Landowner calls off eviction… for now

Police talk to landowner and advise against going ahead with eviction due to public safety issues.

GEORGE TOWN: Villagers of Kampung Mutiara breathed a sigh of relief when the new owner of the land their homes sit on, decided to call off the intended eviction today when police advised him against it.

According to a report on Malay Mail Online, Penang northeast district police chief ACP Mior Farid Alathrash Wahid said, “We have advised them to postpone the action due to public safety concerns so they agreed to postpone the eviction action to another yet-to-be-determined date.”

Although relieved at the postponement, the villagers are still worried that they eventually will have to pack up and leave with absolutely no compensation in hand.

Housewife Hatijah Hassan, 70, who was among hundreds of others who took turns to barricade the entrances to their village since Thursday last week, said, “We hardly had any sleep or rest in these past four days, all we want is compensation. They can’t just evict us as if we are illegal immigrants.”

Sharing her sentiments was Viji Krishnan, 51, who added, “We only want fair compensation, they can’t just evict us from our homes, we are all poor people, we have nowhere else to go.” Viji and her family have made Kampung Mutiara their home for decades as did her parents, the news portal said.

K Govinderajoo meanwhile said that while he was relieved the eviction had been postponed indefinitely, it was only temporary and that now all they could do was hope fervently that negotiations with the landowner had gone well.

This morning, the villagers’ lawyer V Amareson, applied to the court again for a stay of the eviction action. However the court said it was up to the police to advise the landowner about it.

Speaking to the villagers before they dispersed was Bukit Bendera Umno division chief Ahmad Ismail, who said, “Your homes are safe for now and the Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon has told me that the landowner is now willing to enter into discussions with him on what to do next.”

He said Umno would push for Khazanah Nasional Berhad or UDA Holdings to purchase the 3.5 acre parcel of land from the landowner so that it may be preserved as a village or possibly used as a “relocation site” for other villagers being evicted in the Batu Ferringhi area.