The plight of Kg. Sg. Baru residents for a just compensation

Harapandaily

BY: KHALID SAMAD

Happy New Year! Welcome 2025! May it bring greater joy and success for all, especially for the owners of the units in Kg. Sg. Baru who were paid compensation well below the market price.

Perhaps it was because of the ‘4’ in the year 2024 which saw their appeals for fairer compensation not being responded to. Perchance 2025 will see them fare better. I am far from being superstitious and do not believe that the number 4 brings bad luck or bad feng shui, but in seeking just compensation for those being forcibly displaced, any argument in favour of the effort is worth a try.

Anyway the latest news is that Sun Suria has bought 20% interest in the joint venture company developing Kg. Sg. Baru. And the GDV is reportedly RM 2.68 Billion.

Maybe now I can address the party that understands and knows the value of the land. Maybe they will be more responsive and will give greater importance to the question of justice and fair compensation.

Probably my previous appeals were addressed to those who did not understand or know the true value of the land and truly believed that RM 450 per sq. ft. is fair compensation.

Perhaps they believed in the arguments of how complicated and technical the issue was and the need to differentiate between current and future land prices and were thus misled.

But now I am appealing to the developers themselves. They are people who know the value of the said land and no amount of “complicated and technical” mumbo-jumbo or “current and future land price” hocus-pocus can dupe them.

They know the current land price is well above the compensation paid to the owners. They cannot pretend not to know as it is their field.

So I wish to appeal to the developers, to do the “right thing”, even if no one else understands that there is a need to do so.

Pay the owners fair and just compensation so that your development project will not bear the blemish of ‘forced eviction and sale’ with unfair compensation. I hope they value their reputation and image and understand that this blemish will remain until and unless the injustice is addressed.

Or perhaps, hopefully, they are superstitious or religious and believe in “karma”. Know then that the bad karma from the injustice experienced by the 100 or so families may come back to haunt their project.

Let’s start the year with a resolution to see justice done for all under our care as far as we are able to and let the start of any development in the area of Kg. Baru, the Malay enclave, or its surrounding area, is done in a fair and equitable manner. The properties taken, so unjustly, may be the only properties owned by some of those forcibly evicted and represent their dreams and future.

Give them fair compensation and absolve yourselves from causing these families the pain of seeing their dreams and future shattered and taken from them.

I have no personal interest in the case. I do not own any property there, in any form or manner, nor am I being promised any fee for my appeals on their behalf. I only want to do what I possibly can to ensure that justice is done and there is no precedent which will badly affect the land prices in this unique, one and only Malay enclave in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

For, if the land price of RM 450 per sq. ft. is accepted as being a fair price for Kg. Sg. Baru, which is land free of restrictions, then what, pray tell, will be the price for the Kg. Baru land which falls under ‘MAS’ or Malay Agricultural Settlement, which makes up most of Kg. Baru proper?

Again I appeal to the developers to do the right thing and start your project and the year 2025 in the best possible way.

KHALID SAMAD is Federal Territories AMANAH chairman.