KUALA LUMPUR – PKR’s Taman Medan candidate Ahmad Akhir Pawan Chik appears to have an edge over his Bersatu opponent Dr Afif Bahardin in the upcoming polls.
This is because the residents in the area were looking for continuity in the state administration, while also hoping for some improvements.
Among the latest “demands” of the voters in the area include the conversion of their leasehold land titles of their homes into freehold properties.
During a dialogue session yesterday, Section 4 Resident Association vice-president K. Puniamurthy presented a memorandum to Akhir outlining the demand.
The memorandum, titled “Petaling Jaya Voters’ Memorandum: Conversion of Land Titles to Freehold”, claimed that the plea to change the land titles has received unanimous support from residents spanning from Section 1 to 4 within the district.
“We don’t want a new skyscraper, there is nothing more that needs to be developed here. We only want our wellbeing to be taken care of.”
Residents here claimed that it is unfair for the local residents to have leasehold titles for their homes varying from 99 years to 999 years, as they had to pay a high sum for premiums to renew their titles, which ranged between RM5,000 and RM70,000.
Puniamurthy told Scoop that the residents had initially planned to present two concerns in the memorandum, but the second demand to cancel the proposed Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link Expressway (PJD Link), was redundant after the state government decided to call it off, pending a potential revision in the future.
“We have raised this issue many times but no one has taken action and we were never given a solid excuse. This time, we are using the election to push for this matter.”
Akhir then told the dialogue attendees that he will try to resolve the issue of their leasehold land titles if he wins the seat.
He also believed that the PJD Link project would not be resumed if the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) unity government win in Selangor, given the caretaker state government’s stance on the matter.
Locals in the area come from a broad spectrum of economic backgrounds, with the majority of its higher-income families comprising non-Malays, senior citizens, and retirees, while the more densely populated side areas in Kampung Medan and Taman Dato Onn are inhabited by predominantly younger lower-income Malay families.
The state seat has a total of 61,959 voters and was previously occupied by PKR’s Syamsul Firdaus.
Akhir’s opponent, Dr Afif who is running on the Perikatan Nasional ticket, is arguably a “parachute candidate” who was an assemblyman for Seberang Jaya in Penang for 10 years (2013 to 2023).
A number of locals in the Kg Medan area appeared content with PKR’s track record in the area, with some saying that Syamsul and his service centre had been active and helpful to the community over the past five years.
However, a Section 4 resident who only wanted to be known as Bobby, said he wished that the next assemblyman would be more visible in the area, as some felt neglected due to a greater focus of representatives towards the Kg Medan area.
Nevertheless, Bobby believed that PH would still be able to secure the seat, as the Malay votes in the seat will be split between Perikatan Nasional and PH-BN, while most non-Malay votes gravitated towards PH.
Akhir, who is contesting on a PH ticket, also told Scoop that he had the upperhand in the straight fight with Dr Afif as he is a local resident and was Petaling Jaya councillor for 10 years from 2012 to 2022.
“I think things are looking good (in Taman Medan) because people here know me, but they may not know my opponent because he is only starting (to be active) here,” he said. – August 7, 2023