Selangor Sultan weighs in on Kg Sungai Baru as minister breaks ranks with government, backs residents

The Sultan of Selangor today weighed in on the Kampung Sungai Baru saga, with a warning that any redevelopment project in the area must take into account historical perspectives and the interests of the Malays as it is a Malay Agricultural Settlement (MAS), a category that imposes strict conditions on any development activities.

"Kampung Baru is indeed a symbol of the rise of the Malays since 1900, so I would like to emphasise once again that Kampung Baru plays an important role in the survival and dignity of the Malays in Kuala Lumpur.

"Therefore, any decision or development attempts in Kampung Baru must take into account the interests of the Malays, both at the moment and in the long run," said Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah in a statement released by the Selangor Royal Office today.

The sultan's reminder comes a week after hundreds of police and enforcement officers were deployed to assist the developer in implementing eviction notices for residents who refused to leave their homes.

The eviction, which was carried out under the controversial Land Acquisition Act, also saw a scuffle which left Dang Wangi district police chief Sulizmie Affendy Sulaiman bleeding from his head and several others suffering minor injuries.

The residents of Kampung Sungai Baru, an area within the Malay enclave of Kampung Baru, had previously called for an inquiry by the Land and Mines Office into the status of their land, producing a colonial era document proving its classification as MAS.

The document, a gazette dated 1932, contradicted claims of several ministers and government leaders that the land is not part of MAS, seen as an attempt to justify the use of the Land Acquisition Act.

The MAS status gives the area protection, with strict conditions against any acquisition of land.

Kampung Sungai Baru residents' legal adviser N Surendran previously urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to intervene in order to resolve the dispute, , starting with an admission that the land is categorised as MAS, and therefore considered Malay reserve land.

In his statement today, the Selangor ruler also reminded that Kampung Baru was a gift from his late grandfather, Sultan Alaeddin Sulaiman Shah ibni Raja Muda Musa, adding that the land now situated in the heart of Kuala Lumpur has historical values that must be preserved.

Saying that he himself spent his childhood and attended school in Kampung Baru, Sultan Sharafuddin went on to list several historical buildings in the area, including the Sultan Sulaiman Club, which hosted the Malay Congress in 1946 that paved the way for the establishment of Umno.

Sultan Sharafuddin said while he was not against redevelopment, any future plan must prioritise the Malays in the area.

"Therefore, I want the relevant parties, in deliberating on this matter, to take into consideration the original history of the establishment and the heritage of the Kampung Baru area," he added.

'Former mayor turned developer's consultant'

While the government has sided with the developer in evicting the residents, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, who is also the MP of the Titiwangsa constituency which covers Kampung Sungai Baru, appears to break ranks with the authorites, calling the eviction as unfair to the landowners.

He said the area has always attracted property developers who wanted to cash in on the high land values due to its proximity to the Golden Triangle, where land prices are among the highest in the country.

Johari said that in his first term as MP before his defeat in the 2018 elections, he campaigned against property developers and told residents to snub any attempts to acquire their land.

When he was no longer an MP, he said, property developers managed to persuade more residents, most of whom from poor families and not well-informed about the issue, to give up their land in return for compensation.

Johari also accused a former mayor of Kuala Lumpur of helping the developer to negotiate with residents, resulting in them being taken advantage of and convinced to receive below-market compensation.

"When he was mayor, he got the developer to negotiate with the residents. Now he is no longer there, but he became a consultant for the company. But when I was the MP, not a single resident moved out," Johari, who did not name the former mayor, said in a podcast produced by TV3.

Johari said that after his defeat in the 2018 elections, developers had stepped up their efforts to buy land from residents and the number of those who agreed to move out had risen to 67%.

As the development still could not take place due to opposition from other residents, the government invoked the Land Acquisition Act to help evict the remaining residents.

"33% of people disagreed, but they still applied the Land Acquisition Act. I think it's very, very wrong to take the opportunity to put pressure on those who are struggling, who don't understand redevelopment," Johari added.