🌿 SORE THUMB: WHAT WILL WE LEAVE FOR OUR CHILDREN—A CAPE OF FLOWERS OR A CAPE OF CONCRETE?
Tanjung Bungah residents are raising two separate but deeply important concerns.
1️⃣ Planning permission for Lot 4658 and residents’ right to be heard
In 2022, before planning permission was approved, residents were assured that neighbouring properties would be invited to give their comments when planning permission was sought.
Yet affected residents of One Tanjong and The Cove say they were not individually served with notices before the approval was granted. Now, the State respondent is also opposing:
1. the applications by affected residents to participate as interveners; and
2. the Management Corporation’s application to raise additional grounds of objection.
Residents believe these objections are inconsistent with the State’s recorded 2022 assurance that affected neighbours would be invited to participate before planning permission was approved.
We respect the independence of the Appeal Board. But as ordinary rakyat, we must ask:
If we were not properly heard before approval, why is our attempt to participate and raise our additional concerns now being opposed? When and where will the directly affected residents finally be heard?
2️⃣ The future of gazetted Sore Thumb and our public beach
This is a separate matter from the Appeal Board’s jurisdiction.
Residents are asking the Penang State Government to preserve Sore Thumb as a natural coastal park—not replace its mature trees, wildlife habitat and natural coastline with a concrete-heavy park, massive retaining wall and large parking area.
We have not merely complained or said “no.”
- We spent months developing a detailed and constructive alternative, with nature trails, native coastal vegetation, wildlife lookouts, learning spaces and protected access to the public beach.
- Our proposal received professional, environmental and community support. It was formally submitted to the State Government on 10 February 2026, followed by further emails.
- Yet we still have no clear official decision. No implementation timetable.
- The silence is heartbreaking because this is not merely an empty piece of land.
🌳 These are mature trees that took decades to grow.
🦅 This is a habitat for eagles, kingfishers, otters, dusky leaf monkeys, monitor lizards and coastal birds.
🏖️ This is one of Tanjung Bungah’s remaining natural public beaches.
👨👩👧👦 This is part of the inheritance we should be protecting for our children.
- Before constructing a retaining wall reportedly reaching approximately 6.45 metres, residents ask:
❓ Why is a wall of this scale necessary?
❓ Have lower-impact alternatives been properly considered?
❓ Have its possible effects on erosion, sediment movement and neighbouring beaches been independently assessed?
❓ Will the public still have a natural and safely accessible beach after it is built?
1. If the wall is truly necessary, show the public the evidence.
2. If environmentally safer alternatives exist, they must be seriously considered before irreversible work begins.
3. If this is genuinely a public park for the public, then surely the public’s detailed proposal deserves serious, transparent consideration and an official response.
We ask the Penang State Government to:
✅ Adopt the residents’ natural-park proposal in principle
✅ Protect gazetted Sore Thumb, the public beach and neighbouring coastline
✅ Disclose the independent technical evidence supporting the retaining wall
✅ Prevent irreversible works while these questions remain unanswered
✅ Give residents an official written decision and implementation timetable
We are not against progress.
We are asking for progress that does not needlessly destroy what nature has taken decades to create.
Once mature trees are cleared, habitats destroyed and the natural coastline altered, another meeting or promise cannot simply bring them back.
One day, our children may ask what we did when we still had the opportunity to protect this place. Let us be able to tell them:
- We did not remain silent.
- We stood together.
- And we protected it for you.
🌿 A park for people. A park that protects nature.
Please share this message and stand with the Tanjung Bungah community.
🌺 Choose a Cape of Flowers—not a Cape of Concrete.
#PreserveSoreThumb #TanjungBungah #NaturePark #ProtectOurBeach #PenangEnvironment #CapeOfFlowers
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2026/09/08/tanjung-bungah-residents-want-answers-on-sore-thumb-park-proposal
