'Our lives destroyed for Putrajaya'

Even though the residents of the Taman Permata Dengkil flats recently got allocated 40 acres of land by the Selangor government for terrace house development, N Kumaran said their lives were destroyed when they were forced out of their estates in what is now Putrajaya.

"Our lives were destroyed for the convenience and luxury of Putrajaya," Kumaran, who is the Taman Permata Dengkil flats committee secretary, said at a forum titled 'Cerita Perjuangan: I Fought The Law' in Petaling Jaya today.

The flat dwellers first made headlines in 2009, 10 years after they were relocated from plantations to make way for Putrajaya.

Then, 50 residents staged a protest over the poor maintenance and deplorable conditions of their flats, which Kumaran said they were forced to live in, despite having been promised terraced houses as compensation.

The problems have since affected about 400 households.

In 2013, the residents then staged another protest by moving into tents outside their flats, where they stayed in the makeshift shelters for 1,000 days.

"The conditions of the flats were worse than goat pens," Kumaran said.

But the fight was worth it, he added, because after 1,000 days, the Selangor government finally allocated them land to build the terraced houses they were originally promised.

Meanwhile, Fatimah Bah Sin, an Orang Asli from Pahang, spoke about her experiences fighting for her land against the state government.

"When I first learned about my rights as an Orang Asli and a citizen, I started feeling disappointed and motivated to fight for my rights," she said during the forum, to a crowd of about 80 people.

A representative from Kampung Gatco in Negeri Sembilan, John Cantius, also related his experiences protecting their land against what he described as gangsters. -Mkini