Thursday, June 27, 2013

The Tourism Ministry is curious about the new theme park

The Eye draws 3.5 million visitors  annually
New Tourism Minister Nazri Aziz hasn't made any public statement on the so-called Malaysia Truly Asia theme park they want to build near Parliament and the National Monument, but he will (have to). Blogger Apanama's latest revelation is that the 26.3 ha park will wash away too much of our heritage. It's hard to make economic sense of it, too.
The office that houses the ISIS office, for example, was the official residence of the Dewan Rakyat Speaker. Between 1959 and 1964, the House Speaker was Noah Omar, the grandfather of present PM Najib Razak. Noah was also our delegate to the UN General Assembly in 1958. He addressed the world body twice: the first time on apartheid in South Africa and the second on the plight of Palestinian refugees, both of which have remained central in Malaysia's foreign policies till today. 
Noah (right) at theSpeaker's home, about 50 years ago
(pic taken from The Thee Swans by Fawzia Abdullah)
But history isn't the only reason why the ministry's officials are going around asking questions about the theme park. 
If it's supposed to be a major tourist attraction as claimed, their new Minister would want every claim to be backed up by details. "It won't be business as usual, if you know what I mean." And as Apanama has lamented, there's very little anybody know about the project. For all you know, the theme is a front - an excuse - for the developers to build high-end condos and colossal commercial havens for the benefit of a few. 
The claim that foreign tourists will now need to spend just 2-3 hours at the theme park to know Malaysia and to love Malaysia is also a worrying - even disturbing - prospect as far as tourism is concerned. "Do these people know what they're doing? We want tourists to stay 2-3 weeks here so they spend money, lots of money. If they only need 2 or 3 hours, Singapore and Thailand will say thank you very much to us as the tourist will spend more time with them instead of with us."
Me, I think we need to avoid building another white elephant like the mini-Asean village
Not "business as usual" under Nazri ..
(or is it mini-Malaysia). If we really need to have one, then it certainly does not need to be in the heart of the city and at the expense of one of its last gasps of green lungs.
Learn from the Londoners. When they wanted a world-class tourist attraction, they built the Eye. They didn't touch a grass at Hyde Park or Kensington or any of the city's gardens and green lungs because they knew they wouldn't get near any of it. Since 2000, the London Eye has been attracting some 3.5 million visitors a year. 

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:52 pm

    Not to difficult to figure from where the stupidity lies.

    Khazanah's project and part of Ministry for Urban Well Being must have come from PEMANDU's Greater KL/KV NKEA.

    Azman Mokhtar, Omar Ong, and Nor Yakcop... same disastrous group from the days of Dols.

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  2. Anonymous3:22 pm

    It smells like Tahrir square 2.0 in the making.


    Anak Bentong

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  3. Anonymous3:31 pm

    it seems that Najib dont know how to think himself anymore ..

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  4. jorge3:42 pm

    Rocky,
    Are you sure this theme park is really taking off? Nobody said anything about it, not even the project promoter.

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  5. Anonymous3:46 pm

    this calls for public demos because there is this uncanny ability of govt.
    hijacking projects in favor of greedy people.Look at Carcosa ,majidee camp.
    Recycled ministers need lots of kickbacks to support retainers,sons,wives n the list goes on.
    Leave the green lungs alone .
    Look at Central Park USA..It is huuuuge.

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  6. Anonymous3:51 pm

    Much ado about nothing. Rocky, you must really re-evaluate your sources la...

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  7. Anonymous4:13 pm

    Would you like to take a guess who will get the build project? It's the usual suspects bro., they are licensed to sapu everything

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  8. Anonymous7:57 pm

    This is Khazanah we are talking about. They talk from their pocket not their brain.

    Misterzizou

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  9. Anonymous12:28 pm

    Rocky,
    What Needle Eye ? Ini project is for Nazri and gang to whack as much money while they can!They eye this project long time ago?

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  10. This is a good project. Jakarta has Mini-Indonesia park. For short stay tourist, someone who can't go around Malaysia, this is a good place to "get to know" our country

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  11. Purple Haze12:23 am

    Removal of heritage sites is a worrying trend in Malaysia. The proposed 118 tower in the Merdeka Stadium area is very, very short sighted.

    The traffic congestion it will cause is enough reason to stop it. As it is, that area is already choked up.

    The rakyat is not going to gain anything from this.

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  12. But somebody is going to make money doing this isn't it? And who are you to stop that from happening? Why so selfish one?

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