KUALA LUMPUR – While Kg Sg Baru residents appear to have been temporarily spared from eviction yet again, landowners here remain up in arms over unresolved issues with the contentious redevelopment project spearheaded by private company Ritzy Gloss Sdn Bhd.
Met at their homes in the Malay enclave at the heart of the city centre here earlier today, some residents told Scoop they are more willing to face prison than to vacate their homes to make way for the project.
Opah Noraya, a 76-year-old great-grandmother said jail time would pale in comparison to the mental torment she has suffered due to the developers’ and authorities’ lack of compassion.
Residents’ complaints centre on inadequate compensation for their lots, and for some, rejection of their applications for transit housing, leaving them with nowhere to go.
“I’ve been staying on this land since we were living in squatter homes, before our terrace houses were built by the Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS) in the 1970s when Kg Sg Baru was still under Selangor,” Opah said.
“This is my land. This home is filled with the memories I made with my late husband, my children, and now my grandchildren’s families. I never thought I’d have to move anywhere else; this is the only place I want to be until I die.”
The senior citizen, who oscillated between heated indignation and sorrowful resignation, added sarcastically: “I don’t mind going to prison. At least my meals will be taken care of.”
She also noted that the home her children are planning to move to is not yet ready – a similar plight faced by many other residents who could not get a transit house.
The residents of some 30 houses here were to vacate their homes today according to eviction notices issued by the land administrator. The notice stated they have been found to be illegally residing on government land – an offence under Section 425(1) of the National Land Code.
Those found guilty of the crime are liable to an imprisonment term for up to five years or a maximum fine of RM500,000.
The notice to evict by today’s date was issued on October 5, despite word from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s political secretary Azman Abidin who confirmed with Scoop that the eviction date had been pushed back to October 31.
The eviction is in line with the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1960, the legislation that the government used to take formal possession of land in Kg Sg Baru in 2021 after Ritzy Gloss’ application for the law was approved by then-federal territories minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa.
Today, Scoop observed that most residents had begun packing up their lives in the face of their looming eviction. Several moving trucks were in the area while homes were in a state of disarray as families scrambled to sort through their family heirlooms that included antique furniture.
In an apparent act of defiance, some residents pasted their own version of a notice, coloured a pastel pink in contrast with the bold red of the eviction orders.
The residents’ notice states that the area is facing “imminent demolition” to make way for a commercial project while residents’ pleas to Anwar have gone “unanswered.”
Second-generation Kg Sg Baru resident Shahrudin Mohd Hashim, 51, said that it would be “inhumane” of authorities to persist in taking action against residents who refuse to vacate their properties.
“If they have a conscience, how can they punish us like that? We don’t have anywhere to go.
“We will insist on our rights. What choice do we have?
“It’s not that we’re asking for too much – we just want to be given fair compensation from private developers who are more than capable of providing us with money equal to the value of our lands,” Shahrudin said.
It was previously reported that Kg Sg Baru residents were dissatisfied with the approximately 310% difference in compensation offered by the Lands and Mines Office as compared with private valuations.
In one case, a resident’s flat was valued at RM470 per sqft by the Finance Ministry’s Valuation and Property Management Department, while an independent assessor said the flat should be worth RM1,480 per sqft.
“How can you (Ritzy Gloss) offer us compensations that are below market value? We’re small people, but as people, we have our rights. Who is supposed to fight for us?” he questioned.
He added that residents are still waiting on an official response from Anwar on the matter, claiming that landowners have yet to be approached for the negotiations the prime minister had promised to hold between residents and corporate stakeholders.
Following restructuring under Anwar’s administration, the Prime Minister’s Department now oversees federal territories matters.
Previously, local government expert Derek Fernandez had again questioned the government’s use of Section 3(1)(c) of the LAA to oust Kg Sg Baru landowners, highlighting that the section must be read with other parts of the legislation for eviction orders to be legally viable.
“If there is already an established development (in the form of) existing houses on the land, then land acquisition (by the government) can only be done for the purpose of developing public utilities, nothing else,” he told Scoop.
Scoop previously spoke with Kg Sg Baru residents, former federal territories minister Khalid Samad, and a lawyer representing the Kg Sg Baru Terrace Homes and Flat Owners Action Committee on the ordeal in the Malay enclave. – October 19, 2023