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Unesco evaluates hotel projects
by Opalyn Mok
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: The two
Unesco heritage inspectors
here to evaluate four proposed
hotel projects and their impact
on George Town’s listing as a
Unesco Heritage Site met the
project developers and local
council officials yesterday.
It is learnt that the closed-door
meeting was held in City Hall
and immediately after the meet-
ing ended, the inspectors went to
meet Penang Chief Minister Lim
Guan Eng.
They had an hour-long meet-
ing at 11.30am in Lim’s Menara
Komtar office, with Penang
Island Municipal Council act-
ing president Tan Cheng Chui,
Penang local government and
traffic management committee
chairman Chow Kon Yeow and
several other council directors
and officers.
Asked to comment on the
meeting, Lim said he met the
inspectors, who arrived on Mon-
day, for the second time.
However, Lim declined to
divulge details of the meeting
except that he had presented the
state government’s views on the
issue and they also presented
their views.
“The main issue in this matter
is to address the facts and techni-
cal area.
“The people involved have
done their part and we will just
have to wait for the outcome,” he
said.
He said the confidentiality of
the meeting must be kept and
thus, he could not reveal any-
thing more about it.
“I would prefer not to make
any statement on the meeting.
“It is best to let them do their
work and present their report to
be considered in a Unesco meet-
ing to review George Town’s
status in June,” he said.
Lim said the four controver-
sial high-rise projects were still
on hold.
The two inspectors, Giovanni
Bocardi, from the Unesco office
in Paris, and Prof David Lung,
of the International Council on
Monuments and Sites are ex-
pected to leave today.
Unesco, had in November
expressed concern over the
four hotel projects approved in
the heritage zone, saying it may
cause the listing to be reviewed.
The tallest project, measuring
84m on Jalan Sultan Ahmad
Shah, was approved on June 26,
a mere 10 days before the Unesco
listing.
The other three projects, be-
tween 51m and 84m high, were
approved by the former Barisan
Nasional government.
The nomination dossier ap-
proved by Unesco in granting
world heritage listing to George
Town and Malacca confirmed
the international body’s endorse-
ment for new building projects
in George Town to be capped at
18m.
Probe shows Saravanan’s
claims not true:Tiong Lai
by Tim Leonard
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry
yesterday expressed regret over
Deputy Federal Territories Minister
Datuk M. Saravanan’s claims that
doctors at Kuala Lumpur Hospital
were napping.
Health Minister Datuk Seri
Liow Tiong Lai said investigations
revealed only a doctor was reading
the newspaper while waiting for
his next patient and there were not
20 patients waiting, as reported.
The other doctor was on duty.
“We regret that Datuk Sara-
vanan’s accusations were baseless,”
Liow told reporters. “If the matter
was not investigated properly, it
Unesco would appear as if our doctors were
inspectors ... not doing their duties.”
Lung (right) Liow said the doctor in ques-
and Bocardi. tion was a fresh graduate doing
his housemanship and the “20
waiting patients”, as claimed by
Saravanan, were family members
keeping eight patients company.
“The doctor had finished treat-
briefs
PR confident of
victory in Penanti
GEORGE TOWN: DAP secretary
general Lim Guan Eng is confident
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will retain
the Penanti seat in the May 31
by-election.
The Penang chief minister said
DAP would continue to throw its
full support for PKR in the by-elec-
tion and that DAP members have
been directed to go all out to help
secure a win for PR.
“I have directed the DAP ma-
chinery to start preparations im-
mediately,” he told reporters in his
office after a cheque handing-over
ceremony between SMK Heng Ee
and the Penang Island Municipal
Council yesterday.
Gerakan ticks off
Guan Eng
GEORGE TOWN: Gerakan has
told DAP secretary-general and
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng
to take care of his own house
after he had questioned Umno’s
sincerity in saying it had healed
its rift with Gerakan.
In a statement yesterday,
Penang Gerakan assistant sec-
retary Goh Kheng Sneah said
Lim should not worry whether
there were internal issues or
problems in the Barisan Na-
sional (BN).
Lim had on Tuesday ques-
tioned Penang Umno secretary
and state Opposition Leader
Datuk Seri Azhar Ibrahim’s as-
sertion in the state assembly
that the two BN parties’ public
spat last year was settled.
Youth nabbed for
stealing a kiss
GEORGE TOWN: A 19-year-old
stall worker who succumbed to
temptation to kiss a woman’s
cheek was caught by passers-by.
In the 11.30am incident on
Tuesday, a 22-year-old woman was
stepping out of a toilet in Tesco
Seberang Jaya when the suspect
planted a kiss on her cheek.
After being momentarily stunned,
the woman screamed, prompting
passers-by to nab the suspect and
theSun | THURSDAY APRIL 30 2009
ing one patient and while waiting
for his next patient’s card, he
decided to read the newspaper,”
he said.
Saravanan was reported on
Sunday as saying he caught two
doctors at the hospital’s emer-
gency department reading news-
papers and “doing their own stuff”
instead of attending to more than
20 patients waiting for treatment.
Saravanan said he made the
discovery when he went to the
hospital to visit a university stu-
dent who was injured after he was
knocked down by a car driven by
Saravanan’s driver.
“I, realising that none of the
patients were being called in by
the doctors, opened the door to the
treatment room and was shocked
to find one doctor reading a news-
paper and the other minding his
own business and doing his own
stuff,” he was reported to have
said.
“There were more than 20
patients outside waiting for treat-
ment,” he added.
hand him over to the police.
Penang CID chief SAC II Wan
Abdullah Tuanku Said said the
case was being investigated un-
der Section 354 of the Penal Code
for outraging the modesty of the
woman. If convicted, the suspect
can be jailed up to 10 years, fined,
or whipped.
In another case, police raided a
house on Jalan Semarak, Farlim, at
11pm on Tuesday and arrested eight
women in their 40s for gambling.
Remains of girl
found buried
GEORGE TOWN: Police yester-
day found the remains of a
seven-year-old girl buried under
a tree in a field in Sg Pisang, Air
Itam here.
A dozen police officers and
forensic experts were at the
scene at about 1pm digging for
the remains of the girl believed
to have been there for between
two and three years.
It is believed the location of
the remains was obtained from
a rape suspect remanded by
the police.
Taib’s wife dies of
cancer
KUCHING: Puan Sri Laila Taib, wife
of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri
Abdul Taib Mahmud, died of can-
cer at their residence in Demak
Jaya here yesterday.
She passed away at 3.45pm.
Laila, 68, is survived by her
husband, four children, including
Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk
Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman, and
15 grandchildren.
Taib’s press secretary, Amin Sa-
hmat, said the burial would be held
at the Demak Muslim cemetery
today.
Among the first dignitaries to
pay their last respects at Demak
Jaya were Deputy Prime Minister
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who
is on a two-day official visit to
Sarawak, and his wife Puan Sri
Norainee Abdul Rahman.
The Polish-born Laila and Taib,
then pursuing his law degree, were
married in Adelaide, Australia on
Jan 13, 1959. Three years later, she
arrived in Sarawak.
A local writer, Christina
Mamora, who was commissioned
to write Laila’s yet-to-be published
biography, A Story of Love and
Compassion, described her as
“kind and caring towards others.”
– Bernama