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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

‘Black City Day’ march to object MRT project


Chinatown traders and their supporters celebrated FT Day by staging a protest march to oppose the proposed MRT project.
KUALA LUMPUR: Chinatown traders today staged a “Black City Day” march from Jalan Sultan to Bukit Bintang to protest against the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) construction here.
Calling it a “Black City Day”, some 30 black-shirted traders and their supporters waved black flags on a three-hour “heritage walk” at 9:30am from the Klang Bus Station before ending at the McDonalds Bukit Bintang outlet.
(The two locations are also the sites designated for the Jalan Sultan and Bukit Bintang MRT stations. The term ‘Black City Day’ is also a play on KL’s anniversary, Federal Territory Day.)
Leading the way was Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) Stanley Yong Yew Wei, who said it was “unwise” for the MRT’s project owners MRT Corp to build underground tunnels here.
“MRT Corp wants to construct underground tunnels (here)…This is very unwise, because even though they used the best (tunnelling) method in the world, it will not guarantee the stability of the old buildings of Jalan Sultan and Jalan Petaling.”
“(MRT Corp) should keep the character of KL as it is,” he told reporters at a press conference.
In mid-August, dozens of lot-owners in Jalan Sultan and Bukit Bintang were told that their buildings were going to be taken through land acquisition for the construction of underground MRT tunnels.
At the time, the lot-owners feared that their buildings would be demolished to make way for the massive public transport project.
Unhappy with being notified about the matter at the very last minute, the lot-owners took their grouses to politicians, and warned the government not to grab their land by force.
Since then a large number of the traders have been negotiating with MRT Corp (wholly-owned by the Finance Ministry) over the matter, with some coming to “mutual agreements”.
Others, such as those who marched today, were opposed to any construction in the area. Instead, they proposed that the government realign the MRT tracks to travel along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock.
Will turn away visitors
The government however, according to Yong, has been ignoring them.
“For the last four months, we have been requesting MRT to have a dialogue with us. (But the past) four months has brought us to nowhere,” he said.
He added that any heavy construction would affect the “two to three million” visitors coming here per month.
DAP’s Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun also attended the march. Dissatisfied, he said that MRT Corp had yet to share the project’s “social impact assessment” with the public.
He told reporters that the government had put up a public notice board along Jalan Sultan two days before Chinese New Year.
The notice board, he said, was supposedly raised for people to write their opinions about the upcoming MRT.
During the march, FMT noticed that the said notice board had a few comments supporting the MRT’s construction, most opposed the project.
“Re-align the road, we want to come back!” wrote one Isanna from Sweden.
A tourist known as Samantha wrote: “Hi, my name is Samantha. I am (an) Australian. Please don’t knock down the building. Chinatown is the best part of Kuala Lumpur. Keep it safe xoxo.”
An anonymous writer wrote: “Some people have lived here for (a) few generations. Please do not destroy their livelihood!”
Majlis Permuafakatan Perkampungan Warisan chairman Ishak Surin, who was there to give his support, advised the Chinatown traders to keep on fighting for their land.
“We are against (the MRT construction), and hope our friends in Jalan Sultan and Jalan Petaling will be firm in (fighting for) their rights,” he said.
He added that KLites had a responsibility to heritage sites such as Chinatown, and needed to take care of them.

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