I unfortunately haven’t followed the Kampung Buah Pala case as closely as I would have liked, but from the little I’ve read, I am inclined to join in the hopes of those that YAB Lim Guan Eng will exercise compassion and save the villagers from eviction and demolition.
It’s really an opportunity for Pakatan to show that they are people oriented, and not money oriented. What’s worse, this land deal seems to be Umno linked!
On Wednesday, a three-man bench Federal Court delivered a devastating blow to the villagers when it dismissed their appeal to save their village from demolition.
Now they have pinned all hopes on the wisdom and caring policy of their Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P Uthayakumar said recently that the villagers’ plight can end with a mere stroke of Lim’s pen.
The villagers are praying for that to happen to safeguard their village that the current residents and ancestors have lived for nearly two centuries.
They want Lim to exercise his chief ministerial power under Section 76 of the National Land Code to save their village from scavenging developers.
The state land office registrar is empowered to caveat the land on legal grounds.
The state government has already begun investigation on the Kampung Buah Pala land deal under the land scam.
“This will prevent the developer from demolishing the houses and flattening the village. Lim then could acquire the land on grounds of public interests.
“The residents then can buy the land from the state government. We hope Lim’s government can do it for us,” said the Kampung Buah Pala Residents Association assistant secretary C Tharmaraj.
The country’s highest apex court upheld the appellate court’s ruling that the villagers have no legal standing to question the transfer of the land from a housing trust to the state government.
The land was subsequently sold for RM3.21 million to the Koperasi Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan Pulau Pinang and this led to a lucrative development project undertaken by Umno-linked Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd.
According to the villagers, the sale price - estimated at RM11.33 per sq ft - was far below market value.
The developers have argued that these residents, despite living in the village for centuries, have no grounds to sue, and therefore they were deemed squatters.
Justices Augustine Paul, Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusoff and Hashim Yusoff however ruled in favour of the developers.
Armed with this, the developers could come in any time to demolish the village.
The villagers are already on a round-the-clock high alert guard to stop any demolition work.
Kampung Buah Pala is known among locals as ‘Tamil High Chaparral’ because of its population of cowherds, cattles, goats and Tamil traditional cultural features.
ps- why am I not surprised Augustine Paul ruled in this manner :P
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