Stop Federal Hill land deal, Fahmi urges Putrajaya

MP says action can be taken through instructions from the top as property developer SP Setia is a government-linked company.

Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil says he is not happy with what SP Setia presented.

PETALING JAYA: Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil wants the federal government to reverse a land swap deal for a proposed property development on government land at Federal Hill, opposite KL Sentral.

“This deal should not have gone off,” he told FMT. “From the very beginning I was very against the project. Right now we want to know how the land deal was settled.”

Fahmi said that the government could consider reversing the deal through an executive instruction, as SP Setia is a government-linked company. “They are government-owned after all.”

The 20-hectare (51 acres) plot of land houses the National Institute of Health (NIH) and was acquired in a land swap deal in 2012 by a joint venture between property developer SP Setia and a company linked to prominent billionaire tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.

SP Setia bought out its partner for RM431 million in cash in March.

SP Setia is 77% owned by government entities: Permodalan Nasional and its unit trusts own 62.32% and the Employees Provident Fund and Retirement Fund Incorporated own 15.1%.

Last week, the residents association of nearby Bukit Bandaraya had complained about heavy earth works being undertaken at the NIH site, where several Public Works Department bungalows were being demolished.

Fahmi said the project was bad for the environment and the people in the area, and he would take up the matter with the Federal Territory Ministry. “I have seen what (SP Setia) presented and I am not happy with what I saw,” he said.

He said there are three royal residences among the homes on Federal Hill and people living there would be affected by the project. He said the royalty have yet to raise their concerns regarding the project, probably because they did not know the extent of the development.

Fahmi said SP Setia had refused to meet the Bukit Bandaraya Residents Association. “They said that they will not meet the residents at this juncture because they have yet to finalise the plans.”

He said that SP Setia “cannot hide behind excuses” and that as a government-linked company, “it needs to meet the public”.

Last week Bukit Bandaraya Residents Association deputy president Mumtaz Ali said the NIH land was zoned as institutional land which could not be changed for any other purpose.

He had questioned whether all necessary procedures had been followed in the change of land use, and noted that the project could only have come about because the Draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 had not been gazetted.

The land was obtained through a privatisation agreement in 2012. In return for the Federal Hill land, SP Setia would build a health research facility on a 41-acre plot in its property development Setia Alam, near Shah Alam, while a clinic to be known as Klinik Bangsar and 24 apartments would be built on the land. -FMT