‘MPPP demolished my house and sold land’

GEORGE TOWN: A retired mechanic is seeking compensation for his house in Jalan Free School which was demolished by the Penang Municipal Council in 2009 as it was built on council land.

Chew Eng Hoe said the council later sold the 0.24ha land to a company which plans to build a boutique bungalow there.

“I have not been given any compensation until today although I had been paying assessment to the council,” he said at a press conference called by Parti Cinta Malaysia vice-president Huan Cheng Guan at the party’s centre at the Rifle Range flats here.

Chew said he, his two daughters and two grandchildren had to stay at the Rifle Range flats for six months, sponsored by a Christian organisation, before moving again to a relative’s house in Mount Erskine for another six months.

Since last year, he has been staying in a low-cost flat in Sungai Pinang, which was obtained through the help of Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi.

Chew said the family house in Jalan Free School, which was built by his late father about 60 years ago, had been occupied by more than 10 family members during those years.

“In July 2009, we were asked by MPPP to vacate our house within a month. They said that our house was an illegally erected structure. We applied for an extension to the deadline as we couldn’t get a new home in just a month.

“The council’s enforcement personnel demolished our house before we could get a new house,” he said.

Chew said he was angry that the land, which had been occupied by his family for six decades, was sold to a company.

“I used to support DAP but now they are not doing the right thing. They have forgotten us, the people who voted them in,” he said,

Huan said although it was council land, they could have been considerate by issuing a temporary operating licence (TOL) or find a way to relocate them.

“If PCM has a chance to take over the Penang Government, we won’t take away people’s land. Even if we do, we will compensate them,” he said.

In an Aug 16 report, MPPP financial management sub-committee alternate chairman Tan Hun Wooi said the land was sold in January last year for RM5.72mil because it had no plans to develop the site.

He said the money would be channelled into a special fund, which would be utilised to acquire other plots of land for the benefit of the people. - The Star