Another 99 shophouses Stutong project to enrich the BN leaders?

Jalan Peace Selatan squatters did not have the peace they desire- they are now living in fear of when they would be evicted, no thanks to the SUPP.

I have read with disgust in the local papers at what the SUPP had done to the squatters last Sunday. Calling in a team of SUPP members, the group had knowingly or unknowingly persuaded the squatters to sign the form of Land and Survey with the powerful clause of removing them from the land without compensation.

The almost 200 families consisting of poor Dayaks and Chinese had been staying there for ages, some as long as four decades. It may mean little to people who have houses, but for these squatters who had been promised before that they would be resettled, it has been a long wait for them, some who had passed on while waiting.

Just before Chinese New Year, the Land and Survey arrived at their door steps asking them to sign the survey forms with the unfair clause whereby the state government has every right to kick the residents out from the land without having to pay them a single cent of compensation.

I have gone down, explained to them, get them a new form which many of them had given their personal data and send them to the Land and Survey officer, Kesuma Haji Sitam. Kesuma told me that the forms I handed over were sufficient as they contained the personal details of the squatters.

So now why should they go back again on April 4 with the SUPP members to help them explain to the people to sign the very forms they had given in the first place?

A few residents called me up and I advised the residents not to sign them. Although assuring the SUPP and Land and Survey that they would hand over the forms on April 11, a few residents told me that the majority of them did not sign. They only signed after it was agreed that the clause be crossed out.

I have said it in a few Dewan sittings asking the government to please resettled them in the same area and upgrade their basic facilities.

When it comes to land issue, the government gets very sensitive. I keep on harping that the cronies had been given ten of thousands of land so what is 8 points to these squatters who had been there for decades.

After all the battles I have fought for the squatters, SUPP came right into it and helped the Land and Survey to take away the squatters’ rights.

I think before the SUPP do such thing, they must ask themselves if they are helping these people. Is the Land and Survey making use of the SUPP or is it the other way round. Will this piece of land be another Stutong Land 99 shophouse project to enrich the BN leaders?

Whatever it is, leave the squatters alone. Do not deny them a place they have been staying for the past forty years. The government should give them the right to call their house a home. How much longer do you want them to suffer not knowing they would be chased out anytime?