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Robbed of
view by reclamation works
04/12/2009 The
Star
YOUR article regarding illegal reclamation works at Klebang in Malacca on
Nov 25 is of particular interest to me, as I am one of the residents
affected by the loss of our waterfront.
Firstly, I have to explain that I am a foreigner and am very appreciative
of Malaysians for welcoming me so warmly as a resident in their wonderful
country. I never believed that I could ever afford a home right on the
seafront.
Consequently, I was disturbed a few years ago when the extensive
reclamation works started further along towards the town. At that time, we
made representation to the Government offices regarding our own stretch of
the seafront, and we were assured that there was no intention to come in
front of our properties at this end.
This was a tremendous relief to those of us who had carefully selected a
beautiful location where we could settle for the rest of our lives. Now
our dreams are shattered. The reclamation work is proceeding past our
properties without the necessary approvals, and with no dialogue with
affected residents or business owners.
In fact, the illegal work started up again at 1.30am (on Nov 26) in spite
of a stop order being in place, and with no consideration for the
disturbance that the noisy groundworking equipment was causing to the
residents attempting to sleep.
The work stopped for a while when the police were called in, but not
before the contractor used threatening behaviour towards one of the
seafront restaurant owners, and this was witnessed by me and by the
police. The violators were taken away at that stage, so peace and quiet
resumed.
I understand from your article that the developer can be fined RM500 per
day for ignoring the stop order, and so if the authorities are recording
the events accurately that is obviously every day for the last month and
still ongoing.
However, it doesn’t take an expert to realise that the cost of not
continuing work on a multi-million ringgit development is far greater than
RM500 per day! In fact, such a fine would not hurt at all, so there is no
incentive for the developer to be law-abiding.
On the moral issue, why was there no dialogue with the inhabitants of the
stretch of seafront who have invested their money to buy the best location
for their home or business?
It seems that morals do not come into this at all. We now lose our
seafront to the reclamation, and assuming that there is enough financial
backing for this ambitious development, the purchasers of the new
properties get the advantage that we are now losing – until of course they
are similarly cheated of their magnificent views in the future when more
of the sea is reclaimed in front of them!
PETER RUDLAND,
Malacca. |
