We did not 'kowtow' to Taman Manggis residents, says Penang exco

The Penang government has denied capitulating to the demands made by evicted residents of the Taman Manggis public housing (PPR) units following a settlement yesterday to relocate the families.

The amicable settlement saw 11 families, who earlier resisted eviction, agreeing to move out of their low-cost units, which they were no longer qualified to rent.

"We did not kowtow (bow down) to anyone. There were no demands made by the residents which we gave in to.

“We negotiated directly with the residents without going through any third party,"  Penang exco member for housing Jagdeep Singh Deo said at a press conference in George Town today.

"In fact, we are happy to note the residents agreed to accept our offer," he added.

Jagdeep was responding to claims by activists who declared the settlement was "a people's victory" and that the Penang government had caved into the evicted residents' demands.

Since May 6, after the authorities carried out an eviction exercise involving 22 residents at Taman Manggis along Jalan Burma, five of the families had camped out at the ground floor at Komtar to protest the eviction.

Komtar houses the administrative offices of the Penang state government.

Accompanying Jagdeep (above) at the press conference were Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, state exco members Abdul Halim Saad, Chong Eng, Dr Afif Bahardin and Yeoh Soo Hin.

Chow described the settlement as an "achievement", saying the 22 units could now be distributed to the needy.

"Our objective in repossessing the units from those who were disqualified has been met. This is a national issue which even the minister (of housing) continues to address," Chow added.

Jagdeep said the settlement involved 11 families, of which four agreed to move out voluntarily. One family was not offered alternative housing as they had sub-let their unit to another family.

Two others accepted low-cost units in McCallum Street Ghaut where they are required to pay a monthly rent of RM228, Jagdeep said.

"We do not impose any interest on the residents as this is a rent-to-own scheme where after 20 years, the residents can be owners of the units. So, status-wise they can upgrade themselves from PPR to low-cost housing residents," he said.

Another resident, meanwhile, had agreed to purchase a low-medium cost unit at RM72,500, while the applications for low-cost units of another three are still under consideration, Jagdeep said.

He also noted that there were arrears of RM18 million (up from RM4 million) since 2008 from those who defaulted on their PPR unit rentals.

Asked if Komtar was now open for protesters to camp out there in the future, Jagdeep replied, "If they wish to protest, we will not stop them as we are an open government. But as you said, it is unnecessary. They should come forward to negotiate."

At the same press conference, Afif said the question of the state bowing to pressure did not arise as the negotiations were conducted directly with the residents.

"There were no third parties involved as these parties had ulterior motives, where even the residents felt intimidated by them," Afif said.

"On using children to achieve their personal agenda, it is those instigators who did it on a Facebook Live session while we offered them a place to stay and resolve their plight," he said.

Afif was referring to a Facebook Live session on the day of the eviction which showed children from the evicted families joining the protest march to Komtar.  - Mkini