Danny Law responsible for
Dragon Boat tradgedy !
He and the State Government has to and must take full responsibilities for this incident since he is also the Chairman of the Penang International Dragon Boat Festival (PIDBF) committee.
State govt wanted open-water races
2010/01/22
GEORGE TOWN: The state government and the Penang Dragon Boat Association (PDBA) had a falling out in December 2008 after the latter voiced its concerns over holding dragon boat races in open waters.
He said PDBA had disagreed with the event being held there due to safety concerns.
"However, the PIDBF persisted with its decision to hold the event at the seafront, instead of the Teluk Bahang Dam," he said yesterday.
Lai said PDBA and PIDBF had previously worked together when Penang hosted the Club Crew World Championships and Asia Dragon Boat Championship in 2008.
However, following the disagreement over safety issues between the two sides, PDBA was not re-appointed to the PIDBF committee last year.
Lai said he did not reveal the fallout before this because he did not want to politicise the issue.
"I am only disclosing this now because lives have been lost," he said, adding that PDBA was also proven to be right over its concern when there was an accident during last year's dragon boat event at the Jelutong Expressway seafront.
Even so, Lai said PDBA was ready to work with any party, including the state government, on dragon boat safety issues.
He said PDBA hoped the state government would look into the possibility of banning dragon boat training exercises and races in open water.
Alternatively, he said the authorities must ensure adequate safety measures are followed during such activities.
He said dragon boat activities could be held in the open sea only if safety precautions were observed and properly enforced.
However, he said it would be better that dragon boat clubs held their activities at safer locations such as the Penang Water Sports Centre and Teluk Bahang Dam.
This is is the worst exco we have from Penang . I read sometime last year he attended a Tourism function in Australia that during his speech in Australia , he spoke broken English in his speech , much to the embarrassment of the Tourism officials accompanying him and to the Aussies who must be wondering how come penang has such a Monkey as a State Tourism Minister ,
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