A feast, ferries and a sad finish

Sinking hopes: (From left) The tiny new ferry berthing beside ‘Pulau Kapas’ and ‘Pulau Undan’ a few months before ‘Pulau Kapas’ keeled over. Pulau Rimau is a sad sight off Bayan Lepas.

IT is the Feast of St Anne, a weekend when Christians in Penang flock to the church – now a minor basilica – in Bukit Mertajam.

It’s also a time that brings back memories, both good and bad.

More than two decades ago, we would gather at the church – me a Hindu, my Sikh colleague Harpajan Singh, and several others – and take in the music blaring from makeshift speakers on the packed church grounds.

We would even spend the night there, just laying back on the grass and revelling in the atmosphere as the crowds sang and danced. It was a multiracial, multireligious affair. And St Anne to this day is “Sant Anna Mata” to the Indians.

My mother, also a staunch Hindu, used to “beg” on the steps – as a penance. Whatever she collected went into the donation box.

She let a much younger me deposit the money in the box. Apparently, the blessings of Jesus Christ’s grandmother would then come to me.

I am not sure if I was blessed, but those were indeed happy days.

But St Anne’s feast day also brings bad memories. It was on that day in 1988 when tragedy struck on July 31. The ferry terminal at Butterworth collapsed under the weight of the sheer number of people.

Thousands had come for a dual celebration – St Anne’s feast day on the mainland and a once-in-60 years celebration at the Kuan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) temple at Pitt Street on the island. The revelry was to have taken place around the Esplanade seafront and much of George Town’s heritage areas.

But there was little celebration.

A total of 31 people died and nearly 1,700 people were injured when the upper floor of the terminal gave way, falling upon the heads of hundreds of motorists and motorcyclists waiting for the ferry on the lower floor.

That fateful day marked the beginning of the end for the iconic ferry service. The terminal was never rebuilt. Instead, the Penang bridge became the preferred mode of crossing the channel.

And slowly, the ferry service started dying. From Jan 1, 2021, the ferries stopped carrying cars although a lone ferry continued carrying motorcycles.

That came to a halt on Jan 1, 2023. The iconic ferries were now in a deep coma, with all of them parked in several places around the island and mainland.

In their place, some new ferries – less than half the size of the old ones – started plying the route from Aug 6 last year. They are a far cry from the beautiful behemoths of old.

These little boats can only take 50 motorcycles and 150 foot passengers each time, causing huge backlogs at both ends. And they offer little or no view.

The old ferry, on the other hand, was a ride to savour, with the wind in your face and a wide view of the sea. Even the jellyfish schooling beside the ferry were sights to behold.

As St Anne’s feast day comes around again, 36 years from that tragic date, the fate of those ferries has been finally sealed. The 44-year-old Pulau Kapas, which was parked next to the Butterworth terminal, just keeled over on Wednesday.

It didn’t list on its side. No, it just keeled over – like a box falling on its side.

Such was the poor upkeep, the utter lack of care for these magnificent things that once were icons of the state. It is really sad.

Pulau Kapas is not the only one. Pulau Undan, commissioned in 1975, and berthed next to Pulau Kapas, is going the same way. So too are Pulau Payar and Pulau Angsa, which are parked nearby.

Off the coast of Bayan Lepas, Pulau Rimau is also in its death throes. It lies on silting land, largely ignored except by tourists who stop to take photographs.

The state government, which came to power with promises of reviving the ferry service, is now about to scrap all the vehicles. The plan to refurbish them for different purposes is now well and truly sunk.

Hope, they say, floats.

But not any more for the ferries. Even the politicians are backtracking.

“We will never forgive nor forget those who are responsible for the end of the iconic ferry,” former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng told Buletin Mutiara in December 2020, promising to bring it back.

Now, the government he once led has scuttled all plans to refurbish the ferries or even convert them into restaurants or floating museums.

Instead, they are likely to be going to the scrap heap. So much for all those promises.

This weekend, there will again be two events taking place in Penang. The celebration of St Anne’s feast day will go on as usual, but both bridges linking the island to the mainland will be partly closed for the Penang Fellowship Ride – Bridge to Bridge 2024 cycling event.

With huge crowds in buses and cars moving from hotels on the island to the basilica on the mainland, expect huge jams on the bridge.

No, the bridge is not likely to collapse. But I do hope nothing untoward happens.