Come Clean On MRT Project, Urges Kit Siang
PETALING JAYA: DAP has accused the government of sending mixed signals over the Jalan Sultan MRT (My Rapid Transit) project.
Party supremo Lim Kit Siang demanded that the government come clean over the uncertain fate of Kuala Lumpur’s MRT-afflicted Chinatown lots.
“The affected Jalan Sultan traders and the Malaysian public are entitled to ask, who is telling the truth about the MRT Jalan Sultan land acquisition: (Dr) Chua Soi Lek, Hamid Albar or Idris Jala?” Lim asked in a press statement.
Calling it the latest in Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s “flip-flop list”, the Ipoh Timur MP said that the government was sending mixed signals over the matter.
“Only three days ago, Chua (the MCA president) announced that the government had backtracked from its decision to acquire the land and 31 buildings around Jalan Sultan… to make way for the MRT.”
At the time, lot owners in Chinatown and nearby Bukit Bintang sighed in relief at the news, with some calling it a “slight ray of hope”.
However, Lim added that Land Public Transport Commission chairman Syed Hamid Albar rubbished Chua’s statement, saying that the 31 Jalan Sultan MRT-affected lots required compulsory acquisition.
“Hamid delivered a greater shocker when he declared that there was no guarantee that the acquired Jalan Sultan properties would eventually be returned to the owners,” Lim said.
This was compounded further by a letter from Pemandu chief Idris Jala to the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Malaysia (ACCCIM) president William Chen.
Lim said that Idris had tried to justify the government’s pursuit in a “rail-and-property” model through land acquisitions and subsequent developments on them.
Jala, a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said that the government would not be able to cover the cost of the MRT’s first line – Sungai Buloh-Kajang – through costs alone.
Lim also hit out at the government for holding on to “grandiose promises” through its various transformation programmes.
“It (the government) bears the responsbility to satisfy the Jalan Sultan traders and owners as well as the public that the MRT’s project owners, Prasarana, is not attempting to hijack heritage lots (in Chinatown),” he said.
Earlier this month, Chinatown traders got the shock of their lives when they attended a public briefing on the acquisition of their lots.
Many of them were told that they needed to vacate their land at the last minute in order to make way for the upcoming MRT – Malaysia’s largest infrastructure project to date.
The MRT’s 51km Sungai Buloh-Kajang line – the first of many – will see a total of 31 stations.
Spearheaded by the government to be the final solution to the Klang Valley’s burgeoning congestion problem, the government has yet to come up with a final price tag on the project.
Some parties and politicians have, however, estimated the project to cost RM53 billion.
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