Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he sympathised with the villagers but the cost of the land was high as it was freehold and had been approved for development.
[Furthermore] The Federal Court had ruled that the land belonged to the Penang Government Officers Cooperative and developer Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd and that the villagers had to vacate it.
* kaytee had earlier guess-timated RM300 mil to purchase-compensate the current owner, but Lim Kit Siang came up with an approximate figure of RM200 mil.
Lim, caught between the demands of the villagers and the court ruling, had asked the federal government to acquire the land from the cooperative and the developer.
Here's Najib's chance to become a hero, a Malaysian Puratchi Thalaivar to the Indian Tamils. Go for it, Datuk ;-)
The Malaysian Insider's Ananda Krishnan reportedly in bid to buy Newcastle United reported that:
Billionaire Malaysian media mogul T. Ananda Krishnan is the man reportedly behind an £80 million (RM460.6 million) bid to buy English football club Newcastle United, according to The Sun newspaper in the United Kingdom. [...]
The British tabloid said the deal represents loose change to the 71-year-old, who is Southeast Asia’s third richest man reportedly worth £4.5 billion.
Loose change eh?
In case the Federal government doesn’t want to tolong (help) the villagers of Kampung Buah Pala in the unfolding tragedy that the former CM, Gerakan Party's Koh TK, had allowed them to fall into, can Aneh Ananda spare half of the
As we know, the federal-funded-deprived Pakatan government of Penang doesn’t have that kind of budget to purchase the land from and compensate the current owner, who had the God-given good luck to buy the (David Brown bestowed) real estate for a mere song from the previous
And Malaysiakini’s Uthayakumar keeps us guessing shows us how some noble glorious start would unfortunately end up sadly as pathetic and ineffectual.
Journalist S Pathmawathy wrote (extracts):
Though only making some eight percent of the Malaysian population, political representation for the small Indian community is an increasingly crowded house.
Currently, Barisan Nasional coalition partners MIC and PPP, along with BN-friendly Indian Progressive Front (IPF), are the biggest players.
They are joined by newly formed Indian-based parties - the Malaysian Indian United Party (MIUP) in 2007 and this year, Malaysian Indian Democratic Action Front (Mindraf) and the Malaysian Makkal Sakhti Party (MMSP).
Malaysiakini tells us of the very strong probability of Uthayakumar forming an Indian-based party in what it has described as an increasingly crowded house. Its report continued:
To a question, Uthayakumar said despite the saturated playing field, he believed there was still room for a new Indian-based political party.
“The other Indian parties – MIC, PPP, IPF – are all linked to Barisan in one way or another... meanwhile on the opposition's front there isn't really a strong Indian-based party,” he said.
Look at the social-economic standing of our Bhais – do they have a political party?
When participating in politics at the federal level, Bhais are mainly either in the BN-Gerakan or PR-DAP. And that may well be the secret of their success. One bloke has even become the national chairperson (and spiritual leader) of Malaysia’s foremost (federal) opposition party.
But alas, the Tamil political leadership continue to punish their supporters with ineffectual mosquito parties, with us wondering who the Tamil leadership are fighting for, their constituencies or themselves?
And you wonder why the Tamil Malaysians in particular have been so badly looked after, so leaderless.
Still room for a new Indian-based political party eh?
Ever watched Tamil movies? Therein lies all the answers.
ReplyDeletemy Aneh works hard for his money, not going to spare u or me a change thambi
ReplyDeleteAllow me to share my opinions.
ReplyDeletehttp://manifestogwl.blogspot.com/2009/07/compensation-package-kg-buah-pala.html
Lim Guan Eng can actually help pay a higher compensation and arrange for the Kg Buah Pala villages to improve their economic status.
Hiding behind the veil of heritage wont work either.
The State had money to pay for trips to China, Melbourne etc and even had money to pay for Camrys.
Surely, they can afford to forego the RM 3.21 million collected and distribute to the 23 families.
Anwar Ibrahim, the 2nd most influential man in the world, is also making alot of travels across the globe.
Surely even the friendly PAS members and leaders who were reported to be driving imported cars and hardly seen with locally made cars can chip in some money too ?
Jeff Ooi was quoted as blogging about the cars which PAS leaders drive.
We should really consider if indeed Kg Buah Pala is a heritage site or not and whether economically sustainable to keep the plot of land as it is for generations to come.
RM 3.21 million collected and distribute to the 23 families
ReplyDelete==>each family to receive free about RM 140,000
Better to give RM 1,000 each to 140 hard-core poor families in Penang!
Why no big issue raised when malay villages in Penang were demolished? What is so special about hindu high chaparral?
ReplyDelete1 Bhai is a derogatory term.
ReplyDelete2 Just because someone has been squatting on a piece of land for 100 years does not make it a heritage site. Declaring it a heritage site would hold the government up to ridicule.
3 They should just pay the compensation or give them low cost housing or relocate them to another place where they can keep the cows and goats. And while they are at it they should determine how much of their income is derived from animals in order to determine compensation
4 Does Guan Eng expect the Federal government to pay compensation in excess of RM 30m to a group of people who 'want to preserve their way of life and Indian culture'?
5 There is a dearth of information on the actual site. Where are the Penang bloggers? Go there and take photos and explain why it is or not is worth more than RM 30m to preserve this site. Perhaps they can at least kill off the heritage site argument.
Jazz
It would help if you name names instead of some vague statements about Bhai's. Its not defamatory to name the person who is the chairman of the party you are referring to.
KT,
ReplyDeleteWow! would'nt mind being a squatter and you get compensation for squatting!Well if its LKY or in Singapore ,the law should be fitted to a T.Hope LGE WOULD PUT HIS FOOT DOWN AND NO BULL SHITTING AROUND! The LAW IS THE LAW or else Penang will go to the dogs!The malays are smarter IN SQUATTING and the first thing they do when they are few they form an UMNO branch and the famous Kriss signs will be abound.So no interference from Authorities!Then they are compensated with golden gloves.
This the indians should take a cue!
Heritage site for Kg Buah Pala? Do you expect western tourists to travel all the way from their homeland to visit this "Heritage site" can smell the cow dung and goat shit?
ReplyDelete'Bhai' is not rude - it means 'brother' just like 'ji'.
ReplyDeleteIt's heritage because the land was given to the forefathers of the current Tamil residents - the land was unscrupulously taken away from them. What is known is that the original owner David Brown gave their ancestors the land - no one has the right to take it away from their ancestors, more so when they couldn't read or write what they were told to sign. It's unscrupulous to make them sign away their rightful heritage, a gift from David Brown.
And what's wrong with a group of people who 'want to preserve their way of life and Indian culture'? As Malaysians and right thinking people we should support them achieve that. We should celebrate our different cultures which can only further enrich our Malaysian social-cultural fabric.
Whether the land is RM3 mil, RM30 mil or RM300 mil, it was theirs in the first place until 1957, and only because of some questionable signing away of their rights.
Nearly 50 years later, in 2005, the UMNO-Gerakan sold the land off for a mere song.
'Miraculously', by some judicious state zoning (by the UMNO-Gerakan state govt) the land became freehold land zoned for high rise buldings, and, again 'miraculously', shot up in value to now RM200 mil.
Who the Bhai is is not important - the point I wanted to make by bringing in the Bhai example is that the Tamils aren't doing themsleves any favour by splintering/diminishing their collective political power. They became mosquito parties, and we know what will happen to mosquitoes if they irritate powerful people. They get zapped and slapped. Just look at how Kayveas and his Tambis were shockingly humiliated by Ali Rustam, and what could Kayveas do?
The Tamils would be better off joining one of the big parties, whether BN or PR and use the leverage of a bigger party to pursue/fight their case or cause.
Uthayakumar's claim that the DAP hasn't fought for them is incorrect and I suspect self serving for his political ambitions.
Who fought for the Hindraf 5 when they were incarcerated? Hindraf? Uthayakumar should ask himself that.
Who fought for the Hindraf 5 when they were incarcerated?
ReplyDeleteUthayakumar believed that Manmohan Singh threatened to nuke Putrajaya, that's why the Hindraf5 were released in a hurry. Nothing to do with the DAP at all.
and he's a Bhai too! wakakaka!
ReplyDelete"Uthayakumar believed that Manmohan Singh threatened to nuke Putrajaya, that's why the Hindraf5 were released in a hurry."
ReplyDeleteI know a few supposedly educated and intelligent Indian Malaysians who buy into the sentiment that if Malays ever do anything too bad to Indians, the Indian army will intervene. Sheesh.
Good move by Kedah DAP. If handled properly, this will strengthen Pakatan.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, this is a decision at a DAP state level, where they said they will listen to the center. They hedged wisely.
It illustrates DAP is willing to give up power to protest (one Dun, three councillors and 43 village appointments).
While MCA is happy to fan the fire, did MCA quit the BN government when BN did wrong?
It illustrates a single DAP Dun seat can rock the national coalition, strengthening DAP position in the eyes of voters, and reassuring DAP supporters who voted for PAS. A win for DAP.
Also a win for Pakatan because Chinese supporters of PAS can see effective protest by coalition partner DAP even if they voted in a non DAP seat.
Same logic for voters of other states that are not yet under Pakatan. It illustrates DAP needs to get more seats come the next election. Another win for DAP.
This is another blunder by the unpopular Kedah MB. It increases consensus within Pakatan and the excuse to remove him later. He is just digging his own political grave.
They should now just delay the abattoir demolition, find a temporary location, then find a good permanent location.
Pakatan will be strengthened tremendously if this is resolved properly.
If only the malays are a bit smarter, then BN won't win. The problem is malays are too damn stupid that they keep voting for BN. I don't know what poison BN gave to make them in this state.
ReplyDeleteThe name Melayu is an Indian word to denote hills or mountain range. There is a place in South India called Melayur.
ReplyDeleteIndigenous people who marry Muslim Indians from Melayur identified themselves as Melayur.
Over time, as the Malay kingdom spead through insular SEA, the word Melayur became simply as Melayu.
If one were to do genetic test on the modern Malay in Peninsula Malaysia, they would invariably carry genetics from Indian to explain the darker complexion and kinky hair of most Malays as opposed to the Mongolid look of some Malays of original Malayo Polynesian, Dusun or Dayak stocks.
The real natives or indigenous people of the Peninsula Malaysia can be found in the Northern parts of Peninusla Malaysia apart from the aborigines.
"Good move by Kedah DAP. If handled properly, this will strengthen Pakatan."
ReplyDeleteYou raise some good points overall, but I feel the DAP Kedah could have done much better timing/execution. Clearly there's much more here than pigs, but unfortunately that perception is easy to propagate.
If they waited for another issue similar to the 50% bumi housing quota or logging permits before announcing a tentative pullout, then it would have been a homerun.
But over an ILLEGAL abattoir? Easy to spin that into a negative.
aston, let's not be bigots by accusing an ethnic group of being stupid because they voted or still want to vote for an ethnic-based political party - cast no stones if we live in glass houses, and many of us still do.
ReplyDeleteint, agree with you on the abattoir issue - it's illegal and its waste was draining into and polluting the river - however, it's also known the MB had rejected 8 replacement sites the DAP proposed, so one can't blame the local DAP people for being frustrated - there's a bit of this and that on both sides.
A land does not become a heritage site because it is given to a group of people. The only structure I have seen is a 100year old well at Anil's blog. If that's all they have then there is now way its a heritage site. Just like Georgetown was declared a heritage site, there are rules and requirements to be declared a heritage site. If David Brown did give them the land they should have taken steps to have it registered at that time. Do they have any documentation to prove this? Is this like the unwritten understanding about Malay rights during the Independance negotiations that UMNO is trying to foist on us? Where is the documentation? Where are the diaries, the minutes of the meetings. All these things dont hold any water.
ReplyDeleteA bunch of Indians looking after cows. This is your idea of Indian culture? Can you not accept that these are just normal Malaysians living off the land. They probably have Astro and jobs in the city. Are they going around with their hair in a knot wearing white dhotis. Do they have a religious shrine. This culture argument does not wash.
As for the argument that Tamils cannot be a force to be reckoned with, it is a problem of the Indian parties. They are dominated by people of low IQ, or thugs and self serving thieves. The elites generally stay away from Indian politics. If you can understand why they cannot get rid of Samy Vellu then you can understand the kind of baggage they carry. Its cultural and more than that they are trapped in a mindset they cannot get out of.
The bigger issue is rule of law in Malaysia is the rule of law. If people want to steal your land, they can. Look at the Boonyanit decision at the Federal Court. You gotta wake up and take some action. People who dont register their children, dont apply for IC's, dont do the simple things they are supposed to and are taken advantage of.
The reason they didnt take any action is because there are a bunch of families. Who is going to do the donkey work? Who is going to pay for it..... Do you think they could have worked together?
Jazz
BTW, the Sikh bhais are totally different from the Tamils in language, culture, food, temperament, religion and education (self-esteem) as they are 100% literate. Not surprising given that most (if not all) come from a warrior background and their religion teaches them that the biggest 'curse' is being idle. In that respect they share the Chinese world view (especially of the Hokkiens)that one must be self-reliant and that it is shameful to beg or if successful to be a showoff.
ReplyDeleteThere are successful Malaysian Tamils - especially those whose forefathers came from Ceylon and many whose origins lie in Tamilnadu. But they clearly stay away from those whose roots came into contact with "heroes" like Samy Vellu...all talk and any action only for themselves.