What can the Penang state government do in three months

If you ask me, nothing much.

Rome was not built in a day so we should not expect the DAP-PKR Penang state government to work miracles in just three months.

Of course, this does not stop all the MSM from churning out 100-day reports on what the state government has achieved in this short period of time. It also did not stop the former state government leaders, namely Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon from pointing out at the 'weaknesses' of this new state government.

By now, I have learned to ignore most of what Gerakan has to say in the media because it is mostly crap resulting from sour grapes. Nothing profound can be seen in sour grapes comments, so why waste time, eh?

Anyway, what really caught my interest was that Koh Tsu Koon had termed the 100 days as the DAP-PKR state government's 'honeymoon' period. If that is not sour grapes, I do not know what is!

Running a state government for the first time since all of the DAP and PKR wakil rakyat are relatively new is no easy task. Many of them never expected to win and now suddenly, they are part of the Penang state government. Grappling with new things to learn, heavier responsibilities and a change in role from being a noise-making Opposition to the state government is no simple, easy as A-B-C task.

The fact that they had to do it minus all the files in the cleaned out offices, it is not easy at all. Of course, certain quarters have said that the new government could always get copies of the documents from the state secretary's office.

Sure, the state secretary my have copies of the documents but would you know what document to ask for if you do not even know what document you are suppose to be looking for?

Just think. For example, an exco may have, lets say 20, open files of issues and problems not solved or in the process and hundreds others already solved and filed away for records. But with the change of state government, the 20 unsolved issues (files) disappeared into thin air. Sure, all the copies are with the state secretary's office but so are the hundreds others kept there for records. So, how is the new exco to know which issue is unsolved, which issue is ongoing and which is already solved and dealt with? Yep, the new exco probably have to vet through hundreds of files and folders to find the 20 unsolved issues.

And that is easy, issit? On top of that, they have to meet with the people in their respective portfolios, they have to learn the ropes of their responsibilities, they have to meet with the reluctantly cooperative government departments, they have to also solve problems while still learning the ropes.

Then on top of that there is the huge big mess of scams and loose ends for them to clear up and tie up, again, no thanks to the previous state government.

So, what can the Penang state government do in 100 days? Well, obviously, nothing much because they are too busy clearing up the mess by the previous state government while at the same time trying to make their own policies and decisions now.

In fact, my question to all those sour grapes out there, what DID the Gerakan state government achieve all this time? Oh, wait...I know the answers:

1. Unsustainable development by allowing developers to chop down trees, hills to build more high rise, more luxury buildings

2. Cutting down and destruction of our water catchment areas for decades before the remaining few areas were gazetted in 2003.

3. Land scams

4. Extremely efficient (NOT) public transportation

5. A million traffic lights which causes more traffic congestions that clearing traffic

6. Extremely well-planned out (NOT) traffic dispersal system

7. Safe City is just a concept, not a reality

8. Penang rubbish city is a reality, not a concept

9. Beautiful clean and safe (yeah, right) beaches

10. Growing number of investments (leaving the state)

So, what can a 100-day-old Penang state government do to undo what the previous state government did in all those years? A lot that can't be done within three months!

Need I say more?