An Uncaring Leader's Unconvincing Explanation

The Selangor government is in no position to give the squatter land in Kampung Berembang, Ampang, and Taman Rimba Jaya, Shah Alam, to the squatters as demanded by them as the two sites are privately owned.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo, who said this, also stated that the court had decided that the two pieces of land were under private ownership.

"The (squatters) are occupying other people's land. The land will never be theirs as they are private land. They want the land but I can't give it to them," he told reporters after chairing the state exco meeting here Wednesday.

Dr Mohamad Khir said the state government had "intervened" in the two squatter areas so as to help the squatters obtain compensation. "The state government must not be blamed. If it had not intervened, the squatters would not get anything."

He regretted the incident where his officers were injured when stones were thrown at them by protestors when they tore down the squatter homes.

He also said that the Selangor government had completed the process of relocating 92 per cent of 47,000 squatter families in the state.

On another matter, he said the state government was carrying out a programme until the end of the year, to legalise "problematic" factories. "There are 3,700 such factories which qualify to be legalised because their locations are not causing problems to the local residents. Among the problems involving the factories is the failure to change the land status from agricultural to industrial."

He said the state government was giving the opportunity for the factories to be legalised so as not to 'lose investment in an increasingly competitive world'. "However, less than 50 of these prolematic factories will not be given the licence as they are located near rivers, the land are not owned by them, have no sales and purchase agreement or are occupying Public Works Department reserve land," he added. (Bernama)

***** Poor Khir Toyo, he sounds so sad. Must be feeling depressed while solemnly thinking of the hardship, the pain and the trauma undergone by his officers who were injured while trying to bulldoze and demolish the residences of real people and not dummies in a film studio set. His poor pegawai2; I'm sure that they'll be adequately compensated for their wiraism. And what about the pesky squatters? We can assume that as far as Toyo is concerned they could be shipped off to Addis Ababa for all he cares. Private ownership of the land in question has been restored and his sworn constitutional duties as a pemimpin have been performed to perfection. The rich guys have won and are happy while the poor sods have been shown their place. What more can he ask? If only his officers had not been injured though. That would have been a merry ending for a day of hard work by our benevolent Menteri Besar. Hidup Khir Toyo! Hidup Barisan!
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