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Peter Raiappan, the secretary of the Medan Damansara Residents Association speaking to residents at the meeting.
How low can things get? The pinnacle of cowardice is when individual(s) in a body corporate, use funds from public institutions to launch massive punitive and intimidating lawsuits against citizens seeking protection of life and limb and property under perpetual threat of a landslide arising from shaky and ill conceived development projects.
Such lawsuits bring shame not just upon Developers, it equally drags into disrepute the many professional arms of industry associated with such developers – the banking, insurance, legal, engineering, architectural and government agencies.
Finally it makes a mockery of a nation, where the common man who toils for simple honest wages, may be viciously set upon by vulgar, well connected and greedy corporate institutions whose primary mission is the servicing of the ultra, ultra wealthy. And that too at a time, when any street hick will tell you, that the property markets globally are entering a severe economic slump, expected to last not less than five to ten years.
Ashok M
JACBG
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The star Online Updated: Saturday December 13, 2008 MYT 5:57:34 PM
By NG SI HOOI
KUALA LUMPUR: The Medan Damansara Residents Association has set up a fund to raise money to support its four office bearers who are being sued by SDB Properties Sdn Bhd.
The association president P. Subhakaran said the four including himself, Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Shukor Abdullah (who was then the association president), Peter Raiappan and Randhir Singh was being sued for defamation in their personal capacity.
“We have filed our defence and hired a lawyer to represent us.
“I am ready for the day in court, We have been given a mandate by the residents to protect their interest,” he told reporters after attending a meeting between residents and several MPs including Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan on Saturday.
The developer had filed a suit against the four in their personal capacity at High Court three months ago.
Subhakaran said the association hoped to meet the Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique, new Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Ahmad Fuad and relevant authorities to highlight their plight.
The association assistant secretary Randhir Singh said the association wanted the government to scrap instead of freezing the Damansara 21 hillside project.
“The authority may continue the project later. We want the government to put a stop on it.
“About 14.9% of the hillside is above 35 degree. It is not safe to the residents nearby. What is more important, the human life or developer?” he asked.
Randhir said the association appealed to all banks and financial institutions not to finance high-rise development hillside projects.
“The banks talk about the corporate social responsibility and environmental campaign but yet they still finance to these kind of developers.
“We also appeal to professionals including consultants and lawyers to not be part of such developments,” he said.
He said the residents as well as non-residents had been very supportive to the fund set up by the association three weeks ago.
“We even receive donations from those who are not staying here. We welcome donation for the fund to help the four who are being sued,” he said.
He said the association had set up a blog to highlight the plight of the residents on the website.
The address is http://www.medandamansara21.blogspot.com/
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/13/nation/20081213162256&sec=nation
More Photos here….
rocky’s bru
Four sued in personal capacity. Three months before the Bukit Antarabangsa disaster happened, a public-listed developer sued four office bearers of a residents association.
Shearn Delamore & Co are acting for the property developer. I was told that prominent lawyer Robert Lazar is handling the case against the residents for the public-listed giant. The suit, filed on Sept 2, is believed to be the first by a prominent housing developer against a residents’ association.
A resident said he believed the four were being sued in their personal capacity in order to intimidate them and the association as a whole….More
Read and you’ll see the half baked, cautious and conditional ban and freeze, that leaves ample room for development to resume once the heat of the moment subsides. This lack of will to safeguard human lives is what happens when the Government gets into business – profits before principles.
If the 25 – 35 degree slopes are to be ’studied further, for reinforcement, etc etc’ which in all probability will not be worth the paper that its written on, we should demand, that there must be an additional guarantee in perpetuity of a landslide insurance against loss of life and property for all affected stakeholders in and around the development project, to be borne by the Government, Federal or Local body giving the project development approval.
Ashok M
JAC for Bukit Gasing
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FLASH:No development on steep hillslopes
Bernama, NST Frontpage, December 12, 2008
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/Frontpage/20081212172050/Article/index_html
KUALA LUMPUR, FRI:
The Federal Territory Ministry today decided not to allow any development projects on hillslopes of more than 35 degree gradient and freezes projects on hillslopes with gradient of between 26 to 35 degree, its minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique said in Putrajaya.
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No development on hill slopes exceeding 35 degrees gradient in FT
Bernama, NST Frontpage, December 12, 2008
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/NewsBreak/20081212194954/Article/index_html
PUTRAJAYA, FRI:
The Federal Territories Ministry today decided to disallow any development on hill slopes with a gradient of more than 35 degrees in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan. Its minister, Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique said projects on hill slopes with a gradient of 26 to 35 degrees would be frozen until such time when a proper planning, design and control system had been devised and enforced by the government.
“However, the developers or contractors of the affected projects will be asked to carry out work to reinforce the soil structure including constructing a proper drainage system to ensure that the soil structure is safe from landslides,” he told reporters at a press conference at his office, here today.
Zulhasnan said that for projects on hill slopes that had already been approved, the developers or contractors would not be allowed to carry out earth works or building construction until the government had reached a decision.
“The Ministry of Housing and Local Government and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment are carrying out studies on this matter and they will issue guidelines on such developments soon, and whether these projects would continue will depend on these guidelines,” he said.
Zulhasnan said that currently three projects in Kuala Lumpur had been identified as risky, namely the development of 21 units of bungalows in Medan Damansara, the development of a block of service apartments in Bukit Ceylon, and the development of bungalows on Bukit Gasing.
For the projects in Medan Damansara and Bukit Ceylon, he said the developers had been ordered to stop development work and, instead, asked to reinforce the slopes as had been approved.
For the project in Bukit Gasing, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) had postponed consideration for the application to build individual bungalows as the case had been taken to court because the residents of Taman Bukit Gasing were not happy with the approval given for the project.
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