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Monday, February 18, 2013

A 10-year wait and still no homes


The buyers of the stalled Block E housing project at PJS1 are getting weary of the whole matter and see Pakatan Rakyat as no different from Barisan Nasional.
COMMENT
PETALING JAYA: These are the houses that the state government did not build. Some 270 families in PJS1 have been waiting in vain for 10 years for a roof over their heads.
Now, who is responsible for this predicament? Is it the developer Peter Brickworks or the Selangor state government which is responsible?
All fingers point at the state government. And this is happening despite Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim himself taking up the responsibility to build the homes in 2011.
Before we get into the details, let us trace back little bit on how the buyers found themselves in this predicament.
The buyers, about 270 of them, were former residents of squatter settlements on Kampung Pinang, Kampung Muniandy and Kampung Petaling Tin.
They have lived on the land for generations, being descendants of tin miners ,at a time when Malaysia was still dependent on plantation and natural resources.
Before we even start accusing them of occupying the land illegally, understand that the tin mine operators had allowed them to stay there.
But in 2003, the then Selangor state government moved in under the government’s “zero squatter policy”. Buoyed by the state government and the developer’s promise to build them low-cost housing, the residents signed the sales and purchase agreement.
Many paid deposits for their homes. Some even paid the instalments while waiting for Block E to be built.
To be fair, the developer did build four blocks as promised. However, it reneged on its promise when it came to Block E, leaving the buyers in a lurch.
Devastated, the buyers are now renting places elsewhere to live. Some are living in long houses built by the developer and some are living in public housing schemes (PPR).
When the people voted Pakatan Rakyat to administer the state, the buyers thought the state government, that calls itself a caring government, would not do a Barisan Nasional on them. But they were proven wrong.
Passing the buck
It is unfortunate that the Selangor state government, despite taking charge of the matter in 2011, had dilly-dallied in resolving their woes, making the buyers furious.
Instead of handling the matter directly, the state government passed the buck to the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).
Despite promising to resolve their housing woes in months, the MBPJ had only delivered its housing blueprint to the residents last month.
And the promise to refurbish and clean up the longhouses since 2011 is till left undone till today by MBPJ, due to reasons best known to the local council.
So are we to blame the buyers for this mess? Some Pakatan diehards would argue that the buyers should sue the developer, not pin the blame on the state government.
Yes, the argument is valid. But the buyers were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths. A majority of them are from the low-income group that has families to support.
And they did hire a lawyer to take up their case few years back but she bailed out on them, giving excuse that the matter is getting too much media attention.
So they relied on the state government to dispense justice. But as they say, justice delayed is justice denied.
So who is to be blamed for this mess? One thing is for sure, the buyers are now becoming weary of the whole mess and see no difference between BN and Pakatan leadership.

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