'Advise developer against evicting villagers'

The Hindu Rights Action Group (Hindraf) has urged the Penang government to intervene over the pending eviction of residents at Kampung Boundary 5, to resolve the crisis in a just manner.

Hindraf national advisor N Ganesan said the DAP-led state government has a moral obligation to see that every citizen prospers, in light of its philosophy of social justice.

And there could not be a better place to practise what it preaches than in the Air Putih state seat held by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and where the village is located, he noted.

A Sessions Court had issued an eviction order on April 4 for the houses in the village to be vacated by tomorrow.

The houses, located on a four-acre site that the developer acquired some 10 years ago, are to be demolished to make way for three-storey bungalow units.

The 12 affected families have filed a legal suit in the High Court, alleging  fraudulent land grab by a developer and others.

At a protest yesterday, Kg Boundary 5 residents association president Santok Singh outlined the chronology of events and kicked off a fund-raising campaign for the legal suit.

Another resident, also named Santokh Singh, said that his father had signed the developer’s documents even though he is only literate in the Punjabi language.

“This is the kind of ignorance the developer has taken advantage of," he claimed.

‘Wait for court ruling’

Ganesan, who took part in the protest, urged the state government to advise the developer to wait for disposal of the court case and not to enforce the eviction notice.

"The developer can then settle (the matter) with (the families) in a just manner ... without resorting to coercion or deceit or any more distracting actions," he said.

Ganesan cited Article 8 of the federal constitution which states that ‘all persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law’.

"But this is expressly not true when the developer has huge financial resources to appoint expensive lawyers ..., while these poor villagers struggle to even meet their most basic legal expenses," he added.