Last November, I blogged about the cracks on the Penang Bridge, how the previous state public works committee chairman had admitted to the cracks in several locations along the bridge and how one week earlier the previous Chief Minister had denied that there were cracks at all.
Today, I read a news item that in the present sitting of the Penang State Assembly, the previous administration was accused of a cover-up.
There are always two sides to the story and I believe it would have been very difficult indeed to come to a proper decision. Damned if you tell the truth and damned if you do not tell the truth.
Yes, telling the truth could have panicked the people, especially the commuters who travel across the bridge daily. Businesses that use the bridge would also have been severely affected, especially those that have to transport their goods to either the Penang International Airport or the North Butterworth Container Terminal. Investor confidence would have been severely affected too.
Weighing against that, not informing the people would mean that the previous government was willing to take a big calculated risk that the Penang Bridge would not collapse. I’m sure they arrived at that decision after consulting the Penang Bridge concessionnaire as well as UEM Builders. I don’t know what was discussed between the three parties so I cannot comment at all on what they considered to be the probability of the bridge collapsing. Most probably, it was a very remote risk but all the same, it was a risk which the government was prepared to accept. If it had really collapsed, it would mark the end of Penang. The disaster will forever be in the conscience of those who made the decision to keep quiet. Would the previous government be prepared to live with that?