Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh said today that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng could have been jailed if he defied the Federal Court decision for the residents to vacate the village in 2009.
The Federal Court in Aug, 2009, stood by its June 24 decision that the Kg Buah Pala residents must vacate their homes and hand over the property to the developer who had obtained approval to redevelop the area.
Due to this decision, Karpal admitted that Pakatan Rakyat was unable to fulfil the promises made to the villagers, although its leaders - including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim - had said they would defend the village at all cost.
"Many are asking, what happened to the promises? What about Lim saying we will defend the village to the last? Yes, all of us said so," said the veteran lawyer.
" (But) What alternative did the chief minister have here, short of defying the court order? As elected representative of the people, we have to obey the decision of the court, whether we like it or not," said the DAP national chairperson.
"Contempt of court is this: you are not only dragged to jail until you purge your contempt and apologise, but the state government could have been dismissed" he added during his speech at a ceremony to hand over keys to former residents of Kg Buah Pala in Penang today.
About 100 attended the ceremony organised by Nusmetro Sdn Bhd, where Lim, Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy and Batu Maung assemblyperson Abdul Malik Abul Kassim were also present.
Twenty-four families were issued the houses after a bitter tussle with the state government and developer to maintain the village, popularly known as Penang High Chapparal.
Nine families - led by Kg Buah Pala Resident Association chairperson M Sugumaran (far right, in photo) - have declined to accept the houses, claiming the Pakatan government had not provided the residents a proper compensation package.
Sugumaran also alleged that Karpal was more interested in defending Anwar with his Sodomy II trial in Kuala Lumpur than helping the villagers.
Karpal, however, recounted the detention of Pakatan leaders, including Lim, for the welfare of the common people.
"It is not that we did not want to fulfil our promises, but were bound by the court decision" he reiterated to the 100-strong crowd who attended the ceremony today.
Karpal said the case was not filed in the Penang High Court by Pakatan lawyers, as the residents did not appoint them for the matter.
However, Pakatan still did its best and managed to get 24 units for the residents, notwithstanding the nine families who had declined to accept the offer, said Karpal.
Lamenting that the developer would be making billions of ringgit out of this project, Karpal said no developer should be allowed to make that much out of the people.
"It was the best bargain that we could get from the developer," he said.
"It is not the Pakatan government which brought this upon the residents, the BN did," he added.
The nine families led by Sugumaran, however, have publicly defied the government, said Karpal.
"No government worth its salt would want to kneel down and bow to ransom by anyone, developer or otherwise. We would lose our dignity and credibility," he said.
Karpal also rubbished claims by representatives of the nine families that he was more interested in defending Anwar Ibrahim as the he was earning a large amount of money as the latter's defense counsel.
Karpal said he wanted to put on record that he was not earning a single cent from Anwar, although he has defended the case for two years
"I want to make it clear to Sugumaran to be careful, unless you want to make me ensure that you answer to every court of law for your conduct," he warned.
The Federal Court in Aug, 2009, stood by its June 24 decision that the Kg Buah Pala residents must vacate their homes and hand over the property to the developer who had obtained approval to redevelop the area.Due to this decision, Karpal admitted that Pakatan Rakyat was unable to fulfil the promises made to the villagers, although its leaders - including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim - had said they would defend the village at all cost.
"Many are asking, what happened to the promises? What about Lim saying we will defend the village to the last? Yes, all of us said so," said the veteran lawyer.
" (But) What alternative did the chief minister have here, short of defying the court order? As elected representative of the people, we have to obey the decision of the court, whether we like it or not," said the DAP national chairperson.
"Contempt of court is this: you are not only dragged to jail until you purge your contempt and apologise, but the state government could have been dismissed" he added during his speech at a ceremony to hand over keys to former residents of Kg Buah Pala in Penang today.About 100 attended the ceremony organised by Nusmetro Sdn Bhd, where Lim, Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy and Batu Maung assemblyperson Abdul Malik Abul Kassim were also present.
Twenty-four families were issued the houses after a bitter tussle with the state government and developer to maintain the village, popularly known as Penang High Chapparal.
Nine families - led by Kg Buah Pala Resident Association chairperson M Sugumaran (far right, in photo) - have declined to accept the houses, claiming the Pakatan government had not provided the residents a proper compensation package.Sugumaran also alleged that Karpal was more interested in defending Anwar with his Sodomy II trial in Kuala Lumpur than helping the villagers.
Karpal, however, recounted the detention of Pakatan leaders, including Lim, for the welfare of the common people.
"It is not that we did not want to fulfil our promises, but were bound by the court decision" he reiterated to the 100-strong crowd who attended the ceremony today.
Karpal said the case was not filed in the Penang High Court by Pakatan lawyers, as the residents did not appoint them for the matter.However, Pakatan still did its best and managed to get 24 units for the residents, notwithstanding the nine families who had declined to accept the offer, said Karpal.
Lamenting that the developer would be making billions of ringgit out of this project, Karpal said no developer should be allowed to make that much out of the people.
"It was the best bargain that we could get from the developer," he said.
"It is not the Pakatan government which brought this upon the residents, the BN did," he added.
The nine families led by Sugumaran, however, have publicly defied the government, said Karpal."No government worth its salt would want to kneel down and bow to ransom by anyone, developer or otherwise. We would lose our dignity and credibility," he said.
Karpal also rubbished claims by representatives of the nine families that he was more interested in defending Anwar Ibrahim as the he was earning a large amount of money as the latter's defense counsel.
Karpal said he wanted to put on record that he was not earning a single cent from Anwar, although he has defended the case for two years
"I want to make it clear to Sugumaran to be careful, unless you want to make me ensure that you answer to every court of law for your conduct," he warned.
1 comment:
Now, (especially in Penang) each of those terrace houses will easily worth over RM700,000 even on book it's only RM600,000.
What else to complain about ???
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