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Ahmad Ismail's appointment as MPPP Building and Planning Committee alternate chairman is adding salt to the wound of anti-PORR Penangites who are already offended by his earlier outrageous MPPP appointment Media Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang (Penang, Monday): The appointment of Datuk Ahmad Ismail, the executive chairman of Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) concessionaire Peninsular Metroworks Sdn. Bhd (PMWSB) and Bukit Bendera UMNO division chairman as Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) Building and Planning Committee alternate chairman is adding salt to the wound of anti-PORR Penangites who are already offended by his most improper and outrageous appointment as MPPP Super Councillor. The message of Ahmad Ismail's swift elevation to the top MPPP echelon is clear and unmistakable - firstly, the utter contempt of the Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, the Penang State Government and the MPPP for the legitimate objections and sensitivities of Penangites who are opposed to the PORR project for violating the principles of good urban governance such as viability, public participation, transparency and accountability. Secondly, that the government is determined to proceed with the PORR project, whatever the people of Penang think or feel about the project. Can Tsu Koon explain the double standards in MPPP appointments in being so sensitive to objections, and anonymous ones, to the appointment of a MCA MPPP Councillor but utter contempt to valid and even iron-clad objections by many quarters in Penang on Ahmad Ismail's appointment to the MPPP Council - especially as there is a clear conflict of interest in Ahmad Ismail's role as the executive chairman of the concessionaire company for the highly controversial PORR project and his elevation as MPPP Super Councillor and now as MPPP Planning and Building Committee. The impropriety of Ahmad Ismail's MPPP appointments are so fundamental and clear-cut than even school children can see that it is outrageous for the executive chairman of the controversial PORR concessionaire to be a MPPP Councillor and even worse, an alternate chairman of its Building and Planning Committee, which must make important decisions affecting PMWSB. Ahmad Ismail must choose between being executive chairman of the PORR concessionaire company, PMWSB or MPPP Councillor, as he cannot be both without compromising the Penang State Government and the MPPP in the ethics and principles of urban good governance. Or there is a third alternative - the withdrawal of PMWSB as the PORR concessionaire. (10/2/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman