Villagers lodge report with MACC over 'land scam'

Kampung Buah Pala villagers in Bukit Gelugor, Penang have lodged a graft report against the district land office for alleged malpractice when alienating their village land titles to a cooperative two years ago.

The villagers lodged the report against the northeast land office at the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission office in George Town at 2.30pm today.

The village residents' association assistant secretary C Tharmaraj lodged the report on the behalf of some 300 villagers, whose ancestors have been living for nearly 200 years in the quiet Tamil settlement located at the heart of the rapidly developing eastern zone of Georgetown.

MACC investigator Md Azahar Md Ali has assured the villagers that he would get to the bottom of the case.

Tharmaraj has also handed over to Md Azahar what he described as ‘copies of documented evidence' to support his report.

The villagers face eviction on Thursday following an appellate court order last month.

The affected residents had met deputy chief ministers (DCM) Mansor Othman and P Ramasamy yesterday seeking the state government's intervention to stop the developer, Nusmetro Venture (P) Sdn Bhd from demolishing their homes.

They also called on Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's administration to probe their land alienation exercise under the land scam investigation.

In their report to MACC, the villagers claimed that the land office had unlawfully alienated their village settlement under the state-owned land category when it was legally gazetted as the Helen Brown housing trust under the Housing Trust Act 1950.

However, in 2005, the land office had allegedly alienated the land to the state government without dissolving the trust which is a requirement under law.

However, the villagers argued that even if the trust were dissolved, it should come under the purview of the federal government, not the state.

The villagers also alleged the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) had given planning approval in 2007 for a lucrative housing development project to Umno-linked Nusmetro.

This was done without transferring the land ownership to a civil servant's cooperative - Koperasi Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan Pulau Pinang.

They alleged this breached the council's building by-laws.

The land was only transferred on March 27 last year --- nine days after Pakatan Rakyat had captured Penang government in the general election.

Transfer done without state gov't's knowledge

It is learnt that the land transfer was done by certain officers without the knowledge of the current government.

According to villagers, the local authority should give planning approval only when the land transfer had been executed.

These were points raised by the villagers to successfully obtain a High Court order in October last year to stop the cooperative and Nusmetro from gaining vacant possession of the land.

But the Court of Appeal overturned the order on May 11 this year following an appeal by the cooperative and Nusmetro.

The association has since appealed to the Federal Court to overturn the Court of Appeal decision and have filed for a stay of execution.

They also want the MACC to probe on why the Barisan Nasional state government at the time sold the land for a paltry RM3.21 million to the cooperative.

According to the villagers, the sale price - estimated at RM11.33 per sq ft - was far below market value.

The settlement originally came under a housing trust and the residents paid temporary occupation licence (TOL) rents to the district land office from the days of the British colonial administration until 2005.

In 2005, the district land office refused to accept their TOL payments which paved the way for land alienation to the state government.

The village has some 33 housing lots with 65 families residing on a 2.6ha plot, considered to be a prime land, which Nusmetro had planned to develop a mix township of four blocks of medium and low-medium cost apartments of 740 units and an additional eight units of shop lots.

The cooperative would earn a whopping RM12 million from the project.

NGOs locked out of meeting

Meanwhile, Jarigan Rakyat Tertindas (Jerit) coordinator Muammar Kris Khaira demanded an explanation from the state government for barring NGO representatives from yesterday's meeting between the villagers and the two DCMs.

"The state government always publicises about its transparent governance. But we were disallowed to sit in the meeting as observers," he said.

Muammar Kris, Penang Heritage Trusts manager Magdeline Ng and Aliran's Dalbinder Singh Gill had accompanied a five-man delegation as observers to the meeting in Komtar but were not allowed in.

He called on the state government to view the Buah Pala controversy as a Penang community problem and not as an isolated village issue.

Another Jerit coordinator Choo Chon Kai called on the state government to compensate the developer with another idle state-owned land and spare the village from demolition.

"The village is a human cultural heritage that belongs not only to the Indian community but Penang as a whole.

"The state government can help the villagers and preserve a Penang's heritage by alienating another land to the developer," he said.

At a press conference later, Ramasamy said he would raise the land alienation exercise at the executive council meeting tomorrow to decide on whether to probe the issue under the land scam.

However, he said the state government cannot intervened much into it given that the case was pending in court.

"The villagers are frustrated that the current government is not doing much to help them when we were not the root cause of the problem.

"But we will assist them as much as possible," he said.

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