Shah Alam, Thursday 10 April 2008
The Selangor Exco for Housing, Building Management and Squatter, Iskandar Abdul Samad assured the Housing and Urban Pioneers Coalition, JERIT that all eviction of urban pioneers communities from their land in Selangor would be halted and the state will withdraw all Eviction Notices in Selangor.
This was told to the representatives from seven urban pioneer Kampungs in a meeting initiated by JERIT with the Selangor State Exco, En Iskandar Abdul Samad. For the record, the Urban Pioneers Coalition, JERIT has been actively campaigning and protesting against forced eviction and the Selangor State Policy for Zero Squatters since 2005.
Many memorandums were given and protests were staged, but to no avail as forced evictions and demolishment of houses of Urban pioneers continued under the leadership Khir Toyo. However, the brutal actions by the previous State Government were avenged
when the Urban Settlers campaigned very strongly against the BN and ultimately ensured that BN lost in these areas. JERIT was in the forefront with settlers from Berembang, Rimba Jaya and Kampung Papan and BN lost badly in these areas.
Today the fruit of this political action was seen when the settlers met their new State Government in a completely different environment. The atmosphere was much friendly and solutions seem to be forthcoming.
In today’s meeting, JERIT was represented by the Urban Pioneer Coordinator Parameswary, representatives from 7 villages namely Kg Berembang, Kg, Papan, Kg, Fajar, Kg Temenggung , Kg Kenanga, Kg. Saujana and Kg, Chupadak. Comrade Arutchelvan, Secretary General of Parti Sosialis Malaysia(PSM) also put forward the general demands of the settlers. Among the demands were that the Selangor State government should abolish the Zero Squatter policy and replace it with the Policy of Adequate Housing for All, proper measures to solve the housing problems of the Urban Pioneers, terminate all eviction notices immediately and on cases of Urban Pioneers staying in private land, the state should arrange a dialog between the people and the developer.
The outcome of the meeting was positive as the state government promised to resolve their housing issues as soon as possible. The Exco for Local Government, Ronnie Liu also said that that the state will not use the Emergency Ordinance –Clearance of squatter 1969 and withdraw all court cases that was taken against the urban pioneers. Iskandar promised that a special committee will be formed to study and resolve issues related to Urban Pioneers as soon as possible.
JERIT expressed its hope that the new Selangor State Government will resolve the issues of the urban pioneers as soon as possible as many of them who are part of the government today were in fact with the villagers defending the rights of the people before they were elected.
This CHANGE did not come easy. It is the power of the people which brought about this change. Now it is time to examine if the new State Government can resolve this issue!
Parames E
Coordinator
Housing and Urban Pioneers’s Coalition, JERIT