Evicted residents dispute unresolved after 9 years

Some forty four former residents of Rumah Rakyat SEDC Tampoi, Johor Bahru, here, has filed a summon against Johor Mentri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman and the Johor state government for breach of agreement.

Recently, lawyer Hassan Abdul Karim, who is acting for the aggrieved residents said that the residents demanded the need of the state government to fulfill its agreement in building the low cost houses as agreed by Johor Mentri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman and the state government.

The residents claimed that they were told by the state government that the land covering thirty hectares has been acquired for a mixed housing development project.

At that time, the affected residents also claimed that an assurance and agreement has been made by the Johor Mentri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman stating that the affected residents will be allocated their low cost house once the mixed housing development project is completed in two years time if they were to vacate their house voluntarily.

But in 2009, the affected residents came to know that the government acquired land will be not used for intended mixed housing development project but instead it will use a portion of the acquired thirty hectares land to build SPRM (Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission) office complex and a supermarket.

The aggrieved residents then submitted a letter of demand for compensation to the Johor Mentri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman and the state government in March, 2010.

In the letter of demand for compensation states that the state government is obligated to fulfills its agreement to build the low cost houses and allocate it to the affected residents and if the government fails to do so, the affected residents shall seek a compensation sum of RM35,000 per resident from the state government.

Hassan (left) said, three mediation attempts were made last year to resolve the issue with the state government but to no avail and finally, the Johor Bahru High Court decided to fix March 2012 for a full hearing.

Meanwhile, last December, Johor Mentri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman and the state government has applied to strike off the summon writ and also the statement of demand for compensation.

The court has then fixed hearing for the case on February 2012.

Elaborating on the case history, Hassan said, the Rumah Rakyat SEDC Tampoi build in 1976, comprised of nine hundred and ninety-nine units of low cost wooden house which were rented out to low income families.

The affected residents were then given the option to rent and later buy the low cost house on the fourth year at RM8,000 per unit.

The low cost house offer price of RM8,000 per unit was then later revised upward to RM14,000 per unit which the affected residents can ill afford at that time where most of them were low income earners, said Hassan.

He also recalled that the forced eviction exercise which took place in 2002 caused considerable controversy which required strong police intervention.

Johor Mentri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman was then required to step in to try and mediate in the highly charged stand-off situation with the police by asking the affected residents to vacate the house temporarily for a period of two years to allow the intended development to take place and by then the state government will build and allocate the completed low cost houses for the affected families.