Small protest outside ‘Umno’s house’ turns into shouting match
A small protest outside the Seputeh community centre resulted in a minor argument between the protesters and those in the community centre today.
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok and a small group of residents were holding banners, signs during a press conference today across the street from the community centre.
They were protesting the sale of the land on which the community centre is built, for the development of affordable housing.
Several people, including a woman in an oversized beanie cap and a man in a blue polo shirt came out to confront the protesters.
“How would you feel if someone came to protest outside your house?” the man asked the protesters.
“Is this your house? Is this Umno’s house?” one of the protesters, a man wearing a red DAP shirt, asked.
“Yes, that’s right,” the man in blue said.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the woman with the beanie cap was shouting at another protester.
“Please show us some respect,” the woman shouted several times, saying that the protest was disrupting the wedding.
Later, Kok told Malaysiakini that her press conference was not disrupting the wedding at all.
“We were not disrupting, we were on the opposite side of the road,” she said.
She also claimed that Seputeh Umno had been using that community centre for years.
When contacted, Seputeh Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Rafii insisted the building was a community centre meant for public use.
“We rent it sometimes (for events and press conferences).
“That hall belongs to the community centre. Kok attended during a wedding, (which is) disrespectful to the ceremony,” he told Malaysiakini.
Meant for public facilities
Before the protest was derailed by the argument, Kok had explained that they were against Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) selling that plot of land to a private developer to build Federal Territories Affordable Housing (Rumawip).
She said that land was meant for public facilities under the Kuala Lumpur city development control plan.
“So how can a public facility building be turned into a high-rise building like that?
“We do not care what sort of housing it is. Maybe it is Rumawip but it is unjustifiable.
“The resident leaders have said this is not the only (development here). There are many other plots used by DBKL for all sorts of development.
“So in the end, they do not have green lung or green space here,” she said.
She has objected to this development since she found out about it since August 2016, writing in to the Federal Territories deputy minister J Loga Bala Mohan about this matter, she said.
She sent another letter voicing their concerns about this to him again in February and March this year, she said.
“Loga also has taken it seriously and sent it to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, telling him about our objection,” she said.
The hearing on their objection will be conducted on March 27, she added.
She said they also intend to have many other protests against the other developments in the area.