Tomorrow is the dreaded day for Kampung Pandan Indian Settlement community. As written in the Star Metro section today, the 70-odd year old settlement is on the brink of demolition by the ever efficient DBKL. The DBKL is so efficient that it could erase the existence of such place from its own KL City Plan 2020. Is this some sort of subtle ethnic cleansing? Do note that the term “ethnic cleansing” covers a wide definition and not just limited to phsyical attacks or killings.  On one end of the scale it also encompasses discriminatory policies.  Yes, the authorities say that the residents will get a place to stay after the development of road is completed.  But looking at past track record, only the very brave will have trust in these promises.

You can search this blog for previous articles on Kg Pandan Indian settlement case. The residents are not being helped to resettle properly – they are offered temporary location at Puchong which is 20KM away. With many of them having minimal wages, relocation is not easy. Schooling will be a problem. What will happen to the Tamil school there? As usual – not even sound of flatulence from MIC. After all over, the politician will come and make some noise, and act out some scenes.

The residents are right in not trusting DBKL. These guy can even wipe out existence from map, what worth is their Aku Janji form? Who can they trust? Promises after promises, but empty ones. So, in the end, have to take it up themselves. Don’t be surprised if these folks file a suit against DBKL.

THE endless talk, empty promises, even treacherous betrayal, and their own desperation and helplessness have turned the gentle residents of Kuala Lumpur’s remaining Indian Settlement into tormented cynics.

After all sorts of empty promises by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), the MIC and the Public Complaints Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Department, the residents of the 70-year-old Kampung Pandan Indian settlement have decided that enough is enough.

The unpretentious humble residents have now resorted to do research themselves on the laws concerning the land and their fundamental and constitutional rights for a legal battle to safeguard their homes.

Take the sweet natured Beatrice Leelawathi Maniam as an example. The 67-year-old is making a determined effort to learn about the laws of the land that she was born and bred in.

Since last year, Beatrice and some of her friends have been reading books on laws and rules of the land code to better understand their rights.

“God only helps those who help themselves and I have decided that in order to save the land of my forefathers, I have to do it myself,” she said.

Beatrice, holding a copy of the thick Volume 2 of the draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 (KLCP2020), told StarMetro that the plan, the blue print of the future developments of Kuala Lumpur, had inadvertently wiped out the entire existence of the Kampung Pandan Indian settlement.

“There is no mention of our village and Lorong Delapan Kampung Pandan, where the 50-year-old Tamil school is located, is also missing,” she said while pointing to the map marked orange.

“So can you blame us for not trusting the government? Can you blame us if we say: no thank you, DBKL, we are not moving because we don’t believe you,” she said.

Why the distrust?

The story of these 250-odd pioneer settlers of KL is simple. After living and toiling on the land for 70 years, they were told to vacate the area as the DBKL wants to build an access road connecting Taman Maluri and Ampang. The villagers were asked to uproot from their homes, work places and children’s school to move 20km away to Kampung Muhhibbah in Puchong.

A team: Children studying together at a house in Kg Pandan Indian settlement.

They were promised low-cost units in two to three years when they would be relocated back to the site, but residents do not believe that this would ever happen.

In line with the government’s zero-squatter policy, the DBKL has been speeding up its squatter eradication exercise to meet the year-end deadline. Since January, eviction notices have been issued to various squatter settlements in the city.

What makes the Kampung Pandan residents special, compared with the squatters elsewhere in KL who have been relocated?

“We are not asking for special treatment. What we are asking is for the DBKL to practise some common sense,” Kampung Pandan Indian Settlment Action Council head Suresh Kumar said.

“Most of our people are cleaners, dish washers, baby sitters and labourers. So, how much do you think their average income is?” he asked.

“Our children attend the Kampung Pandan Tamil School nearby. If we move, their schooling would be disrupted and we will not be able make ends meet,” Suresh said.

The residents had sought help from Public Complaints Bureau head T. Murugiah to be relocated to the public housing programme (PPR) flats in Seri Alam in Sungai Besi, 4km away.

However, the DBKL said the project by the Housing and Local Government Ministry had not been handed over to it and so it could not allocate the units to the residents.

According to a source from the Federal Territories Ministry, all 920 units have already been allocated but the source was reluctant to reveal who have been given the units.

Indra Rani, 44, who works as a baby-sitter in the village, asked why the residents of the Kampung Pandan Indian settlement were being sidelined?

“I recently read that Federal Territories Minister Raja Datuk Nong Chik Zainal Abidin is helping 355 squatter families in Bukit B at Kampung Kerinchi move to the Seri Cempaka flats, only a short distance from their place. Why can’t he help us and why the double standard? Indra asked.

Housewife Kalaichelvi Paraman, 49, is worried about the whole situation as her husband S. Nagalingam, 49, is a dialysis patient and requires treatment three times a week at a dialysis centre in Cheras.

“We have two schoolgoing children and it is going to be difficult for us if we were to move to Puchong” Kalaichelvi said in between sobs.

Aminah Talib, 73, who has been living in Kampung Pandan since her marriage 30 years ago, said she now lived there with her son.

“I depend on my neighbours and we have shared many good memories in this simple house,” she said. A. Navanitham, 42, has been living in Kampung Pandan for the past 25 years and has five children who are studying and working in the area.

“My wife is diabetic and needs constant medical treatment and we go to the Kampung Pandan clinic nearby,” he said.

“If we move to Puchong, it will be a big financial burden for us,” he said.

Navanitham said his work place was now just five minutes away from his home and if he moved he would not be able to keep his job.

Is there a way out?

According to residents, they have been given until Thursday to move out on their own, or the DBKL enforcement team will demolish their homes after that deadline.

“The DBKL has promised to give us Surat Aku Janji (pledge letters) pledging to give us units in the current location once the low-cost housing project is complete. But the DBKL will only give us the pledge letter after we have moved to Puchong,” Suresh said.

“How can we trust the DBKL now when all the while it has never once kept its promise,” he said.

According to Suresh, the Settlement Action Committee has been studying the KLCP2020 in detail and has identified two plots of land in the settlement which belongs to the DBKL and has been zoned as open space.

The residents have suggested that the land be used to build units for them to live in as they await for their low cost-houses to be built.

“It’s the best solution for all parties and only fair,” Suresh said, adding that he hoped the DBKL would hear them out.

Let’s see what other residents say:

THEY have until Thursday to leave their homes in Kampung Pandan and move to a government housing scheme in Puchong. Yet, about 160 residents in the Kampung Pandan Indian Settlement hope that their reasons for refusing to move to the flats offered by City Hall will be looked into seriously. After many street protests by residents of the settlement over the past year, they still feel that their reasons for refusing to move have not been considered by City Hall.

According to resident K. Ramamoorthy, 44, the residents were hoping to be placed in PPR units around Kampung Pandan or the surrounding area. He said there were PPR units around Jalan Cochrane, Sungai Besi, Jalan Peel and even Setapak that the residents would not mind moving to. “We do not mind living in different PPR flats nearby as it would not severely affect our daily lives.

But please, do not ask us to move 20km away. “It is not that we are refusing to move, as we know they have plans to develop the area. But the authorities just don’t seem to want to understand our predicament. “They want us to move to Puchong. We are currently in Kampung Pandan. Fifty children attend SJK Tamil Kampung Pandan which is walking distance from home.

Over 30 people work at the Royal Selangor Golf and Country Club, which is half a kilometre away. There are also many who work in factories and offices in the area. Also, we have those who are sick depending on medication from Kuala Lumpur Hospital. And, there are several others who are jobless,” Ramamoorthy said.

He conceded that there was a Tamil school in Kinrara Puchong, about 3km from the PPR Kampung Muhibbah units that City Hall is offering, but that would mean the children would have to rely on school buses and this would mean having to bear extra costs. Around 100 residents held a peaceful protest in the settlement yesterday, which was attended by Titiwangsa MP Dr Lo’ Lo’ Mohd Ghazali and Subang MP R. Sivarasa.

It was reported yesterday that Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan said his ministry was concerned about the plight of the residents and pledged to look into resolving the matter. It was also reported that the residents were asked to submit an appeal letter citing reasons for their refusal to relocate. Saravanan was also quoted as saying that so far, only 29 of the 196 families had accepted City Hall’s offer to relocate.

The residents even went to DPM Muhyiddin’s house  last month to submit their protests:

ABOUT 30 residents from the Kg Pandan Indian settlement turned up at the home of Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at Bukit Damansara last night asking for help to save their settlement from being demolished.

“We have asked for help from many different parties but we have yet to be given land in place of (the land) where we were born and grew up. We hope the government will be able to give us a fair solution,” said S. Rama, 58, a resident.

PLEA: Temple president Sri Maha Kaliamman Sevai Nilayam (left) hand the memo to the Deputy Prime Minister’s home security officer at Bukit Damansara

Last night about 11pm, residents from Kg Pandan planned to hand over a memorandum directly to the Deputy Prime Minister.

Unfortunately he was outstation and the residents handed it instead to a representative from the DPM’s home security team.

The residents wanted to know how the relocation will affect the SRJK (T) Kg Pandan Indian Settlement, the Hindu temple as well as the Islamic madrasah which have served the residents well for many decades.

Residents were also concerned about their children’s attendance at their school in Kg Pandan.

“If we move to the low-cost flats in Taman Muhibbah, Puchong, we will also have to change our children’s school and this will be troublesome.

“We are hoping that we can be moved to the Seri Alam flats in Sungai Besi, which is only 15 minutes away from their school. It is also convenient for many of the residents who work in the city,” added Rama.

City Hall plans to relocate the squatters to make way for an access road connecting Taman Maluri and Ampang.

They will be allowed to return to Kampung Pandan once the public housing flats are completed. Earlier this year, the residents also sought help from Public Complaints Bureau chief Senator T. Murugiah. He supported the residents’ call to be allowed to move to the flats in Sungai Besi.

The Kampung Pandan Indian settlement traces its beginnings to the resettlement programmes of the British colonial authorities during the Emergency period.

The folks at DBKL have been very hardworking, visiting the site everyday:

According to residents, DBKL enforcement officers have put up stickers at various parts of the village informing residents to move out.

“Their officers have been coming every day and asking us whether we have taken the keys to PPR Kg Muhibbah and reminding us that May 14 is our last day,” said Beatrice Leelawathi Maniam, 67.

“They have been persistent and diligent in getting us to move,’’ Beatrice said.

The residents have not ruled out court case:

“We are determined to stay put,’’ said Kampung Pandan Indian Settlement Action Council head Suresh Kumar.

“We have agreed go to court as a last resort if we are forced to move to Puchong,” he said.

“We have no choice but to take our plight to the courts as this not only concerns our future but our children’s as well,” he said.

Suresh said they would engage lawyers recommended by PKR vice-president R. Sivarasah who is acting as their legal adviser.

“Since they have left us out in the Draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 (DKLCP2020), we have no choice but to challenge it,” he said.

Deputy FT Minister meanwhile spins some story on the issues being unrelated. Well, the same plan will be used in future to reject later requests as “its not in the plan”. Everyone knows how things work. Will the deputy minister accept the Aku Janji if it was his house that was affected? Tepuk dada tanya selera.

Meanwhile, in response to why the Kampung Pandan Indian settlement had been left out of the DKLCP2020, Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan said: “The relocation of the residents and gazetting of the land are two unrelated issues. The gazetting has to be done at the Cabinet level. Moreover, the DBKL has already agreed to provide the “Surat Aku Janji” which is a black and white proof of their pledge,” Saravanan said.

When asked to comment on the legality of the “Surat Aku Janji”, Sivarasah said: “It has zero value. In fact, verbal agreements and letters of pledges have no value legally.”

“In other words, it is useless. You must get a signed Sale and Pur­chase agreement. That is a legal guarantee that you will be given a house,” Sivarasah said after attend­ing a peaceful demonstration in Kampung Pandan on Sunday to protest against the reloca­tion of the residents to Puchong.

According to Sivarasah, it is normal in any relocation exercise for the local authority to issue pledge letters.

“Later, when there is a change in administration, their usual excuse will be that the letter is no longer valid,” he said.

Sivarasah also said DBKL’s notices to residents to move out was illegal since it did not spell out that they planned to demolish the houses.

It doesn’t help that the opposition (or is it the ruling coalition in KL) is helping out the residents. Any solution will be viewed with a political stance.  It will be “us against them” mentality. The residents may lose out because bringing their problem to their MPs who are incidentally from opposing camp. But if not to MP, then rely on who? FT Ministry? DBKL? Thus, residents are caught in a dilemma.

So, will it be the end of the settlement? Two years down the lane, will we see more broken families, single parents, troublesome youths, and increased crime rates due to the actions taken today? Are the families to take risk and rely on words of the DBKL, ministers and authorities? Would you do that if it happens to you?