LETTER | Stop wasting funds, focus on housing for longhouse residents

LETTER | The Taman Tun Dr Ismail Residents’ Association (TTDI RA) refers to:

1. The landmark Court of Appeal decision on Jan 27, 2021, which unanimously decided to quash the development order granted by DBKL for condos in Taman Rimba Kiara; and

2. The statement issued by Hannah Yeoh, Segambut MP, yesterday, Feb 5 in which she called on the Federal Territories Minister as chairperson of Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan to focus on delivering affordable landed units as permanent housing for the Bukit Kiara longhouse families.

As the representative body for thousands of tax-paying and rate-paying KL residents in the immediate vicinity of Taman Rimba Kiara and the longhouses, the TTDI RA wishes to state as follows:

Do not appeal the appellate court's decision.

(a) we call on the Kuala Lumpur Mayor and Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan to not appeal the Jan 27 Court of Appeal decision;

(b) the Court of Appeal decision has already been hailed widely as a landmark ruling, including by the Malaysian Bar and legal experts;

(c) the Datuk Bandar and Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan should instead demonstrate their willingness to abide by the significant pronouncements issued by the Court of Appeal and concentrate resources on reforms to be in line with the judicial guidance provided;

(d) as KL residents we object to even more resources being used by DBKL and/or Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan to appeal a decision which is already so clear and definitive in its handling of the legal issues.

(e)  Kuala Lumpur is a government agency and as such, has a role to play to promote and safeguard the interest of the rakyat. And since this is a public interest initiative championed by the citizens of Kuala Lumpur and supported by the general public, we urge DBKL to perform that role and not to spend valuable resources to challenge the will of the people.

We can deliver ‘Wilayah Prihatin’ together.

We echo Hannah Yeoh’s call for the FT minister, who is currently also chairperson of Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan, to focus on delivering affordable landed units for the 98 longhouse families within the existing four-acre footprint of the longhouse area.

We request a meeting with the FT minister, at the soonest practicable time, to collectively engage on the aforesaid townhouse permanent housing plan as proposed previously by the TTDI RA, which in our opinion would be an excellent showcase of the ‘Wilayah Prihatin’ spirit.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.