This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 31, 2023 - August 6, 2023

DOUBTS as to whether Chow Kon Yeow will return to lead Penang, even if he succeeds in defending his Padang Kota state seat on Aug 12, were put to rest with Prime Minister and Pakatan Harapan chair Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim saying that the former will remain as chief minister if PH retains the state.

And if he returns as chief minister, Chow has one main goal — to complete the remaining 53% of initiatives contained in his Penang2030 vision. This includes big-ticket items such as implementing the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP), starting with the light rail transit (LRT), setting up a Water Contingency Plan, upgrading the economy to raise household income as well as building more affordable homes and skilled talents.

“I would [have] to continue as there are many mega projects that got approval towards the tail end of my first term. In the second term, I have to ensure that it is [implemented] as one term is insufficient,” Chow tells The Edge.

Assuming he retains his seat, this would be Chow’s second and final term as chief minister, in accordance with the state constitution’s two-term tenure limitation clause for the chief minister, which he tabled after taking up the post in 2018.

“I don’t want to overstay my welcome, [given my] biological and political age. In terms of political age, by the time I finish the new term [in five years], I would have been in politics for over 40 years.

“What you can do should have been achieved in the time that you served, so I don’t want to overstay my welcome,” says the 65-year-old Chow, a former journalist who joined DAP and won the Pengkalan Kota state seat in 1990 on his first attempt.

The following term, he stood in and won Padang Kota, a neighbouring constituency where he remains the incumbent. Last November, he clinched the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat with a majority of 40,400 votes.

Chow is state chairman of PH and DAP. He is also the national vice-chair of DAP.

While the PH coalition has met 93% of its 68-point manifesto for Penang as of this year, Chow says Penang2030, which he launched on his 100th day in office, has some way to go.

It is focused on four areas: (i) increasing liveability; (ii) improving the economy to raise household incomes; (iii) empowering people to strengthen civic participation; and (iv) investing in the built environment to improve resilience (relating to climate change).

“It is not easy to introduce a vision statement because the buy-ins are slow. Not long after the launch, we were hit by Covid-19. But we worked hard to get buy-ins and the exco (State Executive Council) involved, which set their own targets according to strategic initiatives, and appointed ‘champion officers’ to work in tandem with them,” he says.

Up to 220 projects in the vision were identified under the various strategic initiatives and exco portfolios, with 210 of them implemented or in progress. These mostly comprise the “software” or human element, particularly in digital transformation, community needs, youth empowerment, talent attraction and gender inclusion. 

The larger parts or the “hardware” of the programmes, involving public infrastructure and affordable housing are slightly lagging, such as the construction of the highway, LRT and undersea tunnel components in the PTMP. Currently, the detailed environmental impact assessment for three artificial islands off Penang island — dubbed the Penang South Islands project, meant to fund the PTMP — is under legal dispute with the fisherfolk in the area.

In May, Anwar said the federal government would finance the LRT from the Penang International Airport to Tanjung Bungah (previously said to cost RM10 billion) with Ministry of Finance-owned MRT Corp as the project proponent. Owing to the project takeover by MRT, he urged the reduction of the number of artificial islands to one, with reclamation funding remaining the state’s responsibility.

For Chow, the federal funding for the LRT is hugely welcome for the state, as the reclamation would have slowed its development by 10 to 15 years. But the reclamation remains important because “the 700 acres of the hi-tech industrial park on Island A would drive the next cycle of economic and industrial growth for Penang”, he says. “So, we are proceeding with it to create jobs and investments.”

On the issue of affordable housing, Chow says 148,351 or 64% of the 220,000 units targeted by 2030 have been resolved, including an urban renewal project in Lorong Mahsuri in Bayan Baru, where the old flats were torn down to make way for 300 larger units, enabling more tenants to occupy the area.

“Of the 220,000 units, we have also set aside units for the rent-to-own programme, seeing that people face problems getting loans even if it’s low-cost housing,” Chow says.

His other unfinished business includes the setting up of a “creative district” on the northern side of Weld Quay for start-ups.

“It’s not easy. We have been doing this for close to 10 years now, but we have to continue. The space in Wisma Yeap Chor Ee, which is limited, is used for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes.

“Upstairs, start-ups have rented the space and Digital Penang has also moved in. It is not enough [for a digital hub]. We want to create a cluster effect in that area.”

Between January 2019 and December 2022, the state experienced investment and economic growth, with manufacturing investments totalling RM121 billion. This aligned with its target of creating 150,000 job opportunities by 2030, with a focus on industries such as electrical and electronics, machinery and equipment, and scientific and medical equipment, as well as technical and vocational education and training and STEM programmes.

Chow takes pride in Penang’s investment realisation rate, which he claims stood at around 80% to 90% along with “actualised job numbers”.

He says the rise in foreign direct investments and exports, and economic growth in recent years, helped “allay some criticism that his government was not performing well” as official statistics “spoke for themselves”.

“During the pandemic and difficult global geopolitical environment, we were able to benefit from the repositioning of resources and supply chain as companies wanted to move nearer to their customers or suppliers,” he says.

Despite this, he contends that there are daily issues that affect voters, particularly the high cost of living and traffic congestion.

While plans to alleviate traffic jams are underway, including building a flyover to clear the bottleneck caused by the merging of Penang Bridge traffic into the North-South Highway, he stressed that cost of living issues were mostly related to global factors.

That said, he finds that prices have “come down” and “a lot of measures” have been taken by the federal government, which have helped to “absorb the pressure”.

“As this is a state election, we can say that with the alignment of both state and federal governments, we have steady promises and hope for better infrastructure in Penang. This, plus a full endorsement by the PM for the CM designate,” Chow says, beaming.

However, he is cognisant of a “green wave” occurring in majority-Malay seats in the state and seats that were won by PH by a simple majority.

As it stands, Penang lost three federal seats — Permatang Pauh, Nibong Tebal and Tasek Gelugor — to Perikatan Nasional (PN) last November in the 15th general election.

“Based on the votes, the state seats are also vulnerable, but that was eight months ago and there are a few new variables to consider now,” Chow says.

One of them is the tie-up between PH and Barisan Nasional (BN) to challenge PN, compared with the previous election when three coalitions were vying for the vote bank.

“If we talk about transferability, votes for PH and BN votes can transfer to their candidate. We can narrow the gap by this fact alone,” Chow believes.

Along with PH’s governance since November and a new prime minister who is “working harder than most younger people”, addressing financial and debt issues, reducing the cost of living, taking action against the “three Rs” (race, religion and royalty) manipulations, he says voters would be keen to see stability after experiencing “political turmoil” a few years ago.

“Given our achievements, we should be confident to face the people based on our vision for the state, and [our offer of] a more stable government — one with a good track record,” he says.

The candidates would need to show this during their campaigns.

“They must know that there are marginal seats on both sides. They may claim they are comfortable in certain seats but that could be a marginal seat,” Chow says.

To be sure, both PKR and DAP have rejigged their candidates’ list, with over half their selection being fresh faces. In PKR, eight out of 13 candidates are new while DAP is featuring seven newbies among the 19 seats it is contesting.

Among them, former deputy chief minister Prof Dr P P Ramasamy, and veteran politician Chong Eng — both DAP stalwarts — were dropped from the list after serving as state representatives for several terms.

The state assembly has 40 seats altogether. The remaining seven seats will be contested by BN and Amanah candidates under the PH plus BN banner.

Asked about the possibility of voters rejecting new candidates, Chow is pragmatic, saying that the changing of candidates is a normal occurrence in every election. “In the last state election, we changed around six or seven. It is bound to happen. It’s striking a balance [to have] a mixture of senior politicians and mid-career politicians while creating opportunities for younger leaders.” 

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