Do the math, housebuyer tells ministry

The Sun 28/10/2003

I am a victim of the Lembah Beringin project. I read your report "Ministry: Section 11 only as last resort." (theSun Oct 18)

Can some learned people please explain the meaning of "last resort"? It has been said that the housebuyers are no longer interested in Lembah Beringin.

Even Lembah Beringin chief operating office Mohd Najib Mohd Rawi said that the project has been abandoned. And Mike Krishnan, the managing director of Lembah Beringin told Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Peter Chin that the project has been abandoned. (The Sun Oct 14).

So what else does Chin want? And now he brings in Syarikat Perumahan Negara (SPN) (to revive the project). Personally, to me, it is just passing the buck form one developer to another. And hopefully (for Chin), the housebuyers of Lembah Beringin will shut their mouths.

Does he think just because he wears a suit he is smarter than us? If this is the attitude of a minister in handling the public problems, then I honestly feel sorry for myself and other housebuyers, current and future.

Indirectly, he is telling, housebuyers, "I give you another contractor and you shut up, and developer, you can laugh your way to the bank".

On an estimate, there are 900 houses abandoned, each costs about RM150,000. The development stage is between 30% and 60% completion. Lembah Beringin could have collected about RM60,000 per housebuyer. (RM150,000 x 40% average) x 630 (70% of 900 houses sold) = RM37.6 million.

And we're talking about housebuyers of four projects. How about Lembah Beringin's other projects there, like the bungalows, business centre, etc? So what happens to the money that Lembah Beringin collected? Can the ministry investigate that? Or will Chin ask SPN to take over?

Victim of Lembah Beringin

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