Still waiting for real change

By Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi

AS a registered voter in Hulu Selangor, I am looking forward to an interesting week. It is when the constituency comes alive with VIP visits, official openings and launchings, kenduris and, more importantly, the potholes are covered.

For the upcoming by-election, traffic lights have sprouted overnight at the Prima Beruntung-Bukit Sentosa and the Kampung Koskan-Sungai Choh junctions. The residents in both areas had been petitioning for traffic light junctions for ages.

Meanwhile, the Sungai Choh-Serendah junction, an important pre-war link that connects the southern part of the peninsula to the north, has been resurfaced, making it a joy to drive on.

I soak in the effervescence.

The traffic light marks the entranceway to the Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency. Just 50km from the Kuala Lumpur city centre, this is the dull backwater of Selangor.

Hulu Selangor has several industrial areas and is home to two automotive plants, Tan Chong Motors and Perodua.

The public transport system runs right through the heart of the constituency -- the north and south are linked by the railway line from Rawang to Bukit Mertajam and the federal road from Serendah and Batang Kali to Tanjung Malim. The North South Expressway is the latest addition.

Really, it should be bustling with economic activities.

But unlike the neighbouring agro-based, industry-rich Kuala Selangor district, or the highly-developed Gombak district, Hulu Selangor has remained true to its name -- "hulu" which is the interior, the forsaken.

Hulu Selangor fell prey to property speculators who could not stay afloat after the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit home. Homeowners in Bukit Sentosa, Bukit Beruntung and Bandar Sungai Buaya were left fighting for basic amenities -- from regular bus services to burial grounds. There is still no government clinic here.

As life picked up pace over the decades -- and spanning three general elections -- telephone land lines and mobile phone coverage improved, water and electricity supply became more reliable, bus services were more frequent and more houses were occupied. The townships of Bukit Beruntung and Bukit Sentosa are today liveable. Sadly, the same cannot be said about Bandar Sungai Buaya, where I came to stay in 1999.

Bandar Sungai Buaya was picture perfect. In the morning, mist hung over the township and birds chirped. And, the fresh air.

It was designed to complement the natural landscape, but the 15-year integrated township masterplan could not be completed as planned. Or home owners here would have enjoyed high property value, a clubhouse complete with man-made lake and recreational centres, business centres, colleges and an interchange that would have reduced travelling time to Kuala Lumpur to just 20 minutes.

Call it bad investment, but the victims were not just the house buyers. The Felda Sungai Buaya settlers who sold their land to the developer, Bandar Sungai Buaya Sdn Bhd, were only paid a fraction of their million-ringgit plots of land. Last year, the developer was liquidated.

In the 1999 general election, I bumped into a candidate doing his rounds at the wet market. With fish and vegetables in one hand and a cranky toddler on my hip, I asked him if he could make a change. He huffed and puffed and wiped the sweat off his brow, buying time to give me a non-committal reply, pregnant with rhetoric.

I missed casting my vote here in 2008, but nothing much changed until lately, when Plus Expressway Bhd announced the construction of the Sungai Buaya interchange early next year.

The interchange is palliative. It does not magically wave away the pain and loss of 14 years of development. No one can turn back time, but even the slightest change offers a ray of hope to us here.

So, when I meet him again, I will ask, "Dear Mr Candidate, will there be change?"

And he has two years to make it work before the general election.

It took a builder's unkept promise to break her

A voter in Hulu Selangor was a toddler during the Great Depression of 1929, the significance of which escapes her to this day. She survived World War 2 and went on to become an activist battling the Malay Union. After Merdeka, she was part of the successful Felda revolution. In the end, it was the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis that foiled her hopes. SITI NURBAIYAH NADZMI reports.


AS a fearless activist, Timah Ali, 84, walked for eight days from Padang Kota Lama, Penang to Kuala Lumpur in 1946 to protest against the Malayan Union. Now, hunched but still feisty, all she wants is the land issue in Felda Sungai Buaya to be resolved.

Timah is one of the 363 settlers caught in a complex land issue after the developer could not compensate them in exchange for their land titles in 1994. The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 shattered their dreams.

The story of Felda Sungai Buaya started in 1965, when the 363 settlers built their lives around planting rubber trees on about 1,000ha of land, 18km from Rawang.

In 1994, they signed an agreement for the land to be developed. In return they were to receive compensation according to the size of their land, some plots were worth up to RM1.3 million.

The 15-year integrated township development plan in Bandar Sungai Buaya was halted following the financial crisis in 1997.

The 1,500-acre leasehold project was developed by Land and General, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandar Sungai Buaya Sdn Bhd, which went under liquidation last year.

In 1997, the developer completed and handed over 3,000 homes. Located off the North-South Expressway between Rawang and Bukit Beruntung, the township is accessible via Jalan Sungai Choh from Rawang or the Bukit Beruntung interchange.

It was heartbreaking for Timah and other settlers who lost their land and for some, their means of income. Timah said the settlers received the first payment of RM5,000 in 1994 when they signed the agreement.  The payments then trickled to RM2,000 monthly, then dwindled to RM1,000 before it stopped completely in 2001.

"There were no more rubber trees for us to tap or land for us to grow crops, so we have no income. Most of us are just too old to work, anyway. There is nothing to do but hope that our children will take us in," she said as her eyes glistened.

Timah said many of her contemporaries were ill because of old age. Some had died.

She said many of the settlers later were offered unsold housing units in lieu of cash, but the value of the house was only a fraction of the land value in the original agreement.

"We took the offer rather than have nothing at all," said Timah who now lives in Bandar Sungai Buaya.

Today, the Felda is reduced to a cluster of houses in a village called Kampung Sungai Buaya.

New Straits Times, April 9, 2010