'Spad admission exposes its hypocrisy'

The “hypocrisy” of the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) has been exposed by its admission that underground land can be acquired for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) project without affecting landowners, says the DAP.

In a letter from Spad chief executive officer Mohd Nur Kamal on the acquisition of land along Jalan Sultan, the commission conceded that "all affected individual landowners (can) apply for stratum titles to be issued to the government".

However Nur Kamal also claimed that in the interest of expediency - "criticality of the project timetable, the benefit of the government instead of each individual owner handling the process" - the government has chosen to acquire all land first, and decide whether to return the surface land later.

He emphasised specifically that the government "is in no position to make guarantees of the return of these properties".

The argument has not gone down well with DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua, who said the Spad admission and convoluted explanation clearly reflect that the government's actions were done in bad faith.

He pointed out that the National Land Code 1965 had been specifically amended in 1990 to allow for the acquisition of underground land without affecting surface property by inserting Part Five (A) (section 92A to 92G) under Clause 3.

This enables the disposal of underground land, which can then either be alienated or leased to construct tunnels, car parks and to lay pipes, he said.

"When the law clearly enables the government to acquire the stratum or underground land without affecting the surface, it still chooses to acquire all land - surface and underground - at one go,” said the Petaling Jaya Utara MP who has been following the issue closely.

"Expediency is not a valid reason to abuse the law, especially when the rights of the property owners are significantly jeopardised.

"On top of that, on the one hand, Spad argues that the acquisition process is just a matter of convenience. But on the other it says that it may not want to return the land after acquiring it - how more hypocritical can one get?"

Therefore, the government's claim that it had 'listened' to feedback from the affected parties and had agreed to a mutually acceptable outcome, was merely a public relations exercise.

"All the various untenable excuses being raised leads only to a single possible conclusion - the land acquisition exercises proposed in Chinatown (Jalan Sultan), Bukit Bintang and other prime locations are nothing but poorly masked attempts at profiteering and land grab," said Pua.

'Stick to role'

These actions, he stressed, are in breach of the spirit of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 where the government is only to acquire private land, and only that which is necessary for public use and benefit, and not for profit.

He called on Spad to stop "tunneling a deeper hole for itself" and stick to its role of independently regulating and ensuring an efficient and effective public transportation system.

"It should not become a partner-in-crime for the government to justify its 'land grab' exercises, which is completely irrelevant to the planning and design of the MRT system."

In the same letter, Nur Kamal had denied any allegation of land grab.

"...the accusations that the land that is being compulsorily acquired for the MRT project is tantamount to land grabbing, is baseless."

He urged the public to examine first the intentions of the parties in making “misleading views” as these may be designed to confuse and aggravate the situation or incite fear among those whose land is affected by the project.

"We are concerned that some of these views are being put forth based on inaccurate, incomplete and a lack of understanding of the issues and facts."