Return PJ land back to state, MCA’s Chew told

DAP’s Tony Pua and Yeo Bee Yin say the land allegedly bought by MCA below market price should remain a ‘water body’ to prevent flooding.

PETALING JAYA: Two DAP lawmakers have called on MCA vice-president Chew Mei Fun to support their call for a plot of land here, allegedly purchased by MCA below the market price in 2008, to be returned to the state.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and Damansara Utama state assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin said this was to allow the land to remain a “water body”, as zoned in the Petaling Jaya Local Plan, to prevent flooding along the nearby Sungai Kayu Ara river.

“If Datin Paduka Chew still has any conscience left in her, would she agree with us that the land be returned to the state government so that it can remain as a ‘water body’, acting as a buffer to prevent flooding along Sungai Kayu Ara in Kampung Chempaka?

“Or at the very least, would she agree that it is only proper for a political party to pay the full premium for the land which was alienated by the state government?” they said in a joint statement today.

They claimed that MCA had applied to convert the “water body” into a “commercial and services” zone.

They said Chew, who was Petaling Jaya Utara MP from 1999 to 2008, was free to sue them for their comments on the land deal expressed in a video published by Yeo on her Facebook page and at their joint press conferences over the issue.

They also urged her to declare that all parcels of land alienated by state governments in the country to MCA be returned to the respective states, failing which the premium for the parcels be paid in full.

Chew had yesterday accused Pua of purposely dragging her into the matter over the land.

The former deputy minister said Pua had failed to do his homework as MPs did not sit in at district-level land committee meetings which decide on land matters.

She also said the Selangor MCA had legally obtained the land.

Earlier, Pua and Yeo had raised the issue of the sale of the land in SS25 to Selangor MCA in 2008 at RM1 per square foot (psf), a price which they claimed was normally reserved for religious institutions wishing to build places of worship.

Pua claimed the market value of the land was RM400 psf and wanted Chew to clarify if such dealings were acceptable as she was the MP for the constituency at the time the alleged deal was struck.

He further claimed that when Barisan Nasional was in charge of the Selangor government, it had district-level land committees where MPs, state assemblymen and district officers would discuss, among others, the sale of land.

At a press conference today, Chew said she had instructed her lawyers to issue a letter of demand to Yeo for an apology, and to also request her to remove the allegedly offending video from her Facebook, the first of which appeared on Sept 14.

She said the land committee, chaired by the district officer, was attended by state assemblymen and assistant district officers.

“That land committee has nothing to do with MPs. MPs are not one of the committee members in that land committee,” she said. -FMT