As it stands, the residents are pissed off with their ADUN lawyer RSN Rayer. He tried to give some excuse saying he is standing with them or something. They are also accusing the state government of not doing anything, not caring about them, just like the previous government. Lim Guan Eng will be waking up to a protest tomorrow from his own rakyat, who helped his representative to get a place in the state government. He was upset with HINDRAF’s claims, and asked them to protest at federal government level so that the federal government can do something under National Land Code.

HINDRAF is planning a series of protests at DAP offices throughout the country. That speaks something for their impartiality. At least they step on everyone’s toes once in a while. But it remains to be seen if they can get an estimated 10,000 people at KOMTAR this week. Probably less than half of that is my estimate.

Question also arise if the Indians in DAP will stand with HINDRAF or with Penang state government. My guess is party comes first for them. How about those in PKR ? – no news from Manikavasagam, Sivarasa or Gopalakrishnan so far.  MIC  should be having  good time seeing the misery of DAP/PKR, but I’m not sure what they themselves are doing to solve the problem as well. It was their partners who caused all this problem in the first place. Which makes them, what, partners-in-crime? The role of  the previous state government who caused all this headache for current state government should not be forgotten.

Can the state government buy back the land from the people it sold to? Probably not if it the buyers got it over some dubious and nominal fees, thus standing to make a large amount of money. Lim Guan Eng says the figure will be astronomical. if want to buy back And secondly, there may be no laws to compel for such buy-back options or to stop the development of the land. I guess the only way is to discuss with the developer or relocate the whole village to another location.

Anyway, Deputy CM 1 Mansor is doing some firefighting work – trying to talk to the developers, Koperasi Pegawai Kerajaan Pulau Pinang Bhd and Nusmetro Venture.

He said that he would ask the developers to hold on to the vacant possession directive served on the villagers while the state investigates allegations of misuse of power and corruption in the transfer of the land.

“I am confident that the developers will cooperate with the state,” he told a press conference here on Monday.

The residents filed an application today to set aside an ex-parte order dated June 16 obtained by the developers, to issue a writ of possession, which is to be enforced at 11am on July 2. In their application, the residents also applied for the bailiff’s notice, execution and enforcement of the writ to be set aside. In his affidavit, labourer K. Shanmugham said to date he and the other village residents had yet to be served with the Court of Appeal’s order dated May 11. He said the writ of possession was defective as the Koperasi and Nusmetro Venture have failed to obtain any permission from the authorities and the Penang Municipal Council to demolish the houses in the village. The application will be heard on a date yet to be fixed.

A bit of background on the village (from Malaysiakini):

Originally the village was legally gazetted as the Helen Brown housing trust under the Housing Trust Act 1950.
However, in 2005, the land office alienated the land to the state government without dissolving the trust which is a requirement under law.

Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) had allegedly given planning approval in 2007 to Umno-linked Nusmetro before the land was legally transferred to the cooperative. This is a breach of the council’s building by-laws.

The land was only transferred on March 27 last year – nine days after Pakatan Rakyat captured Penang in the general election.The land transfer was done by certain land officers without the knowledge of the current government.

How would this turnout? I expect the talks between Mansor and opposition-controlled company to fail. There will be some bloodshed and arrests, and Kampung Buah Pala will cease to exist. After 6 months, we will forget all this and move on. In 2013, the issue will be raised again, but both parties will not be getting any mileage because one caused the problem, and the other failed to keep to its promise to solve the problem.