BOTH the Penang deputy chief ministers went to the ground today to meet with Kampung Buah Pala squatter villagers facing eviction on Thursday by a developer as demonstrations on the matter took place here, in Petaling Jaya and Ipoh.
The Federal Court had ruled in favour of the developer on June 11, leaving the 300 villagers occupying 41 houses in the 100-year-old Indian settlement with no choice but to move out by Thursday as the developer desired.
After the meeting with Mansor and Ramasamy, villager A. Drabiam, 84, urged the state government to have the village returned to the residents as promised by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during the general election campaign last year. He claimed that Anwar had not visited the village since.
Meanwhile, about 100 villagers gathered peacefully at about 4pm at the Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak where the office of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is located to hand over a memorandum to him.
They were instructed to move to Auditorium A on the fifth floor of the building after the police ordered them to disperse.
After waiting for three hours, the disappointed villagers were given an assurance by the chief minister's political secretary Ng Wei Aik that Lim would meet them.
The villagers dispersed at 7.15pm after Mansor arrived at Komtar to listen to their complaints and views.
In PETALING JAYA, 11 people claiming to be members of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) carrying banners and posters protesting against so-called oppression of the Indian residents of Kampung Buah Pala, staged a demonstration in front of the DAP headquarters there at 3.40pm.
Five minutes later, the police arrived and they dispersed.
The doors and windows of the DAP headquarters were closed then and there was no sign of anyone being in the building.
After the demonstrators left, DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang and Ipoh Barat Member of Parliament M. Kula Segaran arrived at the office.
Kit Siang told reporters that his door was always open for them.
Asked why he came after the group had left, he said he was tied down in Parliament.
In IPOH, 30 people claiming to be Hindraf members carrying banners and posters walked for about 100 metres to Wisma DAP before dispersing on the orders of the police.
One of them, P. Ramesh, said the demonstration was held to send a message to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng not to falter on the issue.
He said he hoped that Lim would resolve the issue quickly and added that they believed that he had the power to do so. - BERNAMA
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Mexican standoff at High Chaparral, developers give a month (Update 4)
By SEBASTIAN JULES, CHRISTINA CHIN and ANDREW SAGAYAM
The StarGEORGE TOWN: The impending demolition of Kampung Buah Pala, popularly known as Penang’s High Chaparral and regarded by some as a cultural icon, continued to fuel emotions, but while activists staged protests, cooler heads prevailed elsewhere.
The developers of a proposed apartment project at the village has agreed to defer demolition work for one month to allow the state government and residents to resolve the situation, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy said.
The temporary reprieve came after the developers met with a select investigation committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister I Mansor Othman on Tuesday.
The residents filed an application Monday to set aside an ex-parte order dated June 16 obtained by the North-East land administrator, Koperasi Pegawai Kerajaan Pulau Pinang Bhd and Nusmetro Venture, to issue a writ of possession, which is to be enforced at 11am on July 2.
“A court bailiff will come and serve the writ but the demolition will not proceed,” said Dr Ramasamy.
“The one month will give the state government time to investigate and hopefully review the plan,” he added.
Earlier, Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) members came out in force to push the Penang government into using its executive powers to save Kampung Buah Pala.
Some 20 members from Kuala Lumpur, Seremban and Penang congregated at Komtar here with about 30 village residents to hand over a letter of appeal to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and express their reproach on alleged “broken promises”.
“Before the March 2008 general election, there were so many promises but now, everybody is keeping quiet.
“They tell us to take them to the national level, but they cannot even handle state problems.
“If they fail to save the village, Pakatan Rakyat’s objective has failed and we will know what to do in the next general election,” said Penang Island Hindraf Coordinator K. Kalaiselvam, 34.
Carrying Hindraf chairman S. Waythamoorthy’s seven-year-old daughter Vwaishhnnavi who held a handwritten letter of appeal addressed to Lim, Kalaiselvam led the delegation that arrived at Komtar at about 10.40am.
The group encountered a brief confrontation with Komtar security guards who instructed them to choose five representatives to hand over the letter.
Ten representatives were eventually allowed in to meet with Lim’s political secretary Ng Wei Aik who instructed police to allow the entire group to enter the tower and proceed to Auditorium A.
Ng addressed the crowd around 11am and tempers flared among the visiting group when they were informed Lim was engaged in previously arranged appointments.
“We faxed Lim a letter yesterday (Monday) morning and got no reply. He has been given every opportunity to meet with High Chaparral but until now, he has not even visited the village once. Why is he avoiding us?
“It has been 16 months since Pakatan Rakyat took power and until now, promises remain promises,” said Penang Hindraf advisor K. Maran, 48.
On Ng’s explanation that the state exco had formed a committee to investigate allegations of foul play on the transfer of the land in Bukit Gelugor on which the village stands, Vwaishhnnavi’s mother K. Shanti, 38, said that was “the state’s problem”.
“We are not interested the state forming committees. In two days time, the developers are coming to demolish the village.
“We voted Pakatan because we believed they would be better than the previous government. But there is no difference between Barisan Nasional and you,” she told Ng.
“If Pakatan fails to save the village, we will know what to do in the next general election,” she added.
Later, Lim said that the Penang Pakatan Rakyat government had never approved the demolition of Kampung Buah Pala.
He said any action taken was done by the private developer via a court order.
“We regret the unwarranted, highly irresponsible and irrational action of Hindraf in targeting us over the eviction of the residents.
“Hindraf wants us to act against the court order obtained by the developer to evict the residents. We cannot do this as it is against the rule of law,” he said, adding that suggestions that the state forcibly acquired the land for public purpose under the Land Acquisition Act would be “playing into the hands of the developer”.
“Doing so would lead to the developer reaping enormous profits without putting in a single sen.
“Cancelling the project would incur costs beyond the financial capability of the state government,” he said, chiding Hindraf for “not being able to distinguish who its friends and opponents are” and being blinded by rage and anger.
“Nonetheless, they have the right to hold a peaceful demonstration no matter how unreasonable it is. I have instructed my officials to accept any memorandum submitted and urge the police not to take and action that would lead to untoward incidents,” he said.
Lim said the state would not be affected by the actions of the residents turning against it and would continue to assist them.
The developer had offered compensation of up to RM200,000 per registered family which Lim said was accepted by “many”.
“But we respect the decision of the remaining residents who choose to fight it out in court. Had we not been sympathetic to their plight, the developer would have evicted them in the middle of last year when the court order was obtained,” he said.
Lim, who questioned whether the movement had been “infiltrated by Barisan Nasional collaborators”, also called on former Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon to give a full public explanation on why he sold the land at a “cheap price” of only RM10 per square feet and without consulting the residents.
In PETALING JAYA:, about a dozen Hindraf supporters turned up at the DAP headquarters to protest.
Supporters of the outlawed movement arrived at 3:30pm Tuesday, but were dispersed by police about 30 minutes later.
They carried posters and placards demanding that the Penang Pakatan Rakyat state government intervene and stop the demolition.
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