Online campaign targets Palani and Pahang MB - Free Malaysia Today

P Ramani
February 4, 2014

They will be reminded of promises made to Cameron Highlands residents suffering housing and land woes.

TANAH RATA: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) is organising an online campaign to shame the Pahang and Cameron Highlands authorities into honouring long standing promises to resolve land, housing, farming and trading problems faced by various local communities.
The five-day campaign begins on Feb 10 and its main targets will be Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob and MIC chief G Palanivel, who is MP for Cameron Highlands.
Malaysians will be urged to use Twitter, Facebook, SMS and fax to remind Adnan and Palanivel of promises made to residents in the Green Cow area, farmers in Blue Valley, stall operators at Kea Farm and low-wage earners hoping to buy their own houses.
Palanivel became MP for the constituency after last May’s general election. His predecessor was S Devamany, who contested in Sungai Siput in the same election but lost to PSM’s Michael Jayakumar.
The online campaign will be spearheaded by a committee headed by PSM Cameron Highlands chief K Suresh.
Suresh told FMT that the campaign would highlight the following unsettled issues:
1. Green Cow residents have yet to obtain land titles to enable them to build houses, despite a promise made by both Adnan and Palanivel on July 16, 2012.
2. Farmers in Blue Valley have been waiting for nearly 50 years to get titles to their farms.
3. Houses under the PR1MA project cost at least RM120,000, effectively disqualifying low-wage earners.
4. The state government had been backing property developer Signature Landmark in its move to evacuate stall operators at Kea Farm.
He said the affected communities had, for years, been trying “every means” to get the issues settled by state and local officials but had been given only empty promises.
“The residents had many meetings with Devamany and state assemblyman Ho Yip Kap, but these were never fruitful,” he said.
“In April 2012, the Menteri Besar met the affected residents and promised to visit their areas and settle their problems within two weeks, but nothing happened thereafter.
“Then on July 10, 2012, residents gathered in front of his office to get approval to meet him, but 31 residents and six children were detained by the police.”
Suresh also said Adnan and Palanivel had failed to take action on several letters that residents had sent to them.