Last Monday morning, I held a press conference with the residents of Sri Petaling to express our objection towards DBKL’s approval of the renovation and extension of a house into a 3 to 4-storey bungalow in the double-storey residential area.
The residents are very concerned that the construction is illegal, and that it is unsafe since the foundation of the building is meant for 2 storeys, not 3 or 4 storeys!
The Sri Petaling residents who were very unhappy about this construction screamed at the house owner and his lawyer. The houseowner took photos of whoever came close to them. He told us that the gathering is illegal under the police act.
His lawyer produced the approval letter that he received from DBKL date 12 July 2010. This was something the residents and I had not been informed about. That’s why the house owner was unhappy that we had organised this press conference.
He invited us to go inspect his house which is midway construction to show to us that its not meant for commercial purpose as the residents had suspected. And that it doesn’t have 14 rooms but 9 rooms.
According to his lawyer, the bungalow is meant for 4 generations of the family to stay there.
The houseowner also reminded me that he is my supporter and that he voted for me in the last election. To that, I let the houseowner know that the construction of his home is causing many complaints from the residents and I have to handle because it’s my duty as a wakil rakyat.
I also let him know know that my concern in this issue is not to target you but DBKL for approving this building in the first place. How could DBKL have approved it when there have been so much objection from the local community, which DBKL seems to have ignored and not addressed at all? The residents have organised signature campaigns, sent letters and reminder letters to DBKL without any response. That’s why the residents’ approached me and so I have to help them.
My statement to the press was that I find that there is something very wrong with the planning department of DBKL. They seem to approve whatever people apply for at whatever height or density that they like.
This includes the proposed high-rise condo in Kuchai Entrepreneur’s Park directly opposite Dynasty Garden condo which has only one exit road. DBKL has not widened the road and yet they’ve approved this high density condo in an already crowded area. For this case, I too came out to protest with the residents twice.
In Salak South, DBKL approved the extension of a shophouse onto the road reserve. This shows that there is lack of uniformity in DBKL planning and creates a lot of discomfort and inconvenience within the community. I blame this upon DBKL and I will speak up against it in parliament, and write a letter of complaint to the datuk bandar.
Since DBKL is creating such problems, maybe some of their planning officers need be removed or transferred.
Speaking of housing, i live in Arena Green, Bukit Jalil, I have no idea how can DBKL approve this building where not enough parking given to the residents there. Each unit is allocated for one car. And you can see the visitor car park is the so-called Secondary car-park for the residents, so what’s left for us is the tepi-jalan car park.
Things started to pissed me off is when DBKL and Polis kept on kacau and saman us. At times, they came at odds hours 8:00am+ (during rush hour going to office, and some times 6:00pm+) What the heck??
I really hope my wakil here can assist us to do something, or at least nego with tha DBKL/Polis not to kacau us during off office hours, coz there is really not enough space to park in the building, and we are not obstructing the traffic (most of us), unless we do, then the saman will make senses.
And many times, a lot of cars that parked there, things from the cars were get stolen, tyres(seriously 4 tyres, and they left you batu to support your car) Rims, audio players, side mirrors, car batteries, wipers and so on.
At times, we really feel helpless, there is nothing we can do, we are just normal citizen that pay taxes/bills. And this is what we get in return.
There is a number of project where the approval for development by DBKL are in question and one of this is the 8 new units of 3 storey ib Bukit Intan Petaling, Seri Petaling was build on the land previously used as Tangki Najis for Bukit Intan Petaling which is included as part common area of the S&P of all the purchaser in the 1985-1990. How can such common area be approve for used by the developer for their housing development? If this trend of allowing common area to be approve for housing cevelopment we might have to loss common area used for worship, playground or school.
The general rule is Rakyat and opposition MP without Duit tak Boleh buat apa di Kuala Lumpur. With Duit, the authority will help to conceal fact until it is too late to revert the situation or too difficult for all to suggest a drastic action. So what can the resident and the MP do now? Let us be frank, nothing at all! You choose the BN Government, now you have to live with it.
In DBKL, rules are constantly being broken in the face of the rich and the tyrant. Rules and regulations appear to be drafted to protect the powerless rakyat, but in reality they are there to protect and promote the interest of the rich and powerful.
Approval seems to be absolute but in fact it is not! The fact is in any DBKL’s approval there is a clause that stipulates that DBKL can rescind the approval if subsequent to the approval, the conditions of the approval has been violated. Using DBKL’s approval as a mean to ward off any objection is very effective as most rakyat are not familiar with Building By-law and the approval process.
The question is, if the condition of the approval has been violated, would DBKL rescind the approval and take drastic action against the owner? I bet to say, ‘not likely!’.
Wonderful ..thanks a lot for posting a good informitive blog