The residents are rejecting the offer of the double storey house by the developer. I think looking at the failure rate of fulfilling promises by developers and authorities, especially on property and land related issues, the residents have valid reason to be suspicious. Land swindling and corruption is so rampant that one wonders if one’s own house is safe or not.

Now the residents stand to lose everything as the developer and cooperative won’t be relenting on the pursue of the land. I think what the residents can do is to sue the previous goverment, but that may be thrown out as they don’t have locus standi anymore.

The saga shall continue…

Kampung Buah Pala residents did not meet a noon deadline to accept the ‘double-storey terrace house’ offer made by developer Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd

Kampung Buah Residents Association chairperson M Sugumaran said they are rejecting the offer as it is riddled with unacceptable conditions.

One of them, he pointed out, was the villagers were asked to withdraw all their court cases against the land deals pertaining to their village.

Another demanded virtually all 24 house owners in the village to vacate the land and handover possession to the land owner, Koperasi Pegawai Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan Pulau Pinang.

“One must understand that we are not fighting against Nusmetro, the state government or the cooperative society.

“We are challenging the land alienation marred by fraudulent land deals,” said Sugumaran (above, left) at a press conference in the village this afternoon.

He said the offer letter was issued to all house owners during last Tuesday’s meeting between the villagers and state government leaders in Komtar.

The villagers were given until noon today to accept the offer.

Sugumaran, however, said perhaps two residents may have accepted the offer, without naming them.

Villagers face demolition of homes

Kampung Buah Pala is also commonly known as Tamil High Chaparral due to its population of cowherds, cattle, goats, other live stocks and lively Tamil cultural features and festivities.

Despite the land being sold by the state government to the cooperative society last year, the villagers have refused to shift from their homes.

They, instead, demanded the authorities gazette their village as an Indian heritage living human village in Georgetown city.

They also submitted a memorandum to the Unesco heritage unit in Paris last week to add more steel to their struggle.

Georgetown and Malacca were given a combined world heritage city status by Unesco in July last year.

Armed with a court order, the developer warned residents that the village would be demolished and flattened if the residents failed to meet its Friday noon dateline by accepting its offer.

The developer plans to build a luxury condominium project called Oasis in the area.

Sugumaran said the state government should not have allowed Nusmetro to make the offer given that Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had said that the land alienation exercise carried out by the previous Barisan Nasional administration was tainted with fraud.

“When the chief minister himself has raised such allegations, it’s only logical for the state government to right the wrong.

“If the state government continues to facilitate Nusmetro’s offer, then the current government was clearly colluding with the previous administration to endorse the fraud.

“This is unbecoming of a responsible government,” he told newsmen.

Ramasamy asked to explain RM500,000 claim

Meanwhile, the villagers adviser A Thiruvenggadam demanded the state government to explain its claim that villagers would be made owners of RM500,000 worth of properties through the Nusmetro offer.

He questioned how the state government can possibly assess the property value when the proposed double-storey terrace houses were yet to be built and given to the villagers.

The former councillor of Petaling Jaya municipality said the state government was wrong in evaluating a land that is yet to be developed.

“This is blatant act by the state government with a malicious intention to portray the villagers as greedy people.

Truth is the villagers are the legitimate land owners and their village had been stolen from them by the state authorities,” said Thiruvenggadam.

He was commenting on a statement by Deputy Chief Minister 2 P Ramasamy (left) in Tamil daily Makkal Osai yesterday.

Ramasamy was quoted as saying that “due to the relentless efforts by the Penang government, the villagers have been upgraded to owners of a half-million ringgit worth of property.”

Malaysiakini could not reach Ramasamy for comment despite several attempts.

The Star reported as below:

Kampung Buah Pala residents have rejected the double-storey house offered by developer Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd to vacate their homes.

Kampung Buah Pala residents association chairman M. Sugumaran said there were too many loopholes in the offer.

“The offer letter says that if the developer is unable to get planning and building approval from the relevant authorities, the (ex gratia) deal is immediately null and void and the residents will be unable to make any claim on it.

“That means even if we agree, it may not be approved and we end up with nothing and cannot take any action against the developer.

“Would you sign a deal like this?” he asked at a press conference at the village Friday.

Sugumaran added that the deal had not promised a date for the new houses to be ready and no details of monetary compensation for rental during the construction period.

The noon deadline for them to pack up and move out of their houses passed without any untoward incident on Friday.

Unlike on Monday, there was no crowd or protesters standing by at the village and even the developer was absent.

Just a handful of residents were seen around the makeshift assembly area when reporters starting arriving from 9am onwards but the crowd grew to a moderate size around 11.45am as the deadline loomed.

On Aug 4, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng handed out offer letters on an ex gratia deal, which included a 1,200 sq ft double-storey terrace house for each of the 24 houses demolished, to residents during a meeting at his office in Komtar.

Lim who spoke to reporters at a separate function earlier, said there was nothing much the state government could do if the residents refused to consider the landed property offer.

“If they do not want to take up the offer and want to continue to be used by irresponsible elements including one or two villagers, then there is nothing much the state government can do.

“I urge them (the residents) to exercise rational thinking and to work together with this state government which is trying to help them by giving them a legally binding title for 99 years,” he said after opening the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia, better known as Pikom Northern Chapter’s regional seminar at Traders Hotel here Friday.

Lim said the demands made by the residents were getting to be a bit excessive.

“I think they should be reasonable and I fear they will be losing public support…in fact, they have lost a lot of public support,” he said.