The Penang state government was rapped by a non-governmental organisation for its lack of urgency to build a monorail on the island, revealed by a state executive councillor to materialise only in five to 10 years.

"Will these politicians be around then to really fulfill their promise?" asked Ong Boon Keong of Penang-based Malaysian Local Democracy Initiative (Malodi), formed three years ago to enhance participatory democracy in local governance.

Councillor Koay Kar Huah's revelation, which was reported in several Chinese dailies, came after Penang Chief Minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon's announcement last week that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was "enthusiastic and positive" about the island's proposed monorail project.

Koh was reported in The Star last Thursday as saying that the proposed project and public transportation system would solve the problem of parking space shortage which was compounded by the increasing numbers of cars and residents in the state which has a population of 1.2 million people.

The chief minister stressed that there should be an integrated solution to Penang's traffic woes and that an outer ring road is needed to allow people to travel faster.