I have put up the prayer in my …

Comment posted on Herald under further pressure by lilian

I have put up the prayer in my blog . I copied it from The Herald. Catholics, let’s put the prayer online!

Recent comments by lilian

• Buah Pala villagers grapple with harsh reality
  Quoted from Malaysiakini, Athi’s article :

  Meanwhile George Town OCPD Azam Abd Hamid said that no more grace period will be given to the residents as “they have been granted three-months to move out”.

  He said all the affected residents will have to move out to the alternate homes provided by the developer – these temporary homes were built by Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB).
  -unquote-

  I am only relaying what I heard personally and being told to me. The same news is reported by NST and The Star too. However, some villagers resolved to continue living in the rubbles like Uncle Draviam and I admire him for his tenacity.

• Buah Pala villagers grapple with harsh reality
  Just to share what I heard from the press conferences. The developer is giving temporary shelter for two hardcore poor families from Kampung Buah Pala. They have some units of flats in Jelutong.

  In fact, yesterday, I personally heard the demolition crew leader telling one of the villagers that they will send lorries to help them move their things.

  At the same time, those who didn’t signed the compensation of a house, the OCPD said yesterday apartment units will be provided for them too.

  Meanwhile, another villager whom had signed and left, told me she is meeting Prof. Ramasamy today and will ask him for more help with regards to shelter.

  Some months back, I had already asked Prof. if the state gov, is going to leave these villagers without shelter. He said, “Don’t worry….we will know what to do…” The sad thing is, sometimes the people had all these hostilities, misconceptions, wrong perceptions and people like us who stand by the side made it worse.

• Kg Buah Pala: That RM3.5 million figure…
  sam – When you become a reporter, go ask lah. I am merely relaying what I heard because so many people are claiming the figure is plucked out of thin air. It is not because there is a press statement signed by Tamaraj.

  Unclebuck – Biasaler, people are constipated all the time and I am free today to entertain them.

  I forget to tell K, he asked me where I was on Sunday night. Well, I was at the front row, on the left, face to face with Uthayakumar from 7.30 to 11 pm. 80% of the forum was in Tamil but I hang around because I believed sitting behind the computer and whacking people are not productive. I made two videos, of Uthaya and Darshan’s speeches and each had garnered over 20K views. Now, K, what were you doing then?

• Kg Buah Pala: That RM3.5 million figure…
  K – Oh dear, you have a lot of time to analyse things, don’t you?

  1) I was there to meet Uthayakumar and told him how honoured I felt to finally meet him in person bcos I had long admired him for his tenacity in fighting for the downtrodden.
  2) I put up the whole speech of Darshan because I feel he deserves to be heard.
  3) It is not based on hearsay. Just because you didn’t hear, you think it is hearsay. The CM produced newspapers that quoted the RM3.5 M. There is video made by my fellow CJ.

  And thanks for the praises you piled on me being PR spokesperson. I hope Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Tok Guru read this. Woohoo! I wonder how many people worked tirelessly to get that kind of ‘honour’ and I merely need to make a couple of videos to earn this statement. Now, which ADun should I contest in the next GE. *laff till fall off chair*

• Kg Buah Pala: That RM3.5 million figure…
  People, if you have time, listen to what I heard from the horses’ mouths.

  1) The 3.5million was stated in a press statement from the resident. It said in the statement that the piece of land that each house sits on is worth abt 3.5M and that’s why the developer is so keen to tear down their houses. Somehow, one way or another, two newspapers picked this out as a claim. Some people read the paper, called the CM and told him they are claiming such amount. The CM then, at a press conference (which I was there to video) said people called him they are claiming 3.5M. So, that’s how the misunderstanding arise. I heard Mr. Sugu made a police report about it. So, that’s the whole story of the 3.5M.

  2) As for the 116 (D), i.e. the court order to stop demolition, as a citizen journalist, I was as curious as all of you to know why it wasn’t filed when we explicitly heard it will be done. So, I tried to get the DCM 2 to explain to me why. He couldn’t officially state the reason. Why? Because when you are in a peace talk, you cannot do this. So, I guess it is because the state government is pleading, and yes, it is YB Mansor who had a hard time getting the developer to agree to give the ex-gratia compensation, they cannot file it. It is like trying to make peace with the developer to give something good to the villagers so you cannot at the same time, give them a punch with 116(D). This of course, is my own understanding based on what I managed to eke out before I was told the ‘No comment’.

  3) As for the claims that media have stopped reporting, well, I had been to both Komtar and Buah Pala since June 2nd, their very first picketing and by now, there is almost nothing new that we haven’t heard of. So, if there are less reports, it is because there is really nothing much to report anymore.

  4) Though I truly sympathize with the real villagers of KPB, some of you guys cannot deny the fact that many political parties have tried to make the issue their political agenda. And you also cannot deny that some of the villagers too have been known to change their minds faster than lightning.

  5) Finally, if we stopped looking at every side and everyone as the good guy-bad guy, we probably will argue less and feel more for the villagers.

  And K – thank you for acknowledging the roles of citizen journalists. I noticed you mentioned citizen reporters in your comment above. Yes, I report what I see and I cannot possibly twist words because those are videos. I cannot put words into Darshan Singh, Lim Guan Eng, Prof. Ramasamy, Uthayakumar, Raj, Sugu’s mouths. The only thing that get twisted and divided are people’s mind whom already see everything as good guy-bad guy. As far as I am concerned, a lot of media members have been acting like mediators. We bring the villagers’ concerns to Komtar, we pressed them for answers because those are some of the things we know the villagers want to know.

  One last thing – If you guys are so into good guy-bad guy epic, the bad guy is Barisan Nasional who alienated the land in a ‘suspicious manner and sold it’ (Sugumaran’s own words). The good guy, well….all good guys are dead. There are no good guys in this world. Grow up, will ya?

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