The Protect Karpal Singh Drive action committee (ProtectKarpal), operating under Bandar Sri Pinang Pulau Pinang Residents’ Association, calls on Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow to honour his commitment to residents.
ProtectKarpals calls on Chow to direct the state government and the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) to take immediate lawful steps to terminate or allow the 21 February 2020 joint development agreement with PLB Engineering Berhad to lapse.
The reported RM1bn project combines rehabilitation of the former Jelutong landfill with coastal reclamation off Karpal Singh Drive.
This is no longer merely a dispute over an environmental impact assessment or another technical extension. It is a test of whether the Penang government still answers to the people who elected it.
Recent electoral reversals should make one lesson clear: no political mandate is permanent. Pakatan Harapan won only one seat in Sabah and eight of 56 seats in Johor.
The latest electoral verdict in Negeri Sembilan reinforces the warning that voters will withdraw their support when governments appear unresponsive or fail to keep their promises.
Penang is not immune.
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A broken promise
At a dialogue with residents on 24 June 2025, the chief minister gave a clear assurance: no further extension would be granted if the developer failed to obtain an approval for the environmental impact assessment by 28 February 2026.
The deadline passed without approval. The project has reportedly failed to secure environmental approval five times.
Yet on 12 July 2026, the chief minister announced that the developer would receive one final extension before the state decided the project’s future.
A “final extension” is still an extension.
A public pledge cannot be rewritten after the condition for enforcing it has already occurred. If the chief minister’s promise means anything, the joint development agreement must end.
The agreement originally required the developer to secure essential environmental, traffic and social impact approvals within about 18 months.
Instead, repeated extensions have kept the agreement alive for six years without environmental approval, project commencement or meaningful rehabilitation.
How many missed deadlines must occur before a deadline has meaning?
Rehabilitate the landfill only
ProtectKarpal supports the urgent, science-based rehabilitation of the Jelutong landfill. Residents have lived for years with concerns over fires, landfill gases, leachate, pollution and land stability.
But rehabilitation and reclamation are not the same project. One must not be used to justify the other.
The developer’s revised 2016 proposal contained no coastal reclamation. The subsequent joint development agreement introduced an ‘additional area’ that later emerged as about 70 acres of reclamation, with a proposed 70:30 division favouring the developer.
An environmental rehabilitation project must not become a mechanism for creating premium seafront land without a fresh open tender, independent valuation and full public scrutiny.
The long-promised public park is not compensation for accepting reclamation. It was promised to residents independently of this development arrangement.
ProtectKarpal’s position is clear. Terminate the failed agreement. Remove the reclamation. Rehabilitate the landfill safely. Deliver the public park. Protect the Middle Bank seagrass.
Red flags
The state must also clarify if the remaining RM20m project management fee was shifted from a time-based payment schedule to a commencement-of-work trigger after earlier payment milestones had passed.
Because work has not commenced, this revision may defer the payment obligation indefinitely.
Penangites are entitled to know who authorised the change, what legal advice supported it and what protection the state received in return.
PLB’s audited accounts for 2023, 2024 and 2025 also contained “material uncertainty related to going concern” warnings, together with substantial losses.
ProtectKarpal does not allege any insolvency, corruption or wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, three consecutive years of audited financial warnings should have triggered enhanced due diligence and a termination review – not continued institutional accommodation.
Penang voters are watching
PH built its Penang mandate on competency, accountability and transparency (‘CAT’].
Those principles cannot apply only when politically convenient. This matter concerns public health, public land, Penang’s coastline and the credibility of commitments made by elected leaders.
Should the chief minister disregard his pledge and continue shielding the joint development agreement from its contractual consequences, PH must be prepared to answer to Penang voters at the next state election.
This is not a threat. It is democratic accountability.
Five immediate actions
ProtectKarpal calls on the chief minister, state executive council and the PDC to:
- Reject any further ‘extension of time’, ‘final extension’ or administrative workaround under the joint development agreement
- Begin lawful termination of the agreement, based on independent legal advice protecting Penang’s interests
- Publish the complete joint development agreement, all amendments, approvals for extension of time, revised payment arrangements, PDC and state executive council papers, and all five environmental impact assessment non-approval documents
- Support and facilitate an immediate Penang Public Accounts Committee investigation into the joint development agreement’s procurement history, contractual modifications, financial exposure and decision-making process
- Establish a rehabilitation-only programme separating urgent landfill closure from reclamation and commercial development, with oversight by public agencies, independent experts, civil society and affected residents.
ProtectKarpal chairperson Dr K Ganesh said: “The chief minister faces a clear choice: honour his word to residents or continue defending an agreement that has failed to meet its fundamental conditions for six years.
“We are not asking for favours. We are asking for lawful governance, environmental responsibility and a promise kept.
“Voters will remember who protected their neighbourhood and coastline – and who demanded that they accept one more extension.
“Terminate the joint development agreement. Rehabilitate safely without reclamation. Build the promised park. Protect Middle Bank. Above all, keep your word.”
The era of demanding blind public trust without documentary accountability is over.
Publish the records. Honour the pledge. Terminate the joint development agreement. – Protect Karpal
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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