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YTL clarifies

December 29th, 2009
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Following the protests by the residents in Sentul over the missing low-cost houses, YTL provides some clarification:

According to a representative of YTL Land & Development Berhad, the only agreement made was with Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) for the development of Kampung Railway.

The representative said the company had been wrongly vindicated in this matter as Sentul Raya Sdn Bhd in 1994 was under another parent company and that YTL only took over later in 1997.

“It has nothing to do with YTL as our joint venture agreement is only with KTMB, whereby Kampung Railway will comprise a series of medium-cost apartments to be constructed on Sentul Lot PT16 for the purpose of housing KTMB employees and their immediate families.

“The identified site for this project, unfortunately, has been occupied by squatters and their reluctance to move has delayed the commencement of construction for a considerable time,” said the representative, adding that this meant the memorandum handing-over was also directed to a wrong party.

In a press statement issued, it is said some 41 families have already moved out of their squatter homes; with 22 of the 41 relocated to PPR Kg Muhibbah Puchong while the other 19 found homes of their own.

As for this current group of 18 families, a court case was ongoing and no date has been fixed for the next mention.

“We have taken numerous measures to look into the welfare and interest of the affected families, like dialogues and briefings, extending moving-out deadline, assisting the families with new low-cost homes via liaising with the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

“We will still offer relocation compensation and assist with the new accommodation, although it is in the hands of the DBKL to decide on the location,” said the representative.

Some residents say they did not know what they signed, while others saying moving to Puchong is too far and incur very high costs.

Meanwhile, this is the predicament of the Kampung Railway residents:

RESIDENTS of Kampung Railway in Sentul suspect that the low-cost flats promised them were scrapped due to the possibility of a hypermarket taking shape in the area.

The residents recently won a year-long legal battle against the developers and Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB).

The original residents of the village were former employees of KTMB and many of the current residents are their descendants. According to them, they had been promised low-cost flats but, till today, had heard nothing further.

Last year, they were served with eviction notices, citing plans for a railway village for KTMB employees.

They began their legal battle in December, 2008, when Batu MP Tian Chua helped them file the suit. On April 29, this year the court had ruled in their favour.

“The court acknowledged that the 20 residents should receive low-cost units as promised because they had documentation proving their cause,” Chua said.

KTMB filed an appeal a month after the decision was handed down.

Since then, three more residents have opted to join in the lawsuit.

Chua said they would have to provide the proper documentation, including family history and assessment bills paid during their stay at Kampung Railway.

However, the two families highlighted in StarMetro’s article on Dec 16, M. Thanaletchumy and her son-in-law, R. Parthiban, cannot be included in the list as they have already signed agreements to move out.

K. Letchumi, 39, whose house was demolished together with Thanaletchumy’s is also seeking help to fight her case. She has not signed any agreement to move out but her house was still demolished.

Chua said they had only relocated residents who had lived in the area for less than 10 years to Kampung Muhibbah, Puchong.

According to him, brochures sent out by the developers showed that a hypermarket would be built on the land.

“Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) cannot issue a development order for the construction as it was initially planned for low-cost flats,” he said.

Chua said he would bring up the issue with KL mayor Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail and Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin.

So, YTL is saying those people staying in Kampung Railways are squatters whereas they are descendents of the KTMB employees, and some of them have won their court case against KTM and developer?

Yesterday, residents together with MIC  held a protest:

OVER 50 people, comprising Batu MIC division members and squatters residents from Kampung Railway in Sentul, staged a protest yesterday over claims that low- and medium-cost flats are not being built as promised.

The protest was held at the YTL building in Jalan Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur where the group demanded for the promise based on an agreement in 1994 be fulfilled.

They held placards and marched for a short stretch along the street before crowding in front of the YTL building entrance waiting to hand over the memorandum to a management representative.

In the memorandum, it is claimed that Sentul Raya Sdn Bhd (under YTL) was to build 3,000 units of low- and medium-cost flats and two multi-purpose halls and a football field.

However, the group said not a single low-cost unit has been built 15 yearson.

Batu MIC division chairman C. Ramanathan, who is the group’s spokesperson, said the area was now developed with many high-end apartments.

“What we want is for the developer to honour its promise made 15 years back, that is to build the low and medium-cost units,” said Ramanathan.

“They have been asked to relocate to Puchong but it’s so far away. These are poor people earning like RM400 a month and many are uneducated folks who would not know what is happening once they move there.”

Resident Yogalingam Muthukrishnan, 41, said his father first made the home there 50 years back, and is unhappy now that he is asked to move to Puchong.

“I have children who are still schooling so it’s not convenient for me. Also, they have taken away our football field there,” he said.

YTL Land & Development Berhad customer relations manager Karen Tan later came out to receive the memorandum.

Police officers had gathered around to supervise and man the crowd.

So, is this another case of badly management development with scant regards for the residents? Some of the villages in Sentul exists for more than 100 years, so what happened in last 10 years? Where did all the folks go to?

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What color are you?

December 28th, 2009
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MIC has color coded us! There’s green, yellow, red and white. So, pick your choice folks!

He also said that the Indian voters would be classified under four colours, namely green (which would group the BN’s “fixed deposit” Indian voters), yellow (for those who would likely abandon the BN if poorly managed), red (for party members and people whom the MIC has lost and has to win back) and white (which would group potential members and voters).

“Through this classification, we will be able to plan our strategies and focus on each group in a bid to win them over for the BN,” he added.

He (Samy) was speaking at a function on the list of “re”s to do.  He did admit something this time – that the party had taken for granted that the community would support them.

MIC president S Samy Vellu has urged party leaders to “reconnect” with the Indian masses who had been the “vote bank” of the Barisan Nasional since the party’s formation in 1946.

He said this was because in the March 2008 general election, they had taken for granted the support from the Indian masses who had been traditionally voting for the BN and ensuring a huge victory for the ruling coalition.

“Our task has been to win them back. This has been our priority. We have made a lot of progress over the last 18 months or so, and we must keep moving and not look back,” he said when opening a workshop on ‘Reinventing and Reconnecting’ for MIC leaders.

He stressed that it was the duty of every party leader, “right from the president to the branch chairmen”, to maintain a close and cordial relationship with the Indian masses without compromising on their effectiveness to deliver.

“The Indian community has placed their hope on us to deliver and we must work hard to regain their trust,” he said.

Samy Vellu said the party could not afford to have “complacent leaders” who did not take seriously their role and responsibilities to the party and community.

“I have noticed that there is now a political reawakening among many party (MIC) leaders. They feel the need to reshape their mind and responsibilities to better serve the community,” he said.

Samy Vellu attributed this to the series of workshops and rejuvenation efforts undertaken by the party and the “hard stance” taken on many issues involving the Indian community.

I would like to see a refined KPI for MIC. They presented a general one, with another added by PM Najib. The party is putting up KPI for branch leaders, but what about the party as a whole? It would be interesting to see how that turns out.

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MIC waiting for money for schools…

December 17th, 2009
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At last, there’s some news on the allocation asked by MIC in order to complete the renovation of Tamil schools and construction of additional or replacement buildings for schools. The initial allocation of RM100 was deemed in sufficient due to escalation in material costs. There was a request for additional RM60 million, but according to news below, the request is for RM53 million. Not sure how much will be approved, since government is short of funds and even operating expenditure is being reduced by 10-15% next year.

MIC is awaiting clearance from the Finance Ministry on the party’s request for an additional allocation of RM53 million for the construction of new buildings in several Tamil schools, including the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang in Kedah’s Jerai constituency.

MIC president S Samy Vellu said at least RM1.6 million was needed to construct a new building for the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang on a piece of land reportedly already earmarked for the school.

“This project (SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang) was supposed to have started some time back but because of the escalation in the construction cost of the Tamil schools, it had to be deferred along with several other (Tamil) schools,” he said in a statement today.

Samy Vellu was commenting on a Malaysiakini report today which said that despite a 5.5 acre land allocated by the Kedah state government last April for the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang, there was still no word on the construction of the building.

Samy Vellu said the request for the RM53 million extra allocation to cover the escalated construction cost from the original RM130 million allocated by the government, was made to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also the finance minister when he chaired the special cabinet committee for the development of the Indian community recently.

He said the RM53 million additional allocation was “over and above” the RM100 million approved by Najib under the two economic stimulus packages and another RM30 million approved during Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s tenure as prime minister.

“Once the additional allocation has been approved, work on the projects can start after tender processes are completed by the Public Works Department (PWD),” he said, adding that all allocations from the Finance Ministry would be channeled as usual through the PWD.

Samy Vellu said MIC had listed out many Tamil schools which required new buildings, and construction work would commence in stages, depending on the availability of funds from the Finance Ministry.

“The government has already rebuilt many Tamil schools over the years through MIC, and many more will be redeveloped,” he said.

He also said MIC was working with the Education Ministry to switch partially-aided Tamil schools into fully-aided schools.

I hope they update the list of schools, complete with the work done and costs. Photos will be great too. Is that part of some KPI for MIC?

The issue arose after news about SJKT Sg Tok Pawang school came to light. This school has been sharing compound with a national school for two decades:

Sekolah Kebangsaan Tok Pawang and Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Sg Tok Pawang share the same compound, but it’s a different story with the canteen.

SJK(T) pupils have been denied access to the canteen. This was decided by SK Tok Pawang teachers after frequent quarrels between the pupils of the two schools. [err..why not just adjust the break time so that it doesn’t clash?]

The SJK(T) PIBG then organised a makeshift canteen for the 170 Tamil school students at a corridor behind the building.

Students of both schools also do not share classrooms.

Twenty-three years ago the students of the Tamil school were accommodated at SK Tok Pawang after they had to abandon their own building due to pollution caused by the nearby Lee Rubber building.

The Tamil school received a new lease of life when the Kedah state government allocated 5.5 acres of land to build a new school on April 3 this year.

Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak, accompanied by deputy P Ramasamy and the current state exco S Manikumar, attended the groundbreaking ceremony to a joyful atmosphere of excited schoolchildren and parents.

At the event, he said that the state government is giving the land to the school without any premium charge. They have also waived the assessment and the school needed to pay only a token sum of RM10 for the land.

This happened about eight months ago. The situation has not changed since then.

SJK (T) Tok Pawang students still share the school building with SK Tok Pawang pupils. There is no sign of a new building being built on the land that was given to the Tamil school.

Azizan had, at the groundbreaking ceremony, clearly indicated that the state government had done their job by giving the land.

It was now up to the school to negotiate with the Education Ministry to obtain the RM1.6 million needed to build the school.

Jerai MP Mohd Firdaus Jaafar said that now the ball was in MIC’s court to “pressure the minister (of education) at the federal level to make sure the building gets built.”

Balasingham, 35, says that he had been waiting for the school to be built since the day he left the school when he was 12.

His daughter now attends the school in Standard 1, but nothing has changed.

At the moment, students have no choice but to go about their familar routine of sharing the same compound and building, and having their meals under a a makeshift canteen.

Thus far, there is not even a hint of a new school building emerging on the land provided to them.

All you can see is the tractor used by the Kedah menteri besar during the groundbreaking ceremony. It sits forlornly by several oil palm trees, a sad reminder of what should have been.

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Info on police investigation, rights and bail

December 17th, 2009
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Bookmark this category
Useful information on police investigation procedure and rights of citizens. Received via email.

 

Police Investigation
 
      
WHEN DOES INVESTIGATION BEGIN?

Investigation begins the moment you are arrested and before a charge is brought against you, in order to determine if there is any or enough evidence which can sustain the charge.

WILL YOU BE ARRESTED OR DETAINED DURING INVESTIGATION?

Any person who has been accused or connected with or suspected of committing an offence may be arrested by police. Where a seizable offence e.g. murder, robbery or theft is suspected to have been committed, a police officer may arrest the offender with or without warrant or order from the Public Prosecutor in the course of investigation.

After your arrest, you cannot be kept indefinitely in police custody pending police investigation. You must be brought before a Magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest or where the police need more time for their investigation, they must produce you before a Magistrate to request permission to detain you further for a term not exceeding 15 days in a whole.

Where further detention is unnecessary, you may be released on bail to ensure your appearance in Court at an appointed date. Bail, however, is not available in certain cases e.g. if you are charged with murder or drugs trafficking.

The police may also detain you up to 60 days on suspicion upon Ministerial satisfaction that you may be subject fit and proper to be detained under the authority of the Minister for up to usually 2 years each time. This is known as preventive detention. The laws that allow for prevention detention are the Internal Security Act, 1960, the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act 1985 and the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance, 1969.

ARE YOU OBLIGED TO ANSWER POLICE QUESTIONS?

Where you have not be been arrested but only called by the police for questioning, you are bound to state the truth and answer all questions put to you by the police investigating officers except those which have a tendency to expose you to a criminal charge, penalty or forfeiture (right from self-incrimination). Before recording your statement the police officer will have to explain to you your right from self-incrimination.

WHAT SEARCH POWERS DO THE POLICE HAVE?

Persons having the power to arrest may search any place entered by the person sought to be arrested and may effect an entrance by force if refused entry. An arrested person may be searched and any articles found which are reasonably believed to be evidence of the crime may be detained until his release. Any offensive weapon found on the arrested person may be seized. A person in lawful custody who is unable to give a reasonable account of himself due to incapacity may be searched to ascertain his name and address.

FOR HOW LONG CAN A PERSON REMAIN IN POLICE CUSTODY?

A police officer who has taken a person into police custody must be brought before a Magistrate without unnecessary delay. Police detention of the arrested person must not exceed 24 hours (excluding the time taken for the journey from the place of arrest to the Magistrate Court) unless a remand order had earlier been obtained. Any violence used by a police officer to a person in his custody is a punishable offence. Any person who escapes from lawful custody may be pursued and arrested by the person from whose custody he fled.

 
Bail    

Basically there are two types of bail –

(i) police bail; and

(ii) court bail.

Police bail is granted when investigation cannot be completed. Instead of detaining the suspect longer, police bail is granted to ensure that the suspect will appear at the police station and report to the investigation officer at the appointed time. Usually, police bail takes the form of a bond by the surety without securities being furnished.

On the other hand, court bail means the release of a person from custody of the detaining authorities upon security being given for his appearance in Court on an appointed date.

Whether court bail will be granted would depend on the nature of the offence. For purpose of bail, offences are classified under (i) bailable (ii) non-bailable and (iii) unbailable offences. A bailable offence means bail has to be offered as of right. The court has no choice but to offer bail. Non-bailable means the court has a discretion to grant bail and when an offence is described as unbailable, no bail will be offered. Examples of bailable offences are voluntarily causing hurt, cheating and defamation. Examples of non-bailable offences are rape, theft, infanticide and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means. For penal code offences, a complete list of bailable and non-bailable offences is found at column 5 of the First Schedule of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Bail will not be granted in unbailable offences. These are offences punishable with death or life imprisonment for instance drugs trafficking, murder, or kidnapping punishable under the Kidnapping Act.

However, there are exceptions and bail may be offered for any person under the age of 16 years or any woman or any sick or infirmed person accused of such of offence.

Conditions may be imposed in granting bail (only in respect of non-bailable offence) such as requiring the accused person to surrender his passport. Failure to comply with the condition imposed may result in an accused person being remanded until trial.

The purpose of bail is not to punish the accused person but to merely secure his attendance in Court on a given date. Thus the Court will normally take into account the following factors in deciding whether bail ought to be granted: –

• The nature of the offence with which he is charged;
• The apparent possibility of conviction;
• The likely sentence;
• His family lives and relationship within the community in which he lives;
• His previous criminal record (if any);

• His reputation, employment status and monetary conditions

A bail once granted may however be revoked if there is clear evidence that the accused person is interfering with the course of justice for example the destruction of evidence or tampering of witnesses.

Regards,

Sanjeev
National Chairman,
Police Affairs & Rehabilitation Bureau
Unity & Community Development Committee
Malaysian Indian Congress.

__._,_.__

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NGOs as tools for politics

December 16th, 2009
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Below is information from an unidentified source from MIC, if we are to believe the news by MK.  While its true that many NGOs are sprouting, especially after Nov 2007 and March 2008, I don’t all are as alleged by the source, funded or aligned to the opposition. And if they are, they should clarify which party/leaders fund them. This must also apply to MIC since it also has some “friendly” NGOs aligned to it. You can’t have two sets of rules, can you?

I don’t agree with the campaign for 12 subjects for SPM being tool for opposition. I think if such protests and outbursts were not done, MIC would have been quiet and let the issue fade away. As it is, the problem is still not solved, what more if no one made some noise.

This problem is not limited to Indian parties only. The other parties also have NGOs aligned to them, ready to make noise when needed.

As for me, I think in name of fairness, NGOs office bearer must not be members of any political party. Then we can see how many are actually sincere in community service. And nope, I’m not a member of any political party, nor interested to join any one of them.

Some opposition political parties are using certain Indian NGOs to do their work of opposing or questioning decisions of the government concerning the Indian community, an MIC source said, adding that the party has devised a strategy to counter this.

The source said that of late, several small Indian NGOs have mushroomed, though not registered, and were being backed “silently and financially” by certain Indian opposition figures, including elected representatives.

“They (the NGOs) are being used to instill hatred among certain sections of the Indian community towards the government and BN while the opposition takes a back seat,” it said.

The source cited the Education Ministry’s ruling to cap to 10 the subjects for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination and said a few people calling themselves “Save the 12 SPM Subjects Committee” have inflamed the issue and created confusion as well as hatred towards the government.

It said the opposition realised that there has been “a change of heart” among the Indian community towards the BN since the last general election after several initiatives announced for them by Prime Minister Najib Razak, including a RM100 million allocation for the edevelopment of Tamil schools.

“There is now a swing to the BN by the Indians and the only way for the opposition to reignite their hatred for the BN was to use these NGOs as decoys or a tool.

“They (the opposition) will feed information to these NGOs and finance their activities, including organising forums and protests in community halls and hotels,” the source said.

It said the MIC has been monitoring the activities and the NGO leaders’ background.

“Some of the NGO leaders are members or hold posts in opposition parties but they do not reveal their identities,” it said.

The source said the MIC was mobilising many of its “friendly” Indian NGOs to counter the opposition’s strategy although he admitted that it was “a bit difficult to identify the rogue NGOs”.

“Meetings will be held behind closed doors with these MIC-friendly NGOs soon,” it said, adding that the move was crucial to maintain Indian support for the BN, especially in the next general election.

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