8 theSun | THURSDAY JULY 2 2009

news without borders

Bankrupts, man implicated in

police report sat as councillors
by Llew-Ann Phang
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
SHAH ALAM: Two bankrupts and a person
implicated in a police report sat as council-
lors in Selangor for one year.
This revelation came from Selangor
Mentri Besar Tan Sri Mohd Khalid Ibrahim
when announcing that 20% of current
councillors will not be re-appointed.
Without revealing details or which local
councils they were attached to, Abdul Kha-
lid said, as opposed to the previous method
of appointing and then carrying out “due
diligence” on the individuals, the new list
of councillors will be subject to “stringent
verification to ensure they are clean (of) any
criminal record, bankruptcy order and other
misconduct”.
Five other individuals removed from the
list were shown documents of resolution
citing they were unable to serve in their
area while trying to make their living or
because they were not residing in areas
within the local council.
“Some say they feel they cannot serve
not because they are unable to but because
of constraints of their own business or
work,” Khalid said.
“Others are from outside the area and
the Local Councils Act says representatives
should be residents in the vicinity.”
On councillors who chose to leave to con-
centrate on their livelihood, he replied: “Our
hands are tied. Councillors are people who
want to represent their people but of course
we always hope to pay them a lot more.”
Currently, councillors earn wages of
between RM700 and RM1,200. However,
Khalid explained, the issue here was the
insufficient budget for councillors.
Councillors are not forgotten, he said,
but the state is looking into providing more
funds by reducing councillors’ administra-
tive expenses.
He said the list of councillors will be made
public next Monday and swearing-in ceremo-
nies are expected to take place next week.
“The state government is committed to
ensuring that local councillors appointed
will strengthen the state administration and
improve the quality of services and delivery
to the people in line with the ‘Merakyatkan
Ekonomi Selangor’ agenda,” Khalid said.

Selangor water assets: One yes,

Hindraf told it is land, not racial, issue
by Himanshu Bhatt and
Opalyn Mok
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: Hindraf has been
urged not to turn the planned demo-
lition of Kampung Buah Pala into a
racial issue when it is mainly a land
issue.
“It is wrong for Hindraf to turn
this controversy into a racial issue,”
said Sri Delima assemblyman R.S.N.
Rayer.
He expressed disappointment
with Hindraf for accusing Chief
Minister Lim Guan Eng and DAP of
being “racist” for not doing more to
help the residents.
Rayer said the first notice the
villagers received was before the
general election and was issued by
the previous administration under
Barisan National (BN).
He demanded that Hindraf chair-
man P. Waythamoorthy withdraw
his statement that had labelled Lim
a racist and that the state govern-
ment did not do anything to help the
residents.
Rayer suggested that the attacks
by Waythamoorthy, who is in exile in
London, on the Pakatan Rakyat state
government could have a “hidden”
agenda.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister
II Prof Dr P. Ramasamy said a court
bailiff would post notices at the vil-
lage today, giving them 14 days to
vacate their premises.
“The developer’s lawyer would
then request an extension of the no-
tice from the court at the end of the
14 days for another 14 days notice
so the residents have in total 28 days
more to stay on there,” he said.
Ramasamy asked the residents to
be patient and give the state another
month to try to seek an amicable
solution to the controversy.
Meanwhile, the villagers refuted
a statement by Lim that they had
been offered compensation of up to
RM200,000 per family.
“Where did he get this figure?”
spokesperson C. Tharmaraj told an
emotional press conference at the
village yesterday. He said the resi-
dents were offered low-cost housing
units costing about RM75,000 per
family.
He suggested that Lim was afraid
to take strong action to help the
villagers because the development
involved the state’s civil servants
through their cooperative.
The land had been transferred
by the state to the Koperasi Pega-
wai Kerajaan Pulau Pinang. “Lim is
scared to face them because they
might boycott or sabotage him,”
Tharmaraj said.
In a statement yesterday, Lim
said Hindraf should pressure the
federal government and Minister
in the Prime Minister’s Department
(and former chief minister) Tan Sri Dr
Koh Tsu Koon to correct their past
mistakes by acquiring Kampung
Buah Pala and returning the land to
the people.
“It was Koh and BN that sold out
Kampung Buah Pala at a cheap price
of only RM10 per sq ft in 2007 and
without consulting the residents.
Why has Hindraf lost the courage to
oppose the real culprits?” he said.
In KUALA LUMPUR, Koh said he
will consult Gerakan members in
Penang before making any comment
on the Kampung Buah Pala issue.
His aide told Bernama this, after
reporters tried to get Koh’s comment
on the issue which was brought up by
DAP adviser and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit
Siang at a news conference yesterday.
Lim had said: “Koh Tsu Koon
should speak up as to whether he
would make amends for his deci-
sions as Penang chief minister in the
Kampung Buah Pala controversy by
securing a federal government grant
for the Penang state government”.
one no, two still talking
by Maria J. Dass
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
SHAH ALAM: Tuesday’s deadline for
negotiations between Selangor and the
four water concessionaires concluded
with one company accepting the state’s
offer to buy over its water assets, two
still negotiating with the state, and one
rejecting the offer.
Negotiations with Syarikat Penge-
luar Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (SPLASH) and
Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd
(Syabas) are ongoing and the state hopes
they will be concluded in the near future,
Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
said after the weekly state exco meeting
yesterday.
“We are resolving an outstanding issue
on sub-contractors with SPLASH, while
Syabas is waiting for a formal blessing
from the federal government to respond
to the state’s offer,” he said.
Last month, Konsortium Abass Sdn
Bhd agreed to accept the state’s offer to
buy its water-related assets for RM946
million, subject to an audit and due dili-
gence exercise.
Puncak Niaga rejected the state’s
offer but the government said this devel-
opment will not derail the restructuring
efforts.
It is learnt Selangor had offered to also
take over the liabilities of Puncak Niaga
after its initial offer of RM1.6 billion to
take over its assets earlier this year was
rejected. theSun understands that an
audit and due diligence to be conducted
on those liabilities was an issue.
Abdul Khalid said the state govern-
ment was generally satisfied with the
developments in the negotiations with
the four concessionaires. “The state
government, through its committee, will
discuss the next course of action with the
Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and
Water,” he said.
Although there were many technical
issues to be resolved, the government is
optimistic about the outcome.
He also commented on the establish-
ment of Ekuiti Nasional Berhad (Ekuinas)
by the federal government, saying it
should not duplicate the roles and
responsibilities assumed by the existing
investment arms.
“It would not be wise for the gov-
ernment to increase its overhead cost
unnecessarily considering it already has
various investment arms like Permodalan
Nasional Bhd (PNB), Khazanah Nasional,
Tabung Haji and ValueCap, which are
already managing various types of invest-
ments,” he said.
Abdul Khalid, a former Permodalan
Nasional Bhd (PNB) chairman, said the
role of Ekuinas and its beneficiaries should
be made clear, and that its investment
should be transparent and accountable
to the people.

Bulldozers to move in on Aug 2 NGOs hopeful of just solution

GEORGE TOWN: The
Kampung Lorong Buah Pala
residents have until Aug 2 to
vacate their premises with-
out any compensation before
the developer moves in with
bulldozers.
Nusmetro Ventures Sdn
Bhd executive director
Thomas Chan said they will
deliver the writ of possession
today and the residents have
until Aug 2 to move out.
“We won the court case
and we will act according to
the court orders so we will
bring bulldozers to vacate
the land if we had to and
we have also consulted the
police to get their assistance,”
he told a press conference
yesterday.
He said the issue had been
blown out of proportion and
Nusmetro will not pay com-
pensation to the remaining
residents who had refused
compensation.
“We compensated
10 households between
RM140,000 and RM260,000
each,” he said.
He also said there are now
only 22 households remain-
ing and not 300 people or 41
households as reported.
“This whole issue is all
about greed. We started
negotiating with them three
years ago with the initial
compensation package of
RM90,000 but the residents
wanted more,” he said.
The developer tried to
compromise and offered an
average of about RM200,000
in compensation per house-
hold and only 10 households
took the offer.
“The other residents want-
ed more. They demanded for
land in return and some even
wanted compensation of up
to RM600,000,” he said.
Chan said the developer
has suffered losses of about
RM6 million in losses and
the amount is increasing by
the day because of the delay.
“Our project should have
started early last year and we
have over 200 buyers but this
controversy caused a drop in
sales of about 40%,” he said.
As for the state govern-
ment’s involvement, Chan
said Nusmetro did not prom-
ise the residents anything.
“Let the state government
pay the residents, we are
not going to give any more
compensation,” he said.
by Hemananthani Sivanandam
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Consulta-
tive Council of Buddhism, Christianity,
Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism is disap-
pointed at the delay in tabling proposed
legal amendments relating to religious
conversions but trusts that the rulers will
come to a wise decision.
“We’re disappointed it is being delayed,
but it is necessary for the Conference of
Rulers to follow procedure. However, we
as the subjects are confident they will
look after the interests of all, both Mus-
lims and non-Muslims,” president of the
council Datuk A. Vaithilingam said.
He was referring to Minister in the
Prime Minister’s Department Datuk
Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz’s
announcement on Tuesday the tabling
of amendments to three laws relating to
religious conversion was to be postponed
to enable the Conference of Rulers to seek
the views of state religious councils.
The three legislation that were to be
amended are the Law Reform (Marriage
and Divorce) Act 1976, the Administration
of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act
1993 and the Islamic Family Law (Federal
Territories) Act 1984.
Malaysian Bar Council president
Ragunath Kesavan said: “The Bar has not
seen the provisions but hopes justice is
done to the outstanding issue of conver-
sions. The concern is not to rush through
it but to get it right.”
Women’s Aid Organisation executive
director Ivy Josiah said it was understand-
able that there should be more discussion
and input from all.
“A core principle in the proposed
amendments must be the equal rights of
parents to decide on their children’s up-
bringing. The unilateral conversion of minor
children is a huge concern to parents and
the amendments must address this issue,”
she said.
She said all rights and expectations
based on the law relating to civil mar-
riages must be upheld.
“The issue is urgent but the amend-
ments must not be carried out in haste
and without proper consultation,” All
Women’s Action Society (Awam) vice-
president Haslinah Yacob said.
“To date, there hasn’t been consulta-
tion with civil society such as women’s
groups. Feedback to Awam is that the
proposed amendments are inadequate to
deal with conversion issues in a holistic
manner. This requires looking into other
acts such as the Guardianship of Infants
Act and Inheritance (Family Provision)
Act,” she said.
“We hope all these issues will be taken
into consideration and that we together
with the Joint Action Group for Gender
Equality will be given an opportunity to
convey our views on this matter.”