PENANG, 7 July 2009: After waiting for a week, the residents of Kampung Buah Pala will finally be able to meet Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng tomorrow.
Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy today confirmed that Lim would meet the residents in his office at the Tun Abdul Razak Complex (Komtar) here at 11.30am.
“The chief minister did not want to meet the residents earlier because he wanted the meeting to be held without the presence of non-residents,” he told a press conference after attending the launching of the celebration to mark Georgetown’s first anniversary as Unesco’s World Heritage Site here today.
On 30 June, the residents were disappointed when Lim refused to see them after waiting at Komtar for three hours.
Lim was reported as saying that he had handed over the responsibility of solving the Kampung Buah Pala land issue to his two deputies and did not want them to be seen as incapable of tackling it.
Earlier at the same press conference, Lim said he wanted former Penang chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon to explain the Kampung Buah Pala issue to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“The prime minister probably does not know the background of the issue. The previous state government under Koh’s leadership should have sought assistance from the federal government,” he said.
Yesterday, Najib said the federal government would not intervene in the Kampung Buah Pala issue because it was a state matter and should be handled and solved by the Penang government.
The state government had written a letter to Najib to seek assistance from the federal government to take over the village land from Koperasi Pegawai Kerajaan Pulau Pinang and pay compensation to the developer Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd to enable 23 families to continue living on the land.
The residents were to vacate the land after the Federal Court dismissed their appeal to remain on the land which they have been occupying for a long time. — Bernama
