Penang's Tmn Manggis - kids evicted from their homes join rally to protest move

Chaos erupted at Penang's Taman Manggis PPR (public housing) scheme this morning when state Housing Department enforcement officers evicted 22 unqualified tenants from their units.

Several refused to leave their homes and this was compounded by several Malay rights activists going around asking the tenants not to vacate their homes.

The entire scene was captured in a Facebook Live session by political activist Muhsin Latheef who was there to defend the affected tenants.

The activists later waved placards and held a peaceful rally outside the flats along Jalan Burma condemning the Penang government for the eviction.

Earlier, police, accompanied by enforcement officers arrested a foreigner with his Malaysian wife. The couple has eight children and had lived in a Taman Manggis unit for 14 years.

Failing to stop the eviction exercise after enforcement officers sealed the units and padlocked the gates, the activists and evicted tenants marched to Komtar with the eight children in tow and handed over a memorandum at Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow's office.

At a press conference later, Chow said the Taman Manggis flats were only available for tenants up to five years after which their tenancy agreement would be reviewed by the state housing department.

He said the tenants evicted today had been given ample time since last year to move out and an eviction exercise last week was postponed to allow them to appeal their case to the state housing department.

"Tenancy at these public housing units come with conditions. It is hoped that after five years, these tenants would have improved themselves financially thus allowing other more needy tenants to live in the units," Chow said.

"With better work after five years, the tenants should be able to afford their own units and may even be able to buy their own homes," he added.

Chow said public housing units were provided for the hardcore poor but they also had responsibilities to pay rental for the units and comply with the criteria set forth by the housing department.

Chow (above) noted that there were 400 applicants for the Taman Manggis public housing units and applicants had waited between seven and 11 years to move in.

"However, they could not do so as there were unqualified tenants who did not meet the criteria still living there. So we had to take action," he said.

Yesterday, state exco member for housing Jagdeep Singh Deo said tenants who defaulted on their rental payments and maintenance charges would become ineligible for the units.

Those who earned above RM1,500, had foreign spouses or had sub-let their units would also become ineligible, he said.

Jagdeep said there were 1,137 applicants for the 999 public housing units available in Penang of which 734 were in the Northeast District and 494 in Taman Manggis. -Mkini