A Kampung Saujana residents action committee member has received a phone call from someone claiming to be "calling from Guthrie" with threats of demolition if the villagers refused to accept alternative low-cost flats.

But the mobile phone's caller identification turned up a Shah Alam City Hall (MBSA) number which was confirmed later to be correct after a check by malaysiakini.

S Natchymuthu was in an interview with malaysiakini at 3.40pm in Shah Alam on Wednesday when he got the call.

"The man kept asking why we were adamant against moving into low-cost flats offered by the MBSA," he explained later.

"Till the end, he refused to give his name and hung up on me when I pressed on."

The caller, he said, accused Kampung Saujana villagers of being "very stubborn" and threatened to demolish the houses "in no time" if they continued to reject the offer by MBSA.

"His tone was very threatening...as if he was an enforcement officer himself. Then why claim to be from Guthrie, if you're from the MBSA?

"We will consider lodging a police report."

Guthrie to probe

Contacted today, a Guthrie spokesperson denied that any of its staff would do such a thing.

"It is highly unlikely that the call came from a Guthrie staff but we would have to investigate first on whether there's any truth in this," she said, posing several questions of her own.

"Why would someone claim to be from Guthrie and not give his name?"

The spokesperson strongly believed that no one in Guthrie would have resorted to something like that.

"Guthrie does not and will not condone any acts of deception, regardless of who commits it," she said, stressing that the plantation giant and MBSA have always had a "very good relationship".

Natchymuthu, however, said the call almost confirms long-held suspicions involving many other cases of a collusion between MBSA and developers in Selangor, especially those involving the poor, illiterate and ignorant estate workers.

He said the caller also refused to listen when asked to put everything in writing and to send it to the Kampung Saujana residents action committee for easy reference and as proof of progress.

"He simply wasn't listening to me. He kept saying that our houses were going to be demolished soon and blamed us for prolonging the matter," he said.

"I told him that the villagers were also not in favour of dragging on and wanted to discuss other locations for alternative low-cost housing.

"They (MBSA, state government) already know what we want but no one has bothered to talk to us. Instead, we are getting phone threats."

MBSA could not be contacted today.

Temporary relocation

The residents of the flood-prone village adjacent to Sungai Damansara in Batu Tiga, Shah Alam, were offered low-cost flats in Ladang Bukit Subang, developed by Guthrie.

Nov 18 was set as a deadline to accept or reject the offer, which has since been rejected on grounds that the units offered were unsuitable and costly.

The villagers are asking for units priced at the contracted sum of RM25,000 that was agreed upon with state-linked developer Cekap Mesra Development Sdn Bhd some 10 years ago.

The village was temporarily relocated to a plot adjacent to the river pending the construction of low-cost housing.

The company shelved the plan after Selangor government acquired a huge chunk of land to be gazetted as the flight path for the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Subang in 1996.

In March 2002, the company offered the 74 affected families low-cost housing in Saujana Puchong but that also failed.

Early this year, MBSA decided to resolve the issue by offering the 74 families low-cost units at RM35,000 in line with the state's Zero Squatter Policy 2005.

Kampung Saujana's present location has repeatedly witnessed massive floods in recent years, the most recent being early this month, resulting in thousands of ringgit in loss and damage to property.

Last month, the villagers submitted memorandums to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and held peaceful demonstrations outside the City Hall and Selangor state secretariat buildings.

Cannot see MB

They have even gone to see Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting but was met by an official who accepted the memorandum on the minister's behalf. The committee has not heard from Ong's office since then.

On Nov 22, Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo allegedly snubbed a residents committee member, A Thomas, who had sought an appointment to discuss the housing issue.

"Not only were we made to wait for more than two hours, we didn't even get to see the MB.

"Instead, his private secretary Salamat Dollah told us that the MB did not wish to see us and told us to follow up with MBSA as the matter has been forwarded to the mayor."

Thomas said he was extremely disappointed with the treatment they received given that it was the seat of the state government.

"Why do they mistreat us poor people? Don't they know that the poor are voters too and that these votes are what put them up there in their positions?

"It is really sad to hear (Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) Pak Lah making all those fantastic statements when grassroots and state leaders are arrogant and the ground service continues to be deplorable," he added.

Neither Mohd Khir nor his aide could be reached for comment.