Tears well up in the eyes of Sugumaran, the residents committee chairperson – Photo by Anil
2118: “I can really see sincere tears rolling down the faces of some of the villagers,” says a Penangite. “The fear of losing their shelter; kids can’t prepare for exams. This is life. Imagine if we are in their shoes.”
2053: Talks are still ongoing between the Penang state government and the developer. The state government finds itself in an unenviable position, hemmed in by residents’ demos, the developer apparently willing to negotiate but the Cooperative playing hardball, Umno(?), and what it believes to be political opportunists making use of the villagers. Much is at stake, for all sides.
2031: The villagers held a candlelight vigil and have now ended their gathering. Guan Eng was not in.
“We heard on the eight o’clock news that they are coming in tomorrow to demolish,” says a worried villager.
2021: About 50 villagers, many of them children, are now gathered outside the Chief Minister’s residence. This has upset the Chief Minister’s people, who believe they have been trying hard to resolve the crisis and that certain quarters are making use of the villagers for their own ends.
The villagers, meanwhile, are desperate as the Cooperative has said it will carry out demolition tomorrow.
1700: Radio news announces that the developer has “rescheduled” its demolition to tomorrow to “allow residents more time to leave”.
But the residents appear to be standing firm and they are not going anywhere. Between 50 and 100 activists and residents – some of them sitting on swings in the porches of houses, others chatting under a canopy near the main lane cutting through the village – are keeping watch. Others have called it a day. A short distance away, plainclothes police are keeping an eye.
Asked about the compensation offered, one villager said they had never been formally offered RM200,000 each, as often claimed. “All that was just talk – we have never seen anything in writing to that effect,” he said. What the villagers were offered earlier was an apartment worth RM75,000, along with a temporary monthly rental, or RM90,000 cash.
A few of the residents appear resigned to the prospect of co-existing side-by-side with the project. But there are also worries that the proposed double-storey terrace houses which the state is said to be trying to arrange with the developer as compensation could turn out to be small cluster ‘matchbox’ houses that would be too small and crammed for their extended families. (It is not uncommon for each village house here, with spacious compounds, to be shared by several families.)
Many are still waiting for the final outcome of the state investigative committee’s probe into the Kampong Buah Pala land transfer. How was land held in trust for the villagers (as beneficiaries) sold to the Penang Government Officers Cooperative under the BN administration? Who was the mastermind behind the sale-cum-joint venture property development deal? Who was involved in sealing the land transfer on 27 March 2008, under the new Pakatan administration? What are the political interests (if any) and developer connections behind Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd, the Oasis project developer? Who is the main shareholder, Mohamad Faridz Karim of Balik Pulau, who has an 80 per cent interest in the developer’s parent company, Asia Link-up Sdn Bhd? And who is the contractor for the Oasis project likely to be?
1142: About a hundred demonstrators from Hindraf, MIC and PSM are at Komtar now. They have just handed over a memo for the chief minister.
1050: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has just announced that if demolition proceeds, there is nothing more to talk about: the state government will not give the green light for the project. This is the stand of the Penang state government, a source in Komtar informs me.
1020: Meanwhile, talks between the developer and the state government are believed to be ongoing. The state government now has the added difficulty of dealing with the hardline stance adopted by the Penang Government Officers Cooperative. But it is unlikely that the demolition team will be coming in today, predicts a source.
1012: About 200 people are still in the village. Some of them appear to be heading to Komtar, according to an eye-witness at the scene.
0830: Between 100 and 200 activists and supporters have gathered in the village, as residents wake up to an uncertain future. Most of the crowd appear to be from Hindraf, PSM and MIC.
Police patrol cars have been cruising around. The situation appears to be calm.
One eye-witness says the demolition team may not even turn up today. They could come tomorrow or days later, when the crowd, some of whom are from out of town, dwindles.
Folks, keep praying for a peaceful and just resolution.
K,
Are you saying once the person is history, he should not be responsible for his wrongdoings anymore?
and pretend nothing happen?
I think you need to check your mind.
Then, all ex-leaders who are corrupted can be exempted from being prosecute.
Furthermore, for your info, that person is not history but still pretty much alive and kicking in Putrajaya, very much still in power and handling the national matter. Got it!
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Lets try to look back in history when the Pakatan Led goverment took over.
The land transfer was done much earlier and the sale completed but the payment schedule was not done by the cooperative to the state goverment until the very last day the Pakatan won. They the Koperasi quickly make the complete payment and get the land transfer, and all this was done with within the power under the DO , from land office.
The sale of the land at Kampung Buah Pala was approved by the BN lead exco to the koperasi at the discount price…which who knows why and how la !
So, the koperasi buy the land but did not make payment as required under the law of the schedule payment for years …until suddenly BN lost the state goverment, all of the sudden the payment was done and the fast and effective land officer and DO made the land transfer to the Koperasi.
So at the first place when payment was not done during the stipulated time frame the sale can be revoked but why wasnt it done by the DO… something fishy….. but was allowed to be completed.
Well…i hope you guys will be able to find out the cause of this problem and sort it out ASAP…
Under the law, the village have to go … that the rule of Law… but something hanky panky was done to obtained this land … so they must find the root problem and solve it…
I hope they will be able to punished the culprit and bring that person to justice and for the residence there .. i pity for what happen to your village but was have been done is done…
May god bless you all…..
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//It is hard to comprehend the supporters of Pakatan / DAP here (which sis very obvious even to a casual observer).//
Dear K,
I dont think these ppl are supporters of Pakatan/DAP. They are masquerading as such but in fact they are … cybertroopers and those who have bought properties in the project. Some could even be BN agent provocateurs. The way they are demonising the poor villagers, it is obvious that they are trying to make the Indians hate LGE/DAP.
At the same time LGE is no angel. He ignored this issue until Hindraf came onto the scene. We dont know about Hindrafs motive, but the fact is LGE was forced to act by Hindraf’s involvement.
As for LGE dragging his feet; pls dont under estimate the power of the housing developer industry to influence govts.
I have commented on this in a previous posting. Whether BN or PR the housing developers always win. They make political donations to both sides of the political divide.
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8am right? cant wait to see the bulldozers
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Investor:
You are of course entitled to your opinions and views, even if they are somewhat off tangent in my opinion.
As far as I am aware, the rock we call the Rule of Law is never asinine, but the quicksand we call “rule by law” generally always is.
It is being proven more and more now that investors are waking up to that principled and clear distinction.
This global financial meltdown has exposed humungous levels of corruption and fraud in many countries to the clear detriment of investors and other related stakeholders, who all, no doubt, probably believed (whether realistically or not) that they were operating on the principled rock of a Rule of Law when in fact they were clearly on sinking quicksand territory.
The logical outcome of that hard and painful lesson has been that for every one investor who is now still willing to invest in quicksand environments operating under a “rule by law” (using what we call stupid pie-in-the-sky investment rules) there are far more investors out there who are ONLY willing to invest in environments that are proven to be grounded on the rock of the Rule of Law.
Perhaps CM LGE too is well aware of that investment fact.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
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anna brella
I am sorry to be blunt…but quit being a Goebbel’s to LGE…. Your spins are becoming rather tiresome.
People like you talk about “Rule of Law” only when it suits you and discards it like a hot coal when it is not.
LGE was jailed using the same principle of “Rule of Law” and would you accept that decision in the same spirit ??…
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Hah,Sugumaran shedding crocodile tears…
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Hah,it’s LGE and Ramasamy who are working tirelessly to solve the problems,where as actors,like Utaya,Waytha,and MIC are the ones delaying the matters.This matter could have been solved long time ago,but “dimana ada MIC,disitu ada problem”.As a result,we see this stalemate!!Wanna protect a 200 year old heritage konon!!
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LGE – the 3.2 Million ringgit man!
Aah..see folks..this is the proof..this is the ultimate agenda of HINDRAF,MAKKAL SAKTI,MIC!!The aim is to shame LGE and Pakatan,and not about the “24″.
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To add one final point to my last post (on 4 August) which I addressed directly and only to Investor:
Property held under trust and governed by Trust law is generally considered to be iron-clad in countries that say they operate on that principled (i.e.just) Rule of Law rock.
If such Trusts can be broken/unravelled and the entrusted property taken away with such ease (whether through fraud or otherwise) from the beneficiaries of that Trust, then the state of Penang is sliding down a slippery slope towards losing its attractiveness to smart investors, who are all still just as shrewdly focussed on rewards/returns as they have ever been, but who are now also far more clued-up on government/corporate governance issues and so are more realistically risk-averse in their ROCE computations when it comes to the variable of investment environment.
So it seems that sticking to the tried and tested ways of using bread and butter honesty (relating to principles including the one on the rule of law) really might be the best policy to pursue/communicate, when it comes to KBP or selling Penang or Malaysia to local/foreign investors.
Sound decision-making that makes good business sense always follows the same language/principles/rules whether they happen in the government/public or private or voluntary/not-for-profit sectors and whether that decision-taking is done in Malaysia, the UK, the US or even Timbuktu.
The absence of this principled Rule of Law (and other such credibility anchors) is one of the main reasons why most investors in their right minds do not bother investing in Burma or Sudan or Ethiopia. It is also why many are not even willing at present to invest in many developed western economies until the current financial regulation and governance mess has been sorted and future regulation issues hammered out in principle.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
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Kampung Buah Pala’s case is a LOSE-LOSE situation for PR Govt. Bet you, BN, MIC and HINDRAF knew this very well.
If the villagers failed to get their land, all fingers will be immediately pointed at PR Govt, claimed PR Govt fail to fulfill their promise, PR Govt neglect Indian community (BN favourite weapons-racist issue), PR Govt neglect the poor and etc. BN will definitely use this topic to kill off PR Govt in the next GE, especially from Indian voters. It may also become a national topic around Malaysia, not only Penang.
Let say miracle did happen, the villagers manage to keep the land. PR Govt either have to fork out hundred millions of tax payer money to settle the case. PR Govt will naturally out of funds to develop the state. With no development in the remaining of next 3-4 years. Again, Penang voters will blame PR govt of inefficient, not capable of developing the state despite giving the chance in GE13.
Or both Numestro/Koperasi (BN partners) will be ready to sue PR Govt for contempt of Federal Court decision, again hundred millions ringgit law suit will be filed against PR Govt, possible bankruptcy will occur. Wait…that’s not all,at the same time, PR Govt will still not be considered as a Saviour to Kampung Buah Pala’s villagers since some parties who make lot of noises now will surely be fast to claim credits, will shout out loud that if not becos of involvement and protest from MIC, HINDRAF, NGO and etc. PR govt will never help the villagers. KBP will never be survive until that moment.
Now, do you see the point? whichever way PR Govt will still end up a loser.
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i believe the people of kg buah pala will have their village.
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wisdom23,
How did you conclude that the state govt could be sued for hundreds of millions Ringgit??
What is the current value of the land? Did the state obtain a proper valuation of the land? All LGE has to do is ask the state valuation dept to conduct a valuation. Has it been done??
That village is still a village, there are no improvements to the land, how did the value suddenly inflate to hundreds of millions???
Please get your facts right and stop spinning blindly.
Anyway if LGE had been proactive and had personally gone to the ground earlier to engage the villagers the opportunists like MIC will have no place here.
As I said before KBP is a public relations disaster for LGE/DAP.
LGE has not been sincere to the villagers, he has (neglected the alleged) fraud angle, he is only cornering the villagers to accept some compensation and go away.
Why didnt he set up a SELECT COMMITTEE to investigate the alleged fraud (just like the Selangor govt in the Balkis issue). This would have sent shivers through those involved in the hanky panky. KTK and his cohorts could have been hauled up for questioning. Then all of us would know the real story and LGE would have remained above the fray. But his reluctance to investigate and his attempts at hiding behind the Court ruling has opened him to pot shots from all and sundry and has created the perception that he is on the side of the developers.
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All the things happening in kg. buala pala is a politik gimmicks by the leaders for their personnel interest…that;s what i see……………residen of buah pala was taken for ride by all these leaders…………
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I agreed with Raj kiran.
The trust land was sold, by the time the residents paid annual TOL rental, the ownership of land has been gone, as the land has been vested to the state government. All dealing in the past was formalized by the registration of buyers name in the Land Registry under NLC, an “indefeasible title” to the new owner. All legal ground has lost except another legal battle to fight on the ground of fraud etc, but it is remote as the land was purchased from the cooperative. But the time factor is another limiting factor, limiting period of 12 years enforceable? Any legal battle will not benefit the villagers, the legal fees and long time taken, the loser will be villagers. At the end the lawyer will be gaining all the benefits.
LGE and Ramasamy has done their best, law and humanity; they have explored both areas; they know the difficulty of the legal issue.The most important is the fair compensation for the villagers, that is the best solution. Any further political game played by outsiders on various platform and agenda, will not help the villagers, but will adversely affected the villagers.
The wrong has been done in the past, but the political parties and NGO did not stand up for the villagers at that time; may be they are not aware of it like the villagers.
A fair solution is to obtain fair compensation for the villagers,a win-win situation for both state government and the villagers.Otherwise it will be lose-lose for both parties, as well as the state.
At the mean time, please do some calculation to obtain the profit gained for the land from the moment the land was sold(remember the land is free from Helen Brown). How much some party has gained by just obtain the land from state government and sell the land. For each transaction, (was there) a huge sum of money was leaked out to some party? it is common in Malaysia. Bolih land lah….
A good lesson for everyone,including opposition party and NGO.Fast action is important to check the wrong doing….
Will the anti- corruption agency come in effectively to check on the past land transaction? Time will provide the answer….
Let the issue end soon and the state government will concentrate on more urgent agenda. Otherwise the Penang people will suffer, prayed that goodwill will prevail.
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some error in my last post. It should be “……the land was purchased by cooperative”
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