End of an era

Yes, this New Straits Times front page says it exactly. The last day that the Penang ferry service will operate will be 31 Dec 2020. After that, the sea link between the Penang island and mainland will be replaced with a fleet of passenger-only water buses and vehicle transporters. The flimsy excuse given by the federal government is that the spare parts from overseas are hard to come by. And the state government has no say in the matter because transport is under the purview of the Ministry of Transport and it is the turn of Wee Ka Siong to take his revenge on his nemesis, Lim Guan Eng, and his successor-in-government, Chow Kon Yeow.

Shame on the federal government. Why can't the present ferry service, which is an iconic heritage of Penang, be salvaged? If anything, the water buses should complement the ferries, not replace. Both can and should operate together. 

It is very strange to blame the demise on spare parts and suppliers. After all, the equally iconic Hong Kong Star Ferry, founded 1888, has remained the main means of public transportation between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The oldest vessel there was commissioned in 1965. Still running, their fleet carries some 22 million passengers a year. All our politicians and administrators ever do is quarrel among themselves, trading blames and ridiculing each other in public. The losers are the Penangites, no one else.

Incidentally, the ferry service was started by an illustrious member of Penang's society who happened to be a past president of the Swee Cheok Tong (Seh Quah Kongsi). I do not have any record to show when he was first elected as the president of the Kongsi but I do know that he was already one in the mid-1920s. He held on to this position until his death in 1952. He played an active role in founding The Old Frees' Association and was a vice-president sometime in the past. His part in the history of the Penang ferry service was documented in a separate blog post that I wrote two years ago. Click here to read.