A group of some 20 residents from Kampung Jinjang Selatan Tambahan near Kepong today submitted a memorandum of protest to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) over an order to vacate their homes by the end of this month.

Group spokesperson Amir Khan later told reporters this was because of the "ridiculous" compensation offer made by DBKL, that allegedly was in favour of a private project developer.

He said their main point of objection was that only one person from each household would be allowed to purchase a low-cost People's Housing Project (PPR) unit at RM42,000.

"Right now in one house there could four or five families...," he said, adding that they could not afford to purchase the unit at full price.

This is on top of an ex-gratia payment of RM1,000 and RM600 a month to assist in rent payments, pending completion of the purchased PPR units.

'Investigate officer'

Specifically, the 23-year-old said the residents have requested DBKL to investigate an officer attached to its economic planning and development department.

"Recently we know there have been (corruption) investigations on DBKL and so today we are also asking the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate this case.

"We are not objecting against the development project, but the ridiculous (compensation) offer in favour of the developer," said Amir, who is the third generation in his family to stay in the squatter village.

Amir said this in reference to ongoing MACC investigations triggered by its arrest of a senior DBKL officer with the

"Datuk Seri" title and believed to own 31 luxury condominium units worth more than RM15.5 million from his collaboration with housing developers.

The residents had in a letter dated Aug 27 lodged a formal report on the matter to the MACC.

In the letter distributed to the media, it was stated that the residents had on July 28 received a notice from DBKL with the compensation offer for them to move.

According to the letter, there were subsequently two meetings that involved residents, the DBKL officer and the project developer, but they failed to reach an agreement.

It was further stated that the DBKL officer in question had signed a letter dated Aug 26, ordering them to vacate their homes and that the initial compensation offer had been retracted.

Another resident, Chew How Choo, said that there are over 500 houses on the plot of land identified as Lot 9714, spanning 69 acres, and earmarked for a mixed development project.

Referring to the two meetings stated in their letter, Chew said the DBKL officer in question had claimed that the compensation offer was retracted as there were no response from the residents.

The memorandum of protest and various accompanying documents were separately received by staff from KL Mayor Mohd Amin Nordin's office, an assistant of the DBKL officer as well as an officer from the DBKL'S legal department.