CoFfEE witH PUNithAN

A REPLY AND CHALLENGE TO GUAN ENG

By Wong Mung Chee @ Malaysia Today

Dear Guan Eng

I read with care your posting on the call to HINDRAF to wake up and not blame you for the people’s predicament.

You may well remember (or perhaps you and your kuncu-kuncu have now forgotten) that before the last General elections these residents of Kg.Buah Pala did see you and your Kuncus to highlight their problem. Mind you they were already at that time battling a losing war in the Malaysian Courts of Injustice. You and your kuncus made promises that should you win and take over the State you would give the people of Kg.Buah Pala a SOLUTION.

You can’t be as stupid as you sound. You know pretty well what you are talking about. The losing LEGAL battles of these poor and defenseless people are separate matter all together so I repeat “DON’T PRETEND TO BE A FOOL AND NOT UNDERSTAND AND APPRECIATE THE ISSUE AT HAND.” Do not hide behind the Federal Court Ruling and say that you respect and uphold the Rule of Law. The residents are now not talking about the decision of the Federal Court but THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT THE SOLUTION THAT YOU HAD PROMISED THEM BEFORE THE ELECTIONS. In any event if you had respected the Rule of Law why then did you when you were jailed many years ago claim that you were wronged by the decision of the highest court of Law. If you respect the Rule of Law that you are talking about then we should all accept and refer you as EX CONVICT, the CM of Penang.

Now coming back to the issue of SOLUTION you knew pretty well even before the elections that the SOLUTION lies in the LAND ACQUISATION ACT but somehow now you pretend to play dumb by talking about the Ruling of the Federal Court and that you do not have powers to question the said Ruling.

The ONLY PERSON in the State of Penang who can find the solution is you as you are the sole person under the above act who could ACQUIRE THE LAND for these poor people. Let us not deviate from The Court Rulings or the wrong doing of the previous government or UMNO blah!! blah!!. Those are separate matters which need to be addressed by the authorities in the country and as a Parliamentarian I would expect you to make a big ha!!! Ha!!! in parliament on this and not foolishly try to deviate by attacking HINDRAF.

Shame on you Guan Eng as even as an ordinary layman I can see the manipulation of your words.

Now coming back to the LAND ACQUISATION ACT, perhaps you may want to read the following sections and seek proper legal help- Sec 3,8, 18,19,21,22, 36,49,58, 60,63.

Well I don’t want to go on the whole lot of the act but let me remind you of your mighty powers as a Chief Minister under

Section 3 (1) The State authority may acquire any land which is needed

(a) for any public purpose

(b) for any purpose which in the opinion of the State authorities beneficial to the ecomonic development of Malaysia...or to public generally or any class of public

Now the question is why are you refusing to use this power conferred upon you???? Answer this Guan Eng and don’t pretend to be like a fool hiding behind the decision of the Federal Court. Yes the Court has made a decision but these people have been battling their losing war long before you became the CM. Now that they have lost they are asking you to fulfill your election promises which are separate matters.

Perhaps now that you sit in that mighty seat of yours you have forgotten your promises because at the time of making those promises you knew you wouldn’t fulfill it anyway so what the heck. Now do you stand to benefit from the developing project which would enrich an UMNO company? Perhaps you have been promised a cut by UMNO I don’t know!!!!

But you are answerable to the rakyat why you are refusing to use the above sections.

Yes maybe you have prevented the demolition of the Kg since last year. But you didn’t have to use your mighty power to do that – only the power of persuasion that you held as Chief Minister.

We may be simple people but we understand well the meaning and difference between the power of persuasion and the absolute power you hold as a CM.

Thank you for providing all the minute details of the dealings between the previous CM and the UMNO linked company but that smells of corrupt practice by the previous Government. Why are you saying all these only now – even so it is a matter public interest that as a responsible CM you should have lodged Police reports against the BN culprits and not shift the blame on HINDRAF to demonstrate against the BN. You may well bring this to the Parliament- and I ask you why now Guan Eng ???? Were you trying to cover up for them????

Let me now take a passage from your writing:

“The Penang state government regrets the highly irresponsible and irrational actions of Hindraf in targeting the Penang state government over the actions taken by the developer to evict residents in Kampung Buah Pala. Hindraf wants the state government to act against the court order obtained by the developer to evict the residents. This the state government can not do as Pakatan Rakyat governs under the rule of law and is compelled to respect any court order issued.”

HINDRAF or the Kg People never said anywhere that “they wanted you to act against the court order”. Let us be focused Guan Eng don’t be mischievous. Don’t say things that were never said or else you will be “torched” as a liar. Don’t have an addition to the Ex convict pangkat you already have.

Yes no doubt the eviction is by the Capitalist Developers. But again only you have the power to stop this by invoking your power under Sec 3 on grounds of PUBLIC INTEREST. The people are angry because you are not doing anything on the eviction WHEN YOU COULD ACQUIRE THE LAND.

Now lets see this;

“On the other hand, there have been suggestions that the Penang state government forcibly acquires the land under for a public purpose under the Land Acquisition Act. Doing so would play into the hands into the developer who would be able to reap enormous profits without putting in a single cent.”

What do you mean by saying doing so would mean to allow the developer to reap enormous profits without putting a single cent ?? Come on, those guys paid for it albeit for a lesser price.

“Much as the Penang state government would wish to do, cancelling the project and forcibly acquiring the land would incur costs beyond the financial capability of the state government. We are NOT talking about millions of ringgit or tens of millions of ringgit here!”

Ooi!!! are you saying you are going to lose hundreds of millions of ringgit here, when the land was forcibly cheated from the villagers for merely about 3 million at value but now within few years it has rocketed to hundreds of millions. But read the official statement given by your own assemblyman for Komtar and your Political Secretary today in Malaysiakini that the State would need RM 30 million to compensate the developers.

So which is which now Guan ENG- hundreds of million or 30 million. Are you trying to do a BN on us by claiming hundreds of millions out of this whole sage and then shortchange the “poor and helpless developer” by paying them peanuts of 30 million ringgit?????

Look at the second line of the above statement- “canceling the project”- canceling whose project Guan ENG? Why are you so worried about the developers having to cancel their project. The Acquisition Act does not provide for compensation for “cancelled projects”. I wonder why you seem to worry for them. Are you losing your commissions? ???

In any event why jump the gun on the amount to be compensated by the State Government in event of ACQUISITION? ???. The procedures on payment come much after a long procedure to be complied by your state as per Sections 18 – 35. Those are clear procedures and in event the compensation are not agreed upon by the developer then go to Part V of the Act ie Section 36-51.

To cut a long story short the amount of compensation to be paid are to be determined by the Land Administrator after valuations and survey. If this award is not accepted the developer is not entitled to go to Court and he needs the cooperation of the Land Administrator to take it up to the Court.

Even in Court look at section 40 (2), the Court would have to appoint 2 assessors and there is a whole list of possible reputable persons who could assist the Judge on the assessment of compensation.
So Guan Eng Look at the Act clearly- Do you now fear the “Rule of Law” that you highly spoke about.

Its funny when it comes to the point of protecting the poor and helpless, it is decided arbitrarily but when it comes to the right of the Capitalist Developers the whole works of the system are with them- The Judiciary, Government and its Machinery, Police, Lawyers, Politicians and the latest the “great political party which championed the rights of the people DAP”.

So Guan Eng stop the lie of having to pay out hundreds of millions of compensation. The poor people need protection and not your lies.

Even publicly you go around stating that each family is given $200,000.00 which is unsubstantiated. You know what I mean, tell me frankly are you sure of this fact as it will haunt you in your attempt to hoodwink the public. Speak to the families and see who is getting $200,000.00 if you really care. You never got to the root of the problem but decided to play the BN game to save your own skin.

Do not divert to Hindraf not demonstrating against other party- the point is at the moment, as it stands you and only you have the POWER and if you do not exercise it for the benefit of the poor and helpless who had legally occupied the Land under trust for 200 years until they were cheated then why the hell did the people give you the power????

You don’t have to talk about the first Indian Deputy Chief Minister. Mind you if not for Waytha Moorthy issuing statements and demanding for a Deputy Chief Minister immediately after the General elections you wouldn’t even have bothered to put your puppet Ramasamy.

Don’t pull the wool by saying DAP did this and that for the Indians. Yes you would have done it but so what? Isn’t that your duty.

I do not want to comment on your other points meant to divert from the main issue at hand ie ACQUISITION.

THE PEOPLE OF KG BUAH PALA ARE FOCUSSED AND KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT AND SO DO YOU. STOP THE NONSENCE OF PRETENDING IGNORANCE AND GET TO THE POINT GUAN ENG. I DARE YOU REFUTE MY WRITE UP.

I can be reached at wongmunchee@ gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it