Buah Pala folks turn to court again, to buy time

Joseph Stephen (seated) with other villagers, they are keeping their hopes with their lawyers tomorrow at the high court. - Picture by Jack Ooi

By Neville Spykerman - The Malaysian Insider

GELUGOR, Aug 31 — Residents of Kampung Buah Pala are again turning to the courts to prevent the impending demolition of their homes.

Residents Association secretary Joseph Steven Draviam said lawyers representing them will file an injunction at the Penang High Court tomorrow.

“We are all hoping the court will grant us an urgent order on the basis of human rights.”

Joseph said the residents have nowhere to go if their homes are demolished.

The signboard for the village. - Picture by Jack Ooi

The residents have been locked in a battle with the developer and owners of the land and have already lost all previous attempts to get the courts to prevent the demolition of their homes.

The villagers have turned to Umno and the prime minister to intervene in their plight and are hoping the injunction will buy time for a solution to be found.

Developer Nusmetro Venture (P) Sdn Bhd has had to abort two previous attempts to demolish the homes due to strong resistance by villagers.

In their last attempted on Aug 13, the developer moved in to demolished the homes after most of the residents rejected the offer of a double-storey house as compensation.

After a tense standoff, a new dateline was set and the homes are scheduled to be demolished tomorrow.

Where will the livestock go? - Picture by Jack Ooi

Meanwhile Joseph, who is among three villagers who were arrested and released by police on Sunday, told the press he has also lodged a police report for what he claims were unlawful detentions.

He said they were arrested for threatening a Bangladeshi worker hired by the developer to demolish their homes on August 4.

However he denies the allegations.

“The state government had intervened on August 4 before the workers could move in to demolish our homes, so there was no reason for us to threaten anyone.”

He added villager M.Sugumaran who was arrested with him, was not even in Penang at the time of the incident but in Kuala Lumpur.

Joseph also questioned the timing of their arrests, pointing out the incident allegedly took place weeks ago.

“We were told to go to the police station to have our statements recorded and then the police decided to arrest us”.

Other residents who heard about the arrest rushed to the Jelutong police station in Georgetown and stopped a police van from taking the trio to city police headquarters in Jalan Patani.

The men were taken back into the police station before being released on police bail two hours later.