Story by Danny Ooi
Pix by Chan Lilian
IT was a “hot” start when the Penang State Assembly began its 13th session on May 13 as two assemblymembers were engaged in a heated exchange over the Taman Manggis issue.
During the question and answer session, Datuk Keramat assemblymember cum exco for Town and Country Planning and Housing Jagdeep Singh accused the former Barisan Nasional (BN) state government of not going through with the Taman Manggis People’s Housing Project
(PPR).
Jagdeep said the former state government had rejected the second phase of the PPR project in 2007 and accused state opposition
leader Datuk Jahara Hamid of having “selective” memory and encouraging a mass protest over the Taman Manggis issue in March this year.
“I did not do such a thing, I did not encourage people to participate in a flash mob,” Jahara countered.
“How come you do not remember, when you gave a local television station (TV3) an interview on March 25, where you brought up the issue about the memo, what is this?” Jagdeep told Jahara.
Seri Delima assemblymember R.S.N. Rayer then stood up and played a video of Jahara’s interview with TV3 on his mobile phone.
Speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang then told Rayer to put his phone away and proceed with his supplementary question.
Rayer replied that the video proved that Jahara had spoken to TV3 about the memo.
He also accused her of slandering the state government to turn the people against the Pakatan Harapan administration.
The first phase of the Taman Manggis PPR project, with 320 units, was completed in 2007 with a full occupancy rate.
However, the second phase, which had been cancelled, was supposed to have 272 units of housing.
Both phases were supposed to be built on a 2ha site bordering Jalan Burma, Jalan Zainal Abidin and Lorong Selamat.