Posts Tagged ‘Protest’

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SJKT Ladang Bukit Jalil still waiting for building

November 10th, 2009
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DPM Muhyidin came and went. 2 million promised (and reported by all major newspapers). Building to be ready in time for 2011 intake (another 13 months left). And forget to mention that there’s no field, no place for expansion.

Last cabinet committee on Indian community saw news that funds allocated were not enough, and the MIC requested for extra RM85 million or so. So, what’s the fate of this school?

Uthayakumar’s Human Rights Party organised a protest at the site:

One of the PIBG committee members, V.Shanthi, said that the committee were kept is dark by the Education Ministry, DBKL and the Wilayah Minister on the supposed extension building to be build at present school site.

At the proposed new site:-

1) With One acre only it is insufficient for future expansion.[this is normal. No thought is even given for future use. Typical planning (in)capability]

2) The classrooms are much smaller then the standard size. [this is serious accusation!]

3) There is no space for school field.

4) There is a future plan to build a LRT station nearby. This will cause a massive traffic jam and it is unsafe for the children.

5) There is no proper planning by DBKL because it involves a Tamil School. But when come to Malay and Chinese schools they will take into consideration the future expansion. These are the injustices that we are against.

Meanwhile at the present site, there is around 26 acres of reserved land and it is in a safe place for children away from main roads. Why can’t the UMNO government give 6 acres out of the 26 acres land to this Bukit Jalil Tamil School? They will have enough places to build a school field, an assembly hall for children and for future expansion.

Going back to history, when Bukit Jalil was slated to build a mega Sports Complex there RM Billions was for Commonwealth Games in 1998. During that time the UMNO government spent Billions building the Stadium, sports complexes, apartments, schools and etc but when it comes to this 80 year old Tamil school UMNO did not bother to upgrade as they had done for the Malay schools.

The Indian settlement in Kg Pandan KL will also be developed and majority of the residents are to be shifted to Puchong. Another big load of students will be coming in. How is SJKT Bukit Jalil going to cope with the sudden increase? Or would the students be pushed into national type schools?

The school was embroiled in controversies since last 2 years – flooding, relocation to cemetery plot, etc. (Just search in this blog). The parents and PIBG have done alot, putting to shame those in power. Even hired own contractors to fix proper drainage!

Today, The Star reported that the school is in the dark and no communication from the relevant government agencies.

THE SJK (Tamil) Bukit Jalil Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), School Board and Residents Committee members are in the dark over a proposed new Tamil school.

School Board chairman K. Venkata Ramani said when Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin visited the school in April, he gave an assurance of an allocation of RM2 million for the new school, which would have additional facilities.

“Tan Sri Muhiyiddin added that the proposed new school would be ready by 2011. There is now a signboard for a proposed SJK (Tamil) Bukit Jalil Tambahan about 1.1km from the existing school.

“We want the new school to have a field and more classrooms.

“We also want the existing school to remain here as it has been here for the last 80 years and has rich history,” said Venkata, who queried why the Education Ministry had not informed the PTA nor sought its suggestions on the project, although they had sent a letter to Muhiyiddin, the Education Ministry and Public Works Department last month. [because of inaction from the officers, the Minister is in a tight spot.]

“Our present committee wants to settle this before the next committee takes over,” he said.

SJK (Tamil) Bukit Jalil school board treasurer Gunasingam Veerasingam said that the school had 114 pupils and 15 small classrooms which could accommodate 10 to 15 pupils each. It has only a badminton court for the pupils to play sports and the grounds are hit by frequent flash floods.

SJK (Tamil) Bukit Jalil PTA chairman Balakrishnan Sadaian added that Deputy Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk M. Saravanan had said 200 Indian families from the Kampung Pandan Indian settlement would be shifting to Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s People’s Housing Project (PPR) Kampung Muhibbah flats next to school soon.

“The existing school won’t be able to cope with the influx,” he said.

The SJK (Tamil) Bukit Jalil PTA, School Board and Residents Committee members want a detailed report on the proposed new school.

So, who is going to do the fire-fighting this time? The Deputy Minister for KL, Saravanan? Maybe ask the parents and schools to look at the “bigger picture!”  🙂

Its this kind of news that erodes the faith of the community on the government and its leaders. Promises not fulfilled. Or promise something that is stop-gap measure. No long-term solution. Regardless of which coalition, the problem still remains.

Anyway, I did suggest that in 10MP, a project is created to convert about 30 schools a year from partially-aided to fully-aided status. Within 5 years, at least 150 schools will be converted, which is nearly  half of the total number of partially-aided schools. Let’s see if any action is take this time, or more empty talks only.

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80 year old cafe demolished after 24 hour offer lapsed

October 30th, 2009
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Well, I  heard of efficiency, but didn’t expect it in this kind of situation. I think in Kg Buah Pala case there was also some “take or leave it” ultimatum to be done with short period of time. Something seems fishy here, unless its a spinned story by NST. You never know….

The operator of the demolished Waterfall Cafe at the Penang Botanical Gardens here will not get any compensation as the state government’s offer to him has lapsed.

N. Sundras, 54, whose family had been running the cafe for 80 years, since the days of his father, was apparently given less than 24 hours to accept the offer.

Now, Sundras has no home or alternative site to run his business. Neither does he have money to help his family cope with the sudden change in their lives.

The state government had offered him a nearby coffee shop to occupy temporarily. It had promised him a new coffee shop and hawker stall at the Tourism Pavilion that would be completed next year where he would run his business eventually, and RM10,000 in goodwill payment.

However, yesterday morning, he was told that he would not be getting anything as he had not accepted the offer by last Monday.

“This is very upsetting. If you make a promise, you must keep the promise. We never said we did not want to move out. We will go if our problems are solved. Everything can be negotiated,” Sundras said yesterday as he watched the cafe being torn down, along with his adjoining home where he was born in 1955.

Sundras’ cafe and house, which were both on state land, were demolished yesterday afternoon to make way for the Botanical Gardens’ RM7 million expansion project.

State Tourism Development and Culture Committee chairman Danny Law Heng Kiang told a press conference at his Komtar office yesterday that the offer to Sundras expired on Monday.

Law said if Sundras still wanted the space for his business, he would have to apply through the proper channels.

He also said the state would no longer pay the RM10,000 initially offered to Sundras to cover inconveniences caused to his business and for alternative accommodation.

Sundras’ son, S. Anatharaj, 28, said Law had, on Monday, issued a letter to his father about the temporary coffee shop and Pavilion site offer. But the offer was only valid for one day.

“It was a take-it-or-leave-it. If my father did not take the offer on the spot, it was gone. Is this right?” he asked, adding that the letter was also forwarded to the offices of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy.

He said his family had appealed to the state government over the decision to demolish the cafe and house numerous times since June but had never received any reply.

“We even went to talk to Ramasamy at his office early last month and he said he would help. But with Law changing his mind, what now? Is this how the state government treats people?”

He said his family would put up temporarily with friends and relatives until they sorted things out.

And to further create doubt on the project, someone said the demolition may be illegal! :

The demolition of the Waterfall Cafe at the Penang Botanic Gardens may be illegal, according to a non-governmental organisation, the Cultural Heritage Advisory Team (CHAT), which stated that the demolition of the building was done without the local authorities’ approval.

The group also claimed that its findings revealed that the State Secretariat had violated Section 19 (1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1976, that prohibits development without planning permission.

CHAT said that planning permission must be submitted to the council’s planning department and legal procedures must be followed for demolitions, as well as for erection of any new structures.

In its statement, the group expressed its disappointment in the state government and demanded a written explanation on why the development project at the Botanic Gardens was not subject to public participation and why no planning permission was submitted on time, which could have allowed an assessment of the ecological heritage site and negotiation with the contractor to review the proposed landscape design to make it more compatible with the Botanical Gardens.

“While we feel that the Botanical Gardens is in need of a landscape review, particularly in relation to parking issues and are grateful to the Federal Government for extending the funds for the RM7 million expansion project, the state must set procedures for sensitive development via local expert consultation.”

So, did the state government commit a crime by not following rules?

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Kg Tokong and Kg Buah Pala

October 17th, 2009
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This is what the developer for Kg Tokong is doing:

Hilmi said although the number of families had risen from an initial 300-odd families to around 800 families, UDA Holdings was still willing to compensate them, noting that it was now processing some 200 new applications for compensation.

He said UDA was offering temporary occupancy licence (TOL) holders a 850-sq ft three-room apartment together with moving cost to the transit homes, while their extended families are being offered a 750-sq ft apartment unit.

“Those renting units in the village are also being offered a 45% discount to purchase the apartment units,” he said.

UDA Holdings managing director Datuk Jaafar Abu Hassan hopes to conclude discussions with all the affected 833 families by December, adding that it will start work on the project by the first quarter of next year.

“Almost 90% of the affected families have agreed in principle with our compensation packages.

“ We are confident we can conclude talks with the rest of them soon,” he said.

UDA Holdings plans to build low and medium-cost flats, apartments, condominiums and commercial buildings with a gross sales value of between RM800mil and RM1bil on a 9.6ha site in the village.

Jaafar said the project, to be conducted over four phases, would begin with the first phase, and would involve the relocation of 235 families.

“So far, 174 families have moved into transit homes that we built for them. “We are in the midst of building another 80 units of transit homes for the remaining families,” he said.

I’m not sure if the residents there are into animal rearing as in Kg Buah Pala, so maybe no issue on relocation of farms.

It looks to me the developer for Kg Tokong offered a good deal for the residents – apartment for TOL owners AND the extended families. If each apartment is about RM45,000, that will be RM37.485 million. For Kg Buah Pala, the deals was good too – a 1200 sqft double storey house, but only for the TOL holders. One more difference is that for Kg Tokong, the residents have been provided transit homes while waiting for the project to complete.Whereas in Kg Buah Pala, a nominal sum was offered as relocation cost. Even those renting houses in Kg Tokong are given 45% discount to buy the apartments later.

Its worthy to note that the two projects are of different nature- Kg Tokong to have a mixed development project while Kg Buah Pala to be an exclusive condominium project.

In terms of developers, UDA Holdings is well established company, while Nusmetro has lots of unanswered questions.

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irregularities during MIC elections

September 26th, 2009
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Well, the group that did the investigation consist of losing candidates, so not surprising that they want to call for fresh polls.  Among the allegations: cancellation of handphone ban during voting and campaigning beyond stipulated time. From the way I look at it, its a no-win situation as the complaints will be discussed in the CWC, which consists of the winners and those aligned to the party leadership. Most likely the 7 will be disciplined  for “tarnishing” the party’s image.

A group of disgruntled candidates in the Sept 12 MIC party election have today pressed for fresh polls to be held as there were allegedly irregularities during the contest.

They have formed a committee comprising P Subramaniam, who contested the vice-president’s post, and six central working committee (CWC) candidates.

The Pro-Tem MIC 2009 Election Irregularity Committee secretary, N Saaran, said he had raised several issues in a letter of complaint sent to the chairman of the MIC election committee, K Vijayanathan, including the abuse of power by MIC president S Samy Vellu when the election was going on.

“We have come to (the) conclusion that the election committee that conducted the MIC general election was not independent, was not transparent. There were various irregularities that we have gathered.

“We actually sent notices to the election committee chairman, we had requested for explanation why such irregularities had taken place,” he told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Also present at the press conference were members of the pro-tem committee, including its chairman Subramaniam who lost in the election for the VP post.

Saaran claimed that the irregularities discovered at the election included Samy Vellu’s cancellation of the ban on the use of handphones whereas Vijayanathan had issued a reminder to all delegates before the balloting.

“One of the delegates was caught using the handphone to take a photograph of the ballot paper, this was brought up by one of the candidates to the election committee, however no action had been taken,” he claimed.

Subramaniam said other complaints raised with the MIC election committee chief in four letters sent on Sept 18, 23 and 25 were the actions of the candidates endorsed by Samy Vellu who had violated the rules against campaigning.

“Candidates were prohibited to campaign after 12 noon on Sept 11, but this rule was not followed by this so-called official line-up, there were campaigns after 12pm where there were campaigning in Sentul Curry House by the Youth, Wanita and Puteri MIC wings,” he claimed.

“And not only that, on the election day, copies of pro-Samy VelluTamil Nesan, were distributed to all 1,400 delegates in the hall. In the paper, you could see a lot of campaigning by the official line-up, which was against the rule on campaigning,” he said.

Subramaniam questioned why no action was taken whereas the MIC election committee chairman had earlier issued a warning that any candidate caught campaigning after the time stipulated would automatically be disqualified from contesting.

He said his group was waiting for an explanation from Vijayanathan before taking further action.

Asked what action they would take if there was no change in the decision, he said they would then decide whether to remain in the MIC or join another party.

K Saraswathy, who is a lawyer representing the pro-tem committee, said that while the MIC constitution permits members to take their grouses to the courts, the Societies Act would not allow it.

“According to Section 91 of the MIC constitution, an issue can be brought to court after it has been discussed by the CWC,” she said.

However, she argued that some members of the CWC were not legitimate as they were candidates who had allegedly breached the election rules.

In an immediate response, Vijayanathan said that his election committee did not have the powers to act but added that the complaints could be forwarded to the CWC.

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Kuhan mother waiting for 9 months

September 26th, 2009
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I wonder how many of us still remember the Kuhan case. Today the mother went to the palace to submit memorandum along with MP Kapar Manikavasagam and MP Puchong Gobind Singh.  She had been waiting for the criminals to be bought to court, but no news. I remember the AG office asking the police to do further investigation. Not sure what happened after that. Also, the recent case involving samples taken from Kuhan’s body being taken away from police also hit the papers. The court ruled that the police must not destroy or tamper with the samples, I think. Below is the news from MK:

Following massive public outcry accusing the police of foul play, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail reclassified the case as murder and a day later 11 officers from the Taipan police station were moved and put on desk duty.

Moreover, in April the police had seized Kugan’s blood and tissue samples, documents and even the second pathologist handwritten notes from the University Malaya Medical Centre’s Pathology Department. 

Currently, the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) is probing Dr. Karim Tajuddin’s professional conduct in relation to the cause of Kugan’s death in the first post-mortem report.

“Until now nobody has been arrested and nobody has been charged… on top of that the police have seized the samples,” lamented Surendran

Anyway, the attempt to pass the memorandum failed. Only 20 people or so turned up, mainly family members, politicians, HRP’s Uthaya and HINDRAF supporters. The police did not allow all of them to enter into palace compound to hand in the memo to a palace aide, but allowed only 3 people. The whole group wanted to go in, and so the police refused entry. More reports from MK:

Some 20 people, including the deceased family members and supporters led by members of parliament Gobind Singh Deo (DAP-Puchong) and S Manikavasagam (PKR-Kapar) left the palace at 11.30am dejected.

“The family members alone consist of three people… what about their lawyer and the MPs accompanying the family? We too want to meet the palace officials when the petition is submitted,” said Gobind.

Also present were supporters of the banned Hindu Right Action Force (Hindraf) and newly-formed Human Right Party (HRP) members lead by its secretary-general P Uthayakumar.

Kugan’s mother N Indra, his sister S Garthiyaini and brothers Iswara and Shargunan were also present.

Distraught by the police’ refusal to let all of them to submit their petition, Indra broke in tears as her lawyer N Surendran and the parliamentarians tried to negotiate with the police.

She could hardly say much apart from demanding that justice be served and punishment meted out against her son’s murderers.

Gobind said he could not understand the “logic” of the police’s refusal to allow more people to meet the palace officials.

“Firstly, it was not our intention to go into the palace, it was our intention to hand over the petition to the palace officials outside,” said Gobind.

“We were there as a peaceful group, it was not our intention to create a ruckus… but the police did not seem to understand this,” he said.

He also demanded that attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to come forward and explain why nothing has been done in the past eight months.

“He (Abdul Gani) is duty-bound to explain to the public… I also ask why isn’t the prime minister showing similar concern in this case as he did in the case of political aide Teoh Being Hock, who was found dead at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in Shah Alam,” quizzed Gobind.

“The entire country cannot understand why the silence on the part of the AG, who had already classified it (Kugan’s case) as a murder,” asked Gobind.

Uthayakumar added that Kugan’s death was just the “tip of the iceberg” on deaths in police custody.

“The behaviour of the Brickfields OCPD Asst Comm Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid is not exemplary to the prime minister’s call for One Malaysia,” said Uthayakumar.

“While the government is saying the country will be more liberal by reviewing the Internal Security Act and Police Act, the implementation at ground level is not consistence,” he said.

When approached by reporters Abdul Bari described the group as being unreasonable because they had initially agreed to a delegation comprising three people.

“However, despite the palace allowing up to five people to meet them, the whole group insisted on going in,” Abdul Bari said.

…  The number of police officers, including Light Strike Force personnel, exceeded the number of the supporters gathered at the palace gates this morning.

“This again reflects the draconian manner in which the police are prepared to act in cases where they are alleged to be the suspects,” blasted Gobind.

Gobind said further that the police should not have impeded their programme as their petition was against the lackadaisical attitude in the enforcement authorities.

“The police ought not to have interfered today because the complaint we are raising is squarely against them so it is difficult to understand how they can be independent in this circumstance,” he said.

“The home minister should explain why a group of Malaysians in small numbers cannot handover a memorandum to their king… everyday you see tourists and foreigners taking photographs at the gates of the palace but the rakyat have to face a barricade of police officers to give a letter to king,” he lamented.

“We make very clear we will not stop here and we will return soon… we sincerely hope that we will be allowed to hand over the petition next time without any interference,” said Gobind, adding that he would be raising the matter in Parliament when it resume sitting on Oct 19.

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