50-year wait for land titles ends
Sunday Times 10/7/2005

PEKAN NENAS, Sat. - After waiting for half a century, 30 shopowners at Jalan Sawah have finally received their land titles.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting today presented these to the shopowners, some of whom were the next of kin of the original owners.

Shopowner Lim Keh Too, 65, who runs a coffeeshop, said he bought the property in 1953 from a Singaporean who died before the title was transferred.

He said Singaporeans owned the whole stretch of Jalan Sawah which covers 7.3 hectares. "We applied for the title again in 1968 but there were complications when the former owner died without leaving a will," he said.

A committee was set up to search for the owner's next of kin and later approached Ong and Pekan Nenas state assemblyman Wee Jeck Seng for help.

Ong said Pekan Nenas, with a population of 30,000, was developing into a modern township and the wooden shophouses along Jalan Sawah were in dire need of a facelift.

"Now that the land titles have been granted, the shopowners can build permanent structures and renovate their properties which are located in a commercial area."