"We just wanted to fight for justice"

The Sun 28/10/2005

THE SECRETARY of the pro-tem committee of the Taman Desaria Residents Association Cho Suet Sen is relieved everything is over. The court ruled in the residents' favour and the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ) has been ordered to pay costs to her and 85 other residents.

Driving us around in the neighbourhood, Cho pointed to the mounds of rubbish and double parked cars as she drove us through the roads between the flats and the houses.

The short journey was disrupted with Cho reversing a few times to allow cars from the other direction to pass through the street, which was congested due to double-parked vehicles.

The driver of the oncoming vehicle from the low-cost flat area lifted his hand in apology as Cho smiled and raised her hand in response. Like most of the residents in Taman Desaria, Cho does not harbour any animosity towards the flat dwellers.

Although the residents' initial suit was against the construction of the flats, it was not against any fellow citizen, she says.

It was just too much for the residents. The whole project was being virtually pushed down their throats - no room even for discussion. In short, the MPPJ treated the residents as non-existent.

They were going to increase the density from 50 to 500 people per acre. That required the residents to be consulted. They foresaw a host of problems - roads had to be expanded, rubbish collection had to be improved, etc, but MPPJ did not bother at all.

"MPPJ's utter disregard for the laws and regulations got to us, and they thought that they could stamp out the objection from this small group of residents and went ahead with their plans."

"We had no other agenda behind our fight but justice," says Amy Lee, a resident.

The residents never wanted to make things difficult for the squatters who were to be relocated.

"It was the high-handedness of the authority that we wanted to fight," says Lee.

"If our care-takers are the law-breakers then it's time to change them, because we expect them to take care of us. Instead they tried to solve their own problems at our expense."

Lee says their counsel Derek Fernandez, R. Sivarasa and L. Leonard went beyond the call of duty and were committed and passionate about the case. They shared the residents' sentiments and they too wanted to see justice done.

When M. Selvarani, 30, returned home after being in Dubai for six months, she found that her neighbourhood had changed.

What used to be a quiet and peaceful neighbourhood has disappeared. There's noise pollution and a large number of vehicles using the access road.

"Due to the high density, security is also compromised. I have seen men on motorcycles come around and steal metal grilles from drains and outside houses," she says.

Besides, parking lots have become scarce, which has resulted in indiscriminate parking - sometimes forcing residents to be blocked out from the entrances to their homes.

Selvarani too has no qualms about living close to low-cost flats.

"We can live in peace with all races and people, that was not the problem. Our problem was the loss of a tranquil, quiet and healthy environment and the fact that the authorities were not listening to our pleas to maintain a livable environment," she said.

Association chairman Mazlan Zulkifli says that the 86 residents who have been battling with the authorities for more than two years were on the verge of giving up several times Ð especially when hearing was postponed several times.

"However we always supported and stood by each other. We wanted our voices to be heard and for the authorities to adhere to the law.

"We were willing to accept or compromise as we are not against anyone moving into our neighbourhood. It would have been okay if the authorities had at least reduced the density of the project to five storeys, because our main concern was the limited facilities and infrastructure to cater for a sudden population increase," he says.

However, the authorities chose to ignore them.

"This pushed us to a corner and we decided to fight. A lot of people discouraged us, asking us why we wanted to fight the authorities, but we just wanted justice."

But there's a downside to the case. There are about 350 houses in the area but only 86 decided to take up the fight.

Some of them had rented their houses while others did not have the financial resources but most of them were either apathetic or sceptical of any positive outcome.

Although the project has been completed, the residents hope that there will be improvements to the infrastructure so that it can compensate for the increase in density.

The residents' argument makes sense - if the infrastructure is only meant for 50 people per acre, it possibly can't handle an increase to 500.

Will MPPJ do anything about it? Well, after this rewarding experience, they would be game for yet another fight!