The police confiscated leaflets that demanded urban settlers' rights from a housing rights group that tried to distribute them at the World Habitat Day celebration in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Members of the Coalition of Urban Pioneers and Housing (CUPH) were told to stop distributing the leaflets at the government-organised event for fear that their action could lead to a 'commotion'.

The NGO, however, objected to the police's high-handed action which they slammed as unjustified.

"This is World Habitat Day, it is our right to be here. The government shouldn't just have their own official version of it.

"This is a grassroots celebration as well," said Dr Cecilia Anthonysamy, a coordinator at the Community Development Centre (CDC), which is the secretariat for CUPH.

In the incident, three plainclothes police personnel seized more than 100 leaflets and ordered those distributing them to stop doing so. However, it was learnt that most of the leaflets had been handed out before the police interfered.

CUPH members began distributing the leaflets at the function after they held a press conference at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall to announce the launch of their national campaign to gain support for the demands of urban pioneers.

The chief concern raised was for the government to recognise urban pioneer settlements as traditional villages.

The government was also urged to give the settlers permanent rights to the land, failing which decent housing alternatives should be provided to settlers who were forced to relocate.

'Pigeon-holes'

The usual relocation alternative low-cost flats was rejected by the coalition which likened such houses to "pigeon-holes".

It said these houses failed to meet the United Nations declaration of the right to adequate housing which corresponded with the World Health Organisation's guidelines. These houses also lacked sufficient space and utilities to enable inhabitants to live comfortably.

It denounced the government's plan to eradicate urban settlers — whom the government called "squatters" — by 2005 as "cruel", charging that the government aimed to destroy urban pioneer settlements without taking into consideration the needs of the settlers.

The coalition also highlighted the fact that settlers are often evicted forcefully from their homes, given only two to four weeks' notice and inadequate housing alternatives.

CPUH called for the 'zero squatter' policy to be re-examined, as it encouraged developers to use cruel and forceful means to evict settlers while failing to heed international codes of conduct, such the UN resolution that everyone should be protected from forced eviction.

Re-examine policies

Current government policies were critically examined and found wanting. For example, public low-cost housing a joint effort by the government and private sector has failed to successfully emplace more than 50 percent of settlers who have had to relocate since its inception in 1971.

Government funds for low-cost housing have also decreased over the years, from 13.8 percent of total spending in 1982 to just 1.9 percent in 1993. While this was attributed to increased private sector involvement, the coalition pointed out that this has actually been detrimental to urban pioneers because private developers usually open sales of the low-cost units to the public.

The recent decision to allocate RM 1.4 billion in government funds to build 40,000 low-cost housing units within the next five years was also put in context, as the Eighth Malaysia Plan had actually targetted the construction of 192,000 units.

The coalition also dismissed the citizen's housing programme (PPR) which would see urban pioneers moved into high-rise flats that measured 60sq m at a monthly rental of RM124 as a convenient solution to clear settlers off the land and place them in inhumane living conditions.

PPR was launched in conjunction with the 'zero squatter' policy in the Klang Valley and Selangor.

CPUH is part of the Network for Oppressed People (Jerit), that comprises advocacy groups for marginalised sectors of society like farmers, Orang Asal, factory workers and students and youth.