I wonder about Kg Buah Pala

I revisited my post in 2006 about my personal experience dealing with eviction:

http://kosongcafe.blogspot.com/2006/06/promises-were-meant-to-be-broken.html

Tenants or squatters tend to expect compensation from landlords/landowners when asked to vacate from the premises. Some expected compensations which when calculated in terms of past rentals paid would in effect be like refunding the rentals! So what is the point of having tenants if all it meant was to keep the money for a number of years and then to return it to them?

Eg. Rm150 per month rental would add up to Rm3,000 a year and becomes Rm30,000 for ten years and you would get the drift.

In the case of Kg. Buah Pala, there are several versions of the story: a history of 150 years or 200 years, a trust created by a British to allow residents to live on the land; TOL status, land taken back by state government and sold to a cooperative or developer and so on. There was a Federal Court decision for the developer to take possession of the land. Whether we like it or not, the law is not in favour of the residents and the only course left is a political solution.

I am trying to make some sense of the demands of the residents. Rm90,000 or Rm200,000 was quoted by some to have been offered to each family. There are 26 families, so a total of Rm5.2 million could have been the cost of total compensation.

The land area is approximately 6.6 acres which is about 288,000 sq. ft. So far, the cost of buying the land from the developer to give back to the residents has been bandied about from Rm30 to Rm150 millions (or Rm104 to Rm520 per sq. ft.!). To be honest, I have yet to find out where about is this Kg. Buah Pala which can command such high price. To put in perspective, the compensation of Rm5.2 million is equivalent to Rm18 per sq. ft. and the original cost was Rm10 per sq. ft.

If the families wanted to continue the rural life style of a cattle ranch a la High Chapparal, suitable land can be found easily and cheap but obviously not near the existing piece. Even for non-Bumiputeras, Rm200,000 could buy at least 2 acres of agricultural land each or Rm100,000 for 1 acre and Rm100,000 for basic accommodation. Compare this with the present land area of 288,000 sq. ft. which averages only 11,000 sq. ft. per family, then I would be surprised if they think the offer (assuming it was true) was not good enough. We have to bear in mind that the law is not in their favour.