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Media Comment
by Ronnie Liu
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(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday) :  I have attended the public hearing at the MBPJ office as a complainant of the Petaling Jaya Structural Plan 1 this morning and given my views and objections to the commitee chaired by Datuk Mokthar Dahalan, the Selangor Exco member in-charge of local government.

After touching on several points in general( I wanted the MBPJ to upload the structural plan onto its website instead of selling the hardcopies at a very high price to the PJ residents; I also wanted the MBPJ to prepare the plan in English as majority of the PJ residents were English-literate), I went straight to demand that the MBPJ to advice the Federal Government to reopen the original SJKC Damansara which was closed down by the Education Ministry after instigation of MCA leaders. I argued that there is an acute shortage of Chinese primary school in PJ and the reopening of the SJKC Damansara would certainly help to ease the overall situation. All the state assemblymen from MCA ( Dr Wong and CK Lim ) and Gerakan ( Dr Lim ) were keeping quite throughout the hearing. They were feeling uneasy when I touched on the subject. While the MCA elected representatives have been standing by their decision to to close down the school, Dr Lim in particular has pretended to be sympathetic towards the school of late; but in actual fact, he refused to assist the school when he was approached by former Treasurer of the SOS committee Lee Sang. And guess what was the reason  given by him at that time - ” the school is not in my constituency “! 

I also raised my objection to the plan that turning the entire Damansara new village into a clusters of apartments on behalf of the Chinese and Malay villagers here. The villagers have wanted to keep thier village intact. Thay wanted the government to leave the village as it is and any plan of beautification would be most welcome.

Before I end my submission, I have urged MBPJ to refrain from developing PJ into another bustling business and commercial centre like KL, and PJ should always be remained as a quiet and serene satellite town for Kuala Lumpur. All attempts to build skyscrappers in PJ area should be stopped at all cost.

Residents from various part of PJ were there to voive their objections and opinions. The PJ Section 8 people strongly object to the massive development which include a 39-storey building.

Edward Lee was complaining about massive traffic jams in his area. He warned that the problem will be aggrevated if MBPJ proceeds to develope massive projects along Jalan Gasing.

Lawyer Derek Fernandez gave several examples of  illegally built “bungalows” with the approval from MBPJ. He wanted the authority to tear down these structures.

Residents from Paramount Garden were also there to voice their objections to the illegally built MCA service centre directly opposite the LRT station, where Dr Wong Sai Hou was the culprit. DAP PJ Action Team chairmasn Lau Weng San questioned why the illegal structure was now suddenly appeared as a new item in the revised proposed structural plan now. Dr Wong was seen keeping mum throughout the session. He must have had a hand in the matter.

(13/12/2006)