Khalid Samad disappointed with 'friends' over project criticism

Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad said he was disappointed that his “friends” did not try to meet him about the Taman Rimba Kiara development project before criticising it publicly.

“I don’t know how many times you have gone and met with the Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) residents but you have not sat and met with me even for one minute.

“So how can you make comments after listening to one side of the story?

“If you can go and talk to the resident so many times, why don’t you come and see me? Just come once and I can explain to you and I will show you all the documents.

“This is very, very disappointing because we were all friends,” he said in a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Khalid was referring to former Malaysian Bar president Ambiga Sreenevasan and Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) executive director Cynthia Gabriel, who had yesterday criticised the ministry over how it handled the project.

Encouraging them to meet him, he insisted he was not trying to be sarcastic but he would genuinely try to give them “a full answer”.

Describing the situation as “embarrassing”, he said he respected them and did not want to rebut them publicly about getting their facts right.

“So why don’t you come and see me, rather than come out with a statement in the media to criticise and attack me?” he asked.

Khalid said he had even met with the TTDI residents himself several times, including at a town hall meeting, to explain the renegotiated deal.

However, he said, the residents refused to budge even an inch on their stand.

“They (the residents) have rights by virtue of the fact that they live in TTDI but you have got to draw a line.

“You don’t own the park. It is not your park. And there is (another) big park just a kilometre away, the Taman Persekutuan Bukit Kiara... it is 370 acres, just next to (Taman Rimba Kiara),” he said.

Earlier in the press conference, Khalid had described the renegotiated project as a “win-win” situation.

“In our solution, the developer gets their project, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall gets to save money, the residents get four acres back and the development will not affect the park itself, as it will only use the car park and longhouse site.

“So it is a win-win situation, if we are willing to compromise.

“I am not hurting anybody. Even the park is not being affected,” he had said.

Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh had yesterday said she and the residents want the project to either be scrapped entirely or limited to redeveloping the longhouse without encroachment into the park.  - Mkini