to provide correct information on the incident in response to the negative sentiments surrounding the matter.
“We manage those negative sentiments with correct information, and let the people decide who they want to listen to.
“Even when we want to analyse, comment or report, let it be based on facts,” Chow said in a press conference in Komtar on Oct 24.
Chow explained that the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) considered views from all technical departments before making a decision to approve or reject a development plan.
“All applications have to be viewed in a comprehensive manner.
“In addition to that the Town and Country Planning Act has empowered the local governments to control developments and to give development approvals under their administration.
“The Mineral and Geoscience Department which has jurisdiction in matters concerning geology, blasting works, site foundation and soil compaction did not object to the affordable housing application (the said Tanjung Bungah project) with condition that requirements are met when executing the project,” Chow said.
Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh also urged all parties to get their facts right and not to distort the truth behind the construction site incident.
“We do not deny that there was a landslide on a construction site. Yet, certain parties have tried to overlook or even deny that it was a construction site accident.
“This construction site accident is an important work safety issue and to deny or ignore this as a worksite accident will have legal consequences in terms of financial culpability and responsibility for the 11 construction workers who died,” Jagdeep told a press conference in Komtar recently.
Jagdeep said the state accepts the right of those who wished to kick out the state government by exploiting the tragic construction site accident.
“However, kindly get your facts right and not distort the truth,” he added.