Asia Times: Evictions drown out clamor for cheap housing



	July 13, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Evictions drown out clamor for cheap housing
By Anil Netto

BUTTERWORTH, Malaysia - A recent spate of evictions shows how low-cost housing remains out of reach for many Malaysians, often forcing them to become squatters who get thrown out when developers want to make use of the land they occupy. One recent example of this treatment of squatters happened on June 28-29, when residents of a squatter settlement near Kuala Lumpur were forcibly evicted from the land they had lived in for up to 40 years. Eighty-one houses were flattened to make way for a planned real estate project. With no roofs over their heads, many of the evicted residents are trying to rebuild houses in the same area while others are staying in makeshift shelters.

Police used water cannon to disperse 400 demonstrators, including young children, pregnant women, and the elderly in Nipah River Kampong, about 20 kilometers west of the capital. Plainclothes and riot police armed with sticks and shields detained 51 people including 18 rights activists for up to a day for ''obstruction'' and ''illegal assembly.'' Bulldozers andexcavators then set about demolishing houses. S. Arutchelvan, a human rights worker who was among those detained, said protesters later filed 10 police reports alleging that security personnel had fired water cannons, and abused and hit them. Activists ask why the state intervened in Nipah River Kamping, when the land supposedly belongs to a private party.

Last month's eviction was the latest in a series of forced evictions of squatters, who activists prefer to call ''urban pioneers.'' The incidents, however, have received scant publicity from the local media. In addition to the evictions in Nipah River Kamping, seven houses in Kayu Ara River Kampong in Kuala Lumpur were demolished a week earlier.

''With the economic crisis and with the elections coming, we thought that the rate of evictions would slow down, but that isn't true,'' said S. Arutchelvan. ''Evictions have been going on. It shows the power of the developers is very strong."

Developers offered compensation to affected the 185 families affected by the Nipah River project. So far, activists say 104 have accepted the 9,000 ringgit ($2,360) compensationand moved to temporary longhouses provided by the developer. But the remaining 81 families - of which Arutchelvan says 55 had not been offered compensation - went to court to challenge the legality of the eviction notices issued by the Land Office. The judge said the court was not the proper forum to hear the case and advised the people to discuss it with the Land Office.

Many residents say the 9,000 ringgit compensation is not fair because a low-cost house now costs at least 35,000 ringgit ($9,210), without considering interest on housing loans. And even when low-cost housing was cheaper, many factory workers, earning about 350-700 ringgit a month ($92 to $184), either struggled to buy one or were placed on long waiting lists.

Critics say the Nipah River evictions may come with a political price, coming during tough hard times and ahead of general elections expected in a few months, where Prime MinisterMahathir's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition faces a stern test of popularity.

The lack of affordable housing is likely to be a major election issue, especially when contrasted with big infrastructure projects, such as the Petronas Twin Towers, the highest buildings of the world, that are not fully occupied. Then there is the Putrajaya project, a $5 billion plan underway to build a fiber-optic wired, administrative capital near Kuala Lumpur. The prime minister's new residence in Putrajaya, dubbed ''mahligai'' (Malay for palace) by critics, costs 200 million ringgit or ''only'' 17 million ringgit, depending on which side ofthe political divide one stands.

Kuala Lumpur's squatter areas lie off the beaten path, hidden from city folk, or tucked away at the fringes of modernity where they do not prick the conscience of the majority. Usually lowly-paid workers and laborers, squatters live with the fear of being evicted from their cramped houses, many of which lack proper sanitation and drainage. They also cope with flash floods and fire risks, and social ills from alcoholism to domestic violence.

But the voices of the hundreds of thousands of squatters are rarely heard in a society that looks up to the trappings of success. ''To have a low-cost house is just a dream,'' said Saroja, whose plank and aluminum house sits in a crowded squatter area in Butterworth town, in the northern state of Penang. Her husband and a son work in factories around the industrial town, the other son a school dropout. ''But even their salaries put together will not be enough to invest in a low-cost house,'' she added dejectedly.

''I need a low-cost house badly,'' said Sandra, a single mother and factory worker who lives in a similar plank house, which is often invaded by flood waters when it rains. Sandra is about to retire with her statutory retirement savings of 40,000 ringgit ($10,500), but realises she cannot afford to buy a low-cost house at $9,200, lest that wipe out the whole amount.

''Who will give us an interest-free loan?'' queried Azizah, a mother of four children. Her husband, an ice-cream vendor, is the family's sole breadwinner. When the sun is out, he earns 20 ringgit ($5.20) a day and if the weather is bad, he only takes home half that amount. ''We often eat just one meal a day. So where is there money to apply for a low-cost house?'' said Azizah.

Even those who have gotten low-cost houses have to keep struggling. Thanam's husband, for instance, holds three jobs to repay the family's housing loan: in the local council, takingwelding jobs after work, and doing gardening work three times a week.

Like their counterparts in Nipah River, Saroja, Sandra and Azizah could be evicted any time their landowner, whose identity they do not know, decides to stake claim on the property.

To many, nothing much has changed since 1995, when a United Nations Special Rapporteur, after visiting Kuala Lumpur, noted ''the inequity and heartlessness of these evictions'' given how rural Malaysians had earlier been invited by the government to go to the cities to aid industrial development. ''These migrants were told that they could stay where they wanted and were provided with civic amenities. These very people are being evicted today without proper resettlement,'' that report had said.

(Inter Press Service)

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