Penang Cheif Minister Chow Kon Yeow meets athletes during the Victor Malaysia International Series 2018 in George Town November 6, 2018. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, Dec 24 — It is six months into Chow Kon Yeow’s first term as Penang chief minister, and in that short amount of time, he’s had to deal with issues ranging from floods to hill developments.

While he’s generally known as “Mr Nice Guy” among Penang Pakatan Harapan (PH) state assemblymen, the state Opposition also believes Chow is someone who prefers to let his work do the talking for him.

Chow may be a first-term chief minister but he is not new to the state government as he was a state executive councillor for 10 years previously.

Bagan Dalam assemblyman Satees Muniandy (DAP), who worked with Chow previously when the latter was in charge of the local government, traffic management and flood mitigation portfolio, described Chow as a very “patient” chief minister.

“I was a councillor then and he was the exco. I find that he listens to the people, he listens to the youths, and he is very patient,” he said.

He pointed out that even the state opposition assemblymen seem to like him.

“He did very well when dealing with local issues such as the objection against the transport master plan by listening to the people and giving the civil society space to raise its views,” he said.

Opposition assemblyman, Yusni Mat Piah (PAS), also praised Chow as a hardworking chief minister.

“He concentrates on fulfilling his duties and does not talk much, so we can see he does his work,” the Penaga assemblyman said.

However, the areas he believes Chow should improve on are resolving flash floods in the state and hill slope developments.

“He has to carefully manage hill slope developments and ensure there will not be a repeat of the Bukit Kukus landslide that killed nine workers,” he said.

He said flash floods continue to occur in Penang whenever there is a heavy downpour, so Chow should focus on resolving this.

Penang Gerakan chairman Oh Tong Keong agreed with Yusni that Chow has to resolve the flooding issues in Penang.

“The PH state government was not able to resolve this in the past 10 years. We hope Chow can,” he said.

He said Gerakan is supportive of any good policies introduced by the state, such as its various social welfare programmes like the annual aid for senior citizens.

“We also hope Chow will look at how hill slope developments are managed so as not to cause mishaps,” he said.

He hoped Chow will also consider building more public housing for the poor who cannot afford to buy their own homes.

Seri Delima assemblyman Syerleena Abdul Rashid (DAP) said Chow has been doing a great job in the past six months as chief minister.

“He has his own style and he is continuing with the projects he was working on as an exco previously,” she said.

She said Chow was able to address the dissent against the state’s Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) by allowing open talks with the public and civil society.

“He also fulfilled one PH promise, which is to impose a two-term limit on the chief minister’s post,” she said.

The Penang state legislative assembly recently passed an amendment to the state’s constitution to limit the chief ministership to two terms.

Chow tabled the Bill to add a line to the state constitution that the chief minister post can only be held by a member of the assembly who has never held the position for two terms.

Bertam assemblyman Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (PPBM) said Chow was approachable and down-to-earth.

“He is open to answering any questions or queries on any policies he has introduced,” he said.

He said Chow introduced the Penang 2030 vision, a forward-thinking blueprint for the state’s future.

“He has a good vision to bring the state forward and I believe he will be able to lead the state in accordance with his vision,” he said.

Bukit Tengah assemblyman Gooi Hsiao Leung (PKR) said Chow has been transparent in implementing his policies such as the controversial PTMP.

“Some people may disagree with the project, but Penang still needs an overhaul and long-term plans to resolve its transportation issues for the next 20 to 30 years,” he said.

He also said Chow’s two main achievements in these six months were the passage of the two-term limit Bill and the Penang 2030 vision.

He added six months was too short a time for Chow to implement major initiatives, but he believed the chief minister will be able to roll out projects under the Penang 2030 over the next few years.