KUALA LUMPUR, 23 June: About 80 residents of Kampung Chubadak Tambahan held a peaceful demonstration to protest against the move to demolish their homes, which they have been living in for a long time, at the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) square today.
While carrying banners with ‘Defend Malay Heritage Villages’, ‘Respect Urban Settlers’ and ‘We are Malaysia, not panda’, the demonstration also saw the participation of villagers of all ages, including elected representatives and political activists.
Among those present were the PAS Deputy President, Mohamad Sabu; the Member of Parliament for Batu, Tian Chua; the PSM Secretary-General, S.Arutchelvan and the Chairman of ANAK, Mazlan Aliman.
The memorandum was then handed to the Officer in the Mayor’s Office, Mohd Shukri Rohim and the Deputy Director of the Town Planning Department, Norjannah Appendi.
Meanwhile, Tian Chua, who is also the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Vice President, said that DBKL does not have a clear and consistent reason to demolish the village because they often provide conflicting reasons.
He said that as a Member of Parliament for the area, he will continue to join the people to fight against oppression towards them.
“As long as there is no plan that respects urban settlers, this issue will not be solved. One minute DBKL says that they want to build condominiums, the next minute they want to build a cemetery.
“Whether they do not know or are inconsistent, they just want to demolish homes. Before they can explain the development project, they busily want to evict residents,” he said, followed by cheers of ‘Hidup Rakyat’ (Long Live the People).
Meanwhile, Mat Sabu said that the confusion and delirium of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, can be seen clearly in recent years.
He said that the people should remain united against tyranny and to defend justice in order to prevent them from being continuous victims of the central government’s greed.
“We must make a change, and this village will be a point of unity to defend justice,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Kini reported that the Kampung Chubadak Tambahan lawyer, Ahmad Zamri Asa’ad Khuzaimi, said that he will submit a memorandum to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Prime Minister if the Mayor, Datuk Seri Ahmad Phesal Talib, still insists on demolishing the homes of villagers.
“The memorandum is the first move. For the second move, we will send a memorandum to the Federal Territories Minister, the Prime Minister and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong if the demands are not heard by the Mayor.
“It will be sent as a sign of the residents’ anger towards the Mayor’s statement of insisting to demolish despite an appeal lodged at the High Court,” he said.
Ahmad Zamri stressed that the memorandum today also demanded for Ahmad Phesal to stop all demolition activities until the end of the injunction period on June 26.
In addition, he also demanded for Ahmad Phesal to negotiate with the villagers before taking any action on the homes of the Malay village residents.
NS
