Of course, Sonny built better quality houses and property than Goh Choon Lye and was definitely a smarter chap.
Idurs Ibrahim had is good for a while but soon Anwar Ibrahim fell from power and was imprisoned and that also forced Sonny Ho to remove Idrus as Chairman of Belleview.
Idrus was also a simpleton who trusted the businessmen who flocked to him to make him their partners and ultimately the guarantor of many of their business loans as he sits on their boards. When these businesses failed, the banks recalled the loans and often the secured properties were not sufficient to pay off the outstanding loans and so the banks had to sue the guarantors for recovery. Idrus was sued left right and centre and he was eventually made a bankrupt.
Belleview Group also built the three storey terrace houses called Slim Villas in Jalan Slim in Penang. Slim Villas in Jalan Slim is merely a 10-minutes’ drive from Jalan Pinhorn where Lim Guan Eng is staying in a rented bungalow belonging to Tan Kok Ping’s family member. Tan Kok Ping has gotten very close to Lim Guan Eng who is the Chief Minister of Penang. Tan Kok Ping knew about the affair between Lim Guan Eng and Ng Phaik Kheng aka Rainbow and how Guan Eng’s wife, Betty came to know about it via a whistle blower and forced Lim Guan Eng to put a stop to the affair. Guan Eng of course denied the affair but Betty has a pretty good aim and with her on-target flying ash tray that landed right on Guan Eng’s forehead soon woke Guan Eng to his senses and he was forced to sack Rainbow and kick her out of his KOMTAR office.
The sneaky Tan Kok Ping wanted to tie Guan Eng in his fingers and keep the affair going and so Kok Ping spoke to Sonny Ho to allow Rainbow to purchase a unit of the Slim Villas at developer’s price of RM700,000. Who actually paid the RM700,000 – no one knows? Maybe it was Guan Eng or maybe even Kok Ping himself as surely Rainbow could not afford such a house on her meagre salary and more so after losing her job at the CM’s office.
It was a perfect arrangement for the love-birds to continue their tale of forbidden love as they now live only 10-minutes apart. A classic case of so near yet so far but indeed forbidden fruit tastes sweeter.
Well, today Anwar is back into the corporate scene in Penang via the courtesy of Guan Eng for the mega project. History kind of repeats itself here.
But Guan Eng is certainly caught in this tangled web of deceit – not only cheating his wife but in fact he is cheating the people of Penang as he bull-dozes this Tunnel Mega Project through in order to grease his cronies and enrich himself with dirty money.
Back to the story of Sonny Ho – his latest project in Penang is the controversial Moulmein Rise which is a 27-storey iconic structure located in Pulau Tikus, Penang. It comprises shop offices at level 1 & 2 and lifestyle suites from level 5 to 27. Traders and residents living near the Pulau Tikus market are very angry with the Penang State Government and they are fuming over this 27-storey commercial project in Lengkok Moulmein.
The closure of a car park located on the project site is said to be disrupting their daily lives along Jalan Pasar and the Jalan Moulmein area. A protest, led by Penang Citizens’ Awareness (Chant Group) member Yan Lee, was held recently where he complained that the people there were affected by the construction of the project called “Moulmein Rise” as there was now limited car park space for the market goers. Traders have complained that their business had dropped almost 50% on some days since the open space car park was closed last month for the construction and residents had not received any feedback.
Another resident, CK Tan, claimed that “my right to object was taken away from me”. “Then they rubbed salt into the wound and let the developer build (a construction) even higher than the plan that was rejected,” he was quoted as saying and indeed he has been described as probably the angriest-looking man at the protest.
But all this is to no avail as CM Lim Guan Eng refuses to listen to the people affected by this project which has caused hardship to them. Is it because Guan Eng owes Sonny Ho a debt as he sold the Slim Villa cheap to Rainbow and kept discreet about it?
And so Guan Eng allows the developer Sonny Ho to build this monstrous high rise.
Guan Eng is fast gaining a reputation as Penang’s top land broker because of his unusually close relationship with the developers in Penang as it appears to be his favourite modus operandi to squeeze and skim monies form them and from the state’s most asset.
Malaysian Ringgit Converter
No comments:
Post a Comment