Why i want to sell Penang.

Because I love the food. And I want all my friends back.

I love almost everything about it, nevermind that it lacks the pace and energy of KL or NY and it lacks avenues to meet, mingle, socialise neither is it a hub for the arts, performance and music scene. (We do have that annual jazz festival thing though.)

I want to be able to not move to another country to live. I want to live in Penang. Everything is 15 minutes away! I have the beach, the hills, the parks, the heritage streets and buildings, the hotels, the wide variety of fabulous food, the cultural mix, the endless rows of stalls,etc. Did I mention the food? Penang is a great place to call home. I don't ever want to have to leave this all behind only to learn how to appreciate it. I don't want to be faced with the dilemma that what I have to offer is not marketable in Penang and made beneficial to Penangites while other people in other markets are willing to let me make a living being what I am capable of. 

I know I would suffer so much being separated from my beloved Penang food. I would plunge into depression living in another place where I know nothing of and where I cannot drive off on a fancy to get my favourite whatever I feel like eating. 

Yes, we often hear the phrase, "We can't have it all." But maybe it's time to ask, "Why not"? Culturally, historically, geographically, infrastructure for roads, buildings, good schools, business, low crime rate, creative and enterprising people, parks, hills, beaches, funicular train, esplanades, the sea, palm-lined beaches with golden sands, world-class hotels, research centres, universities, world-class medical care and most importantly, temples, mosques, churches, clan associations, kungfu and taichi, wushu and lion dance, apartments and bungalows, the birthplace of the fabulous nasi kandar, tons and tons of fabulous restaurants and value for money hawker fare...........we can't have it all, yes,  but we're almost there. We're a lot better off than Hiroshima post D-Day. The only thing separating us from that bullet-train nation is the Way We Think. You can't grow a limb, but you sure can change the way you think. And just because something is not easy doesn't make it valid to cop-out. One person, one thing, one corner at a time. 

I know the Umno-led government has put in place policies that has caused this mass exodus of creative and intellectual minds out of not only Penang, but Malaysia. But why is it that the good ones have to always be pushovers? Why are we letting dictators with a lesser conscience decide whether or not we can have a glorious living and retirement in Penang?

Before we sell Penang to the world (and when I mean sell, i don't mean sell-out) we have to sell our own people the idea that Penang is something to be proud of.

I want the good guys like you and me, to win for once. I want us hardworking, enterprising people to get the hands up this time. I want a Penang I can retire in, I can come back to. I want a Penang that utilises all the resources laid upon it; for tourism, for heritage, for a model cosmopolitan melting pot, the backdrop for creativity in literature, arts, performance and music. Wasn't P.Ramlee from Penang?

I want Penang to be the place every one wants to come to because it's the best bang for the buck within a thousand mile radius. Instead of experiencing either or, they can have it all;  hills, forests, beaches, orchards, culturally rich streets, hotels, heritage, local food, international food, history, education, environment, etc. Like a buffet, Penang is the best value for money you're going to get. 

I want Penang to be the IT (no, not I.T. but it) place. The it girl on the Peninsula Malaysian block. The it Girl for South East Asia! I want all my friends back. And I want Penang to be the one island where the good guys come together and push back - and we win. Since we're already half way there by getting a new government, we might as well go, as Ning Baizura puts it for THR 99.3 (in the Klang Valley) "Alllllll the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy".

More than KL (which can survive on foreign investments flooding it as much as rainwater does), Penang is the canary in the cave for a 'Malaysia Boleh'. Because if anyone can, it IS Penang.