KUALA LUMPUR – Titiwangsa MP Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani has urged the government to immediately commence a stalled contentious redevelopment project in Kg Sg Baru, reiterating claims that a majority of residents in the Malay enclave have agreed to its continuation.
According to a video shared with Scoop, Johari had met with several residents from the area to state his support with the supposed majority of inhabitants who have moved out of the area after accepting private property developer Ritzy Gloss Sdn Bhd’s compensation offer.
A source told Scoop that the meeting took place on October 30 – a day after the Kg Sg Baru Terrace Homes and Flat Owners Action Committee announced that a number of development firms have come forth expressing their interest in taking over the project from Ritzy Gloss.
“The government must not give any more extensions (delaying the start of this project). Additional extensions will affect those who have given up their homes a long time ago, even before I was elected MP.
“Those who object to the project (but) have already taken the (compensation) money have no right to make noise. If they don’t have a place to stay, DBKL (Kuala Lumpur City Hall) has provided temporary housing,” Johari said in the video.
He also alleged that residents who had accepted Ritzy Gloss’ offer before its application for the government to take formal possession of land in the area under the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1960 was approved in 2021 received only RM10,000 and temporary transit homes.
Residents whose homes were seized by the government under the LAA after they refused the developer’s offer, however, received compensations worth RM940,000 for landed terrace houses and RM245,000 for flat units, Johari said.
“They’ve gotten their money, but because they want more (compensation), the 95% (of residents backing the project) are facing problems. We cannot allow this. Don’t persecute those who have already given up their homes.”
During his 15th general election campaign last year for the Titiwangsa parliamentary constituency, Johari had promised to provide legal representation for Kg Sg Baru residents “victimised” by Ritzy Gloss’s supposed refusal to address concerns on its offered compensation.
Located just a stone’s throw away from the Saloma Link Bridge and the Kg Baru LRT station, Kg Sg Baru consists of 98 leasehold terrace houses and 264 flat units in eight blocks.
In 2016, Ritzy Gloss entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Kg Sg Baru Property Owners Welfare Association to develop the area through joint venture agreements.
However, the project has consistently been opposed by some locals who accused the association of not taking into account the interests of a majority of residents.
A total of 27 terrace houses and 192 flat unit owners took up Ritzy Gloss’s offer while 37 terraces and 72 flats were subjected to the LAA.
Landed property owners argue that since the acreage ratio of their lands should be considered of a higher value, their vote in the matter should take precedence over flat unit owners in strata housing.
The ‘majority versus minority’ issue has been a longstanding debate in the Kg Sg Baru redevelopment saga, with defiant residents who insist on remaining in the area claiming that the developer and government bodies have misinterpreted the figures for their own interests.
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.
During a press conference on October 29, the Kg Sg Baru Terrace Homes and Flat Owners Action Committee said that a few developers keen on taking over the project from Ritzy Gloss agreed to provide a compensation of RM950 per sq ft to terrace and flat owners.
The offer is a much higher compensation than the RM450 per sq ft compensation offered by the Finance Ministry’s Valuation and Property Management Department.
“The compensation offered by the interested developers will extend to landowners whose homes were gazetted under the LAA, those whose residences were not gazetted and residents who have already accepted Ritzy Gloss’ initial offer,” committee chairman Lele Suzana said.
Local government expert Derek Fernandez previously told Scoop that Section 3(1)(c) of the LAA, which was used by the government to take control of Kg Sg Baru land, must be read with other sections of the legislation for eviction orders to be legally viable.
Failure to do so, he said, would raise doubts over whether residents are compelled to adhere to eviction notices issued by the Kuala Lumpur Land Administrator on various occasions, the latest of which ordered landowners to vacate their homes by October 19.
While residents were temporarily spared from potential homelessness as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s political secretary Datuk Azman Abidin confirmed to Scoop that the eviction date was pushed back to October 31, the momentary respite does not detract from issues faced by landowners.
It is believed that residents’ eviction has now been pushed back to an undetermined date, pending the playing out of land ownership acquisition processes.
Scoop previously spoke to Kg Sg Baru residents, former federal territories minister Khalid Samad and a lawyer representing the action committee on the ordeal in the area. – November 2, 2023