KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — Malaysia will not allow foreigners to buy residential units in the US$100-billion (RM410 billion) Forest City project in its southern state of Johor bordering Singapore, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The project has faced uncertainty since Dr Mahathir’s coalition scored a shock victory at a May general election, as developer Country Garden Holdings Co looks to revive faltering demand for a city planned to be home to 700,000 people.
“One thing is certain, that city that is going to be built cannot be sold to foreigners,” Dr Mahathir told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, the capital.
“We are not going to give visas for people to come and live here,” he added. “Our objection is because it was built for foreigners, not built for Malaysians. Most Malaysians are unable to buy those flats.”
A Country Garden official said the company did not have any immediate response to Dr Mahathir’s comments.
Opposition to the project helped drive Dr Mahathir’s election campaign, during which he called it, and other Chinese-backed projects, evidence of his predecessor selling Malaysia to China.
Malaysians living in Johor complained of large numbers of Chinese people snapping up properties in Forest City, besides concerns of environmental damage, a glut in the property market, and the impact of land reclamation on fisheries.
Country Garden has developed just a fraction of the planned reclamation of 20 sq km, where Chinese nationals accounted for about 70 per cent of apartment buyers last year.
The project has faced uncertainty since Dr Mahathir’s coalition scored a shock victory at a May general election, as developer Country Garden Holdings Co looks to revive faltering demand for a city planned to be home to 700,000 people.
“One thing is certain, that city that is going to be built cannot be sold to foreigners,” Dr Mahathir told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, the capital.
“We are not going to give visas for people to come and live here,” he added. “Our objection is because it was built for foreigners, not built for Malaysians. Most Malaysians are unable to buy those flats.”
A Country Garden official said the company did not have any immediate response to Dr Mahathir’s comments.
Opposition to the project helped drive Dr Mahathir’s election campaign, during which he called it, and other Chinese-backed projects, evidence of his predecessor selling Malaysia to China.
Malaysians living in Johor complained of large numbers of Chinese people snapping up properties in Forest City, besides concerns of environmental damage, a glut in the property market, and the impact of land reclamation on fisheries.
Country Garden has developed just a fraction of the planned reclamation of 20 sq km, where Chinese nationals accounted for about 70 per cent of apartment buyers last year.
Well, I guess there goes the "Malaysia My Second Home" program.
And here comes Mahathir's intended WAR with China. I don't think the Chinese (China) will be too pleased with Maddy screwing up a RM410 Billion project which had Malaysian approval. It bodes ill for Malaysian-China relationship and trade.
It also bespeaks a PM who doesn't care about Malaysia integrity and honouring of contracts, agreements and treaties - as he had shown in the barring of Chin Peng's return to Sitiawan, not even the late Malaysian's ashes.
Banzai!
Chow Kon Yeow screwed as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Penang Trasport Master Plan funding was based on selling massive amounts of property on the artificial islands to be created south of Bayan Lepas, using the same model as Forrest City.
BTW I had opposed both Forrest City and the Penang artificial islands plan years before Mahathir joined the then Opposition.
BTW , no country in the world can afford to boycott China....
ReplyDeletelets see how this episode pans out.....
I think he believes he is buying back Malaysia from China as he claims that Najib sold Malaysia to China....ha..ha..ha..
ReplyDeleteWhy is this a banzai to China? Their government have been trying to restrict outflow of money, so this action actually helps them achieve their objective right?
ReplyDeleteIt is also suspected that a lot of this money is laundered / corruption money and kept out of sight and reach of the China authorities. Property in Britain, Australia, US etc.
Mahathir again Uturn after China has spurned his request for crony money and benefits. Serves him right, and serve Malaysia right for missing out this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI won't be surprised if Singapore will take up the mantle and build an expat island mimicking Forest City, and the Chinese flocking to it instead. Mahathir seems to have lost none of his magnetism for repulsion of good ideas.
What kind of honouring of contracts, agreements and treaties are we talking about , with regard to Forrest City ?
ReplyDelete- Those who already bought units retain ownership rights over their property , as far as I know. Nobody's property is being seized.
- Restrictions on future purchases by foreigners.
This is tricky , but not unprecedented.
Penang and Selangor also have restrictions on foreigner purchases , based on a higher minimum value. That should be a wiser and fairer path to take rather than a complete ban.
- Defacto resident visa approval ? Was there such a quid pro quo committed with China ? This one is tough.
There is no such provision under Malaysian Immigration law.
If there was such an agreement with China, it had to be secret, and Najib must be stupid to have made such an commitment.
"Malaysia My Second Home" has a long list of criteria, and one of the conditions is the approved person must purchase a property of a certain minimum value in Malaysia within a period of time.
Of course, MM2H helps boost the local property market, but Its the other way round. MM2H is NOT tantamount to DeFacto resident visa as a benefit of buying property here.
KT, about Ching Peng I would categorically consider him as a non-citizen of Malaysia. Ponder these points:
ReplyDeleteDid he have Malaysian citizenship? NO
Did he swear allegiance to Malaysia? NO
Did he swear loyalty to King and country? NO
Does he believes in the Malaysian Constitution? NO
Did he uphold to protect Malaysia? NO
Did he wage war against Malaysia? YES
He was no more a citizen of Malaysia than the Sulus who invaded Lahad Datu.
Chin Peng or Ong Boon Hwa was born in Sitiawan thus is a Malayan citizen by default of his birth here. He lost his personal documentations during the insurgency, a sad point used unfairly by the court against his repatriation.
DeleteNonetheless, the peace agreement brokered by Thailand gave him the right of return which many Malay CT members used. Even the late Sultan Raja Azlan shah gave audience to CD Abdullah. Mahathir's government reneged on the terms of the peace agreement for domestic politics. The issue is now over as Chin Peng has long been dead though the denial of the return of his ashes to Sitiawan for burial (not his living self) showed the bias against him
Who prevent Chin Peng's ashes from returning to Sitiawan, AGAIN?
DeleteEverything's mamak's fault!
U pandai2 twisting ke?
The peace agreement.... did he grab the offer??
DeleteFor all we know, going by documentation or lack of, the person was born Ongpeng Boonhwachai in Thailand, and masqueraded as a Malayan so that he could credibly take leadership of the Malayan Communist Party.
DeleteThere is no evidence he was ever a loyal Malayan. He took up arms against the Japanese in Malaya because the China Communist Party was at war against Japan.
It was simply an extension of the war against Japan in China.
I can say he was NOT loyal to the government of Malaya but that did not mean he was not a loyal Malayan
DeleteThere was also a Peace Agreement brokered by Thailand which he signed on behalf of teh CPM.
Additionally, MM Online reported (21 Sept 2013)[https://www.malaymail.com/s/528847/malaysia-is-laughing-stock-over-chin-peng-affair-says-ex-igp]:
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — The world will laugh at Malaysia if Putrajaya insists on not allowing Chin Peng’s remains to be buried in his home country here, former top cop Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor has said.
Abdul Rahim — who had led the peace negotiations between Malaysia and the Malayan Communist Party (CPM) as the Special Branch chief then in the late 1980s — said it was unfair to ban Chin Peng from the country, noting that other Malay former communists have been allowed to return home.
“If the government — the authorities — succumb to this public pressure not to allow Chin Peng’s ashes to be brought back, I think, we are making Malaysia a laughing stock to the whole world,” Abdul Rahim said in an interview aired on business station BFM yesterday.
“If you say that Chin Peng as secretary-general of the party (CPM) is the highest-most member, then he qualifies to get all the privileges, advantages or whatever promises made in the agreements, which includes for him to be allowed to come back,” he added, referring to the Hat Yai Peace Accord in 1989.
The peace talks in the 1980s had led to the three-way peace treaty between the CPM and the Malaysian and Thai governments that allow CPM members, who have laid down their arms, to return to Malaysia if they so desired.
Abdul Rahim, a former inspector-general of police, said it was “grossly unfair” that Chin Peng had not been allowed to return to Malaysia permanently or to even make social visits, pointing out that CPM chairman Abdullah CD was even given an audience with Perak Sultan.
“Rashid Maidin, I was told, performed his pilgrimage through KL with the help of the Malaysian authorities. What’s all this?” said Abdul Rahim, referring to the CPM central committee member.
[...]
Abdul Rahim said that Chin Peng, the man born Ong Boon Hua, should be remembered for his role and the CPM’s role in fighting against British colonial rule.
Chin Peng died in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday at the age of 88 after spending his final years there in exile.
Chin Peng’s last wish was to be buried in Sitiawan, but Putrajaya had strongly rejected the idea immediately after his death, with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak labelling him a “terrorist leader that waged war on the nation”.
Chin Peng’s aide had reportedly confirmed that the former CPM secretary-general will be cremated according to Buddhist rites in Bangkok next Monday.
These ketuanan freaks CAN'T distinguish loyalty to a country & loyalty to a govt!
DeleteThey thought both r the same!
CBMFers, under umno's indoctrination, they equal party=govt=country!
Truly brainless, just like those zombies.
Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who takes up arms against his own country and kills his own fellow citizens should be considered a traitor and not worthy to be that country's citizen. He should be hanged, and buried in an unmarked grave behind guarded walls for all eternity. And I don't just mean Chin Peng, all of his comrades should be treated as such.
DeleteCase in point, Australia recently disavowed and rescinded the citizenship of a couple of Aussie Talibans.
"birb Ongpeng Boonhwachai in Thailand" ......eakakakaka.. I like that.
DeleteI'm agnostic about this Chin Peng thing.
His fight was for the establishment of a Communist State in Malaya. Nothing to do with patriotism.
The British stood in the way, so he attacked them.
Then the democratically elected Government of Malaya stood in the way, so attacked THEM.
I got no problems with his ashes coming back to Malaysia, as long as his grave is not used as some sort of Communist shrine.
Wakakakaka……
DeleteTruly a case of "Patriotism is the last refuge for a scoundrel"!!
Scoundrels, when challenged, will often use false patriotism in order to shut up their opponents.
It's a form of Ad Hominem Attack which is precisely demonstrated by these two writers.
U profess about the best of yr idealism WHILE ignoring the WORST of its practicality!
SHRINE??
Look at how zombieism has been cleverly propagated & corruptedly indoctinated it's followers!
Shrines/images r NOT allowed & yet it spreads like uncontrollable bushfire!
It's ALL in the mind.
If the people r been treated well, under the available conditions, all sopo system r pandering towards human WANTS. They r not the essence but the superficial form of its die-hard promoters' alluded image!
TDM is trying to spite the Johor Royalty over their support of BN before GE14.
ReplyDeleteBeing a private deal, the most the Govt. can do is not grant resident free visas to China citizens who bought those properties.
Definitely, there will be a backlash not so much from China but more from the Johor Royalty who has a big stake in the project.
Guess prices will drop but will not benefit Johoreans (still unaffordable) but Singaporeans who can afford to buy those properties just next door.
Never knew so old, TDM still remembers and have a vengeful retribution to those who spite him kau kau.
Psychologists say emotional trauma experienced in adolescence and young adulthood often leave deep, permanent scars on the person's thought patterns...
DeleteThe humiliation the young Mahathir experienced when attempting to court an Ah Mooi sweetie, and also at the hands of Chinese voters in his youth has left him permanently hostile and suspicious towards all things Chinese and China....even 65 years later..
Whats with all the analysis troubles? Simple equation.. Pissed off china, johor royalty, stop development of forest city, divert buyers to tax free langkawi 30bil development by crony.. See win win win win win for atukutty, lose lose lose lose lose lose for country. Wait.. Nooo.. Langkawi is also in Malaysia.. So i guess no loss for malaysia afterall.. Go kuttyman go!
ReplyDeleteFrankly I don't know why people bother to talk about Pakatan anymore. I know I am voting PAS next election GE15 to teach the loud, rude and arrogant 95% who voted DAP a very bad lesson. Of course Anwar will stop me because new electoral laws are coming. Aspiring MPs will probably need a certificate of eligibility to stand for the next election...meaning Chinese will be barred from standing hahaha. I am Chinese but the 95% betrayed us 5%. I want them punished.
ReplyDeleteWa lau-eh!
DeleteEvery wannabes want to be a Chinese M'sian to hentam the Chinese M'sians!
Is yr other name John too?
All of u, if u r truly of cinapek origin, r just behaving like that infamous Ridhuan Tee (is he STILL propagating his bigoted farts at the Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin).
U r just a bunch of anmokxai wannabes who enthusiastically embrace zombieism superficially while rigorously reject yr bornt root!
CK is a brain-dead zombie and assumes other yellow skins must be brain-dead zombies as well. Can't really blame him when 95% are walking undead.
DeleteWakakakaka……
DeleteYr claim Worth's nothing le!
How many time do I have to remind rd, like u, that that decision rests with the readers out there lah!
U can continue with yr monkey chants, even w/o that clown costume. Readers out there will still know u as a melayu palsu yg terlampau melayu now masquerading as a kaffir. They CAN see u the moment u open yr fart nozzle lah!
Ohhh...the sky is falling, the sky is falling, this one miserable so-called cina kaffir by name of Kiet will vote for PasPisPus and we 95% chinese are shivering in our boots...the sky is indeed falling. Hey kaffir Kiet, don't forget to ask for a bit of your share from the dedak that that Bodoh Abdul son of the revered Guru...the stupid Abdu Bodo son got caught admitting on tape he makan sedap sedap the dedak from Pirate Thief..implicated not only himself but the rest of the towel head gang...Hadi sekarang banyak wang...hence his new name Hadi Ah Wang, wakakakaka.
Delete