Public land theft: The Subang Ria Park

Under our current system of Local Governance, there are many weaknesses that allow the \”official theft of public spaces agreed and planned for as green lungs, often by devious means, but always with the collaboration of the Local Authorities.\”

The Subang Ria Green lung is only the latest case-story.

Thirty years ago, after the government housing developers company finished phase three of the Kampung Tunku development, a designated green lung about 2 ½ acres on SS 1/31 was never handed over to the authorities by the developer.

It was originally developed as a Green Lung and a public and community space for recreation with Sepak Takraw courts and a \”roller skating ring.\”

My three generation neighbor family even saw some of the now fathers playing and enjoying that Green Lung.

But their children instead can only run and play in shopping malls.

Then in 1999, without any notice, and about a month before the General Elections, the earth movers began raping our green lung.

We had written countless letters, including at least 10 AR registered letters, but none was even replied.

Today, in fact, the Chief Secretary has directed department heads to reply in 24 hours.

I had even gone to see the then Mayor Dato\’ Abdullah Satar before I bought my house in 1985 and he verbally assured me that this was a Green Lung in every published map of Petaling Jaya and therefore \”should always remain a green area.\”

Little did the former mayor know about the ways of his staff, government agencies and companies wherein greed defines everything, including their means and therefore the end of morality.

Our Green Lung stands today raped and violated all in the name of development.

Development, whether yesterday, today and tomorrow cannot remain only a materialistic agenda of \”big business,\” and their ability to bribe their way out of any problem.

Spiritual crises

I dare say that \”it was only because of corrupt means of power misapplied that the Public Servants at the then MPPJ could close one eye to the ‘non-repossession\’ of the green lung to be subsequently gazzetted into a public park.\”

The failure to do that within 7 years may be the cause and reason for the \”technical ownership of the Subang Ria land which was not duly surrendered.\”

Sime UEP is now seeking to \”further develop the said green area\” on the basis of non-transferred land ownership.

My proposal and advice to both Hannah Yeoh and the SJ Residents Association is therefore as follows:

1. Insist that the menteri besar recovers the public land and simply gazette it as a ‘SIME UEP Park.\’ Let them get some PR value from their ownership of the land. This must become a non-negotiable proposal. Otherwise we work together to vote this government out in the next election.

2. Failing this, the local YB with the residents, Bar Council and other Citizen Groups should consider a class action suit in the public interest. The legal principal of \”non-hand over and subsequent compliance to planning guidelines needs to be legally established so that the \”7 year lapse period is not abused into non-compliance.\”

As YB Hannah Yeoh said the 10 percent green lung space rule needs to be applied for the \”entire development of the township and always sustained as such.\” The goal posts cannot be changed as and when the developer feels like it.

3. The Taman Desa Ria case is a good benchmark to base the entire legal arguments. Derak Fernandez was the lawyer in that case.

4. Our Kampung Tunku case is another good one, as I have enough documentation of official letters and news reports to \”establish and prove the close one eye culture prevalent in the MBPJ\” which led to the subsequent rape of our Green Lung.

5. Residents\’ interests in such matters are really issues of public interest for posterity. The rape of green environment is the cause and source of much of the dehumanisation of modern life.

Nasr in his book, Man and Nature calls this \”the spiritual crisis of modern Man.\” In the pursuit of a better quality of life, we actually destroy the very things that promise the spiritual values we pursue and their sustenance.

Therefore my call to the Bar Council and other citizen organisations, can we tolerate the so-called ‘new government\’ that vexes and vanes with new challenges or do we really not want good governance defined in full in terms of transparency, openness and accountability?

Absolute power…

It is said power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

That holds true only for human power and the experience of power within human systems.

God\’s power and His values are incorruptible. Therefore, although we often quote the rule of law as a divine principle, very often we abuse such rule-based applications and make a mockery of Justice.

But, please allow me to remind all governments that God cannot be mocked and His way will ultimately prevail, always.

The Bar Council and lawyers need to coordinate a volunteer pro-bono workforce to bring such cases into public awareness and to begin to hold even governments accountable.

Therefore, I pray that YB Hannah, having practiced law herself, would consider my suggestion seriously that, with Bar Council and other citizen groups to consider the Subang Ria case as a class-action suit against the local authority for the abuse of the rule of law in not \”ruling and enforcing a gazette when needed to protect the public interest on the matter.\”

It is time for citizens to act before it is too late. When things turn rotten \”in the state of Denmark\” the matter is almost too late, as we see already happening in Perak.

The proper interpretation of the rules of law in the context and within spirit of the text is almost absolute.

Therefore, we, as citizens need to test and review tens of cases of such \”perception bias in interpretation of the law.\” Interpretive judicial decisions cannot become \”the new law in town, regardless of how many Judges concurred with the written judgment.\”

As an ordinary citizen, I am quite agitated by Subang Ria and Perak MB controversy especially when writers like retired Judge NH Chan can so simply educate us on the spirit and the principle of the rule of law without too much complexity.

Non-lawyers can now follow the issues with our eyes open.

Citizens, please arise before such blind and bureaucratic behavior defines truth in the public spaces of life.

Agents comply with the instruction of their masters. Responsible actors work for the truth of a matter.

Citizens have a God-given right to speak for their own sense of Justice.

We cannot merely and blindly trust the political systems or even judicial systems; we have to remain alert and vigilant so that we make sure the elected government represents our views as much as their do the views of those in power.