Another Kg Buah Pala in the making?

By Athi Shankar - Free Malaysia Today
GEORGE TOWN: Residents of Kampung Melayu Tanjung Tokong have asked the Najib administration to intervene to save their village from extinction.

Mohamad Salleh Yahaya, chairman of the Tanjung Tokong Villagers Association, said the government should seize this opportunity to prove that its “People First, Performance Now” slogan is more than empty rhetoric.
He said the residents hoped to maintain the area as a heritage village and depended on Putrajaya’s “swift and decisive intervention” to help them realise their aspiration.
Historians say Kampung Melayu Tanjung Tokong is the oldest Malay fishing village in Penang, and several civic groups have accused the Urban Development Authority (UDA) of wanting to wipe it off the map and to build in its place modern residential and commercial complexes.
“It’s all about money,” Mohamad Salleh told FMT. “UDA’s only focus is to achieve its corporate goals, not to restructure, redevelop and upgrade the place as an urban village enclave in George Town.”
He called on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to lend a sympathetic ear to the villagers.
“Otherwise,” he said, “it will confirm the widespread belief that his 1Malaysia project and the slogan associated with it -- People First, Performance Now -- were just vote-fishing tricks.
Kampung Melayu Tanjung Tokong occupies 24 acres of land on which stand 300 houses, 30 of them built illegally.
Residents fear that the village will end up like Kampung Buah Pala, the Indian enclave in Penang that was demolished last year.
'We have lost our rights'
It was Najib’s late father, Abdul Razak Hussein, who as prime minister launched the scheme to restructure, redevelop and upgrade the village under UDA in 1972.
The idea was to create a Malay settlement in George Town. However, UDA subsequently decided to relocate some of the villagers. In 2008, it declared the remaining villagers as squatters.
“We have lost our rights even though we are the descendants of the original natives of Penang because of UDA's statutory declaration,” said Mohamad Salleh.
Last year, the Kampung Melayu Villagers Association, which has about 500 members, collected some 3,000 signatures nationwide and submitted memorandums to the Federal and Penang governments seeking their intervention to save the village.
But both governments have been lukewarm, said Mohamad Salleh.
"The federal government must declare the village a Malay heritage for us to retain any of our legitimate rights over our traditional land," he said.