Illegal D.O. - PCB to get MPPJ councillors & officials to foot the million-ringgit damages?

I asked the Minister in the PM’s Department, Mustapha Mohamed whether the Public Complaints Bureau (PCB) can intervene on behalf of the MPPJ (Petaling Jaya Municipal Council) ratepayers to ensure that the MPPJ councilors and officials foot the multi-million ringgit damages consequent to the Shah Alam High Court judgment declaring null and void a MPPJ development order.

This question was posed to Mustapha during the winding-up of the 2006 Budget Committee allocation for the PM’s Department yesterday (Wednesday, 26th October 2005). Mustapha was the fourth Minister in the PM’s Department in the winding-up, which set a record in Malaysian parliamentary history in having the most number of Ministers to speak in one ministry’s summing-up. .

The PCB is under the jurisdiction of Mustapha. Recounting the recent visit of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to the PCB, the first-ever such visit by a Prime Minister, Mustapha said the PCB will be revamped immediately to make it more effective as a channel for Malaysians to address their woes in dealing with the public sector.

This was where I intervened to ask Mustapha what recourse was open to the MPPJ ratepayers who had won “a citizens’ victory” with the landmark judgment by Justice Alizatul Khair Osman Khairuddin declaring null and void the MPPJ development order to Mentari Properties Sdn. Bhd to build two blocks of low-cost flats and stalls on land reserved for a Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) sub-station and a vernacular school.

Justice Alizatul’s major findings are: ·

MPPJ’s decision to give planning permission without holding an objection hearing is null and void and subsequent objection proceedings do not validate it.

The objection hearing is not a formality but a genuine platform for the affected residents to voice their opinion.

The Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi Selangor (MTES or Selangor Economic Action Council) is a committee under the state authority and not the state authority, and had therefore no powers to issue any exemption under the Town and Country Planning Act.

MPPJ ordered to pay damages and the costs to be shared by Mentari, the second defendant. The damages to be assessed at a later date.

Two questions immediately come to mind:

Firstly, whether the MPPJ ratepayers will eventually have to pay from their pockets for the illegality and irresponsibility of the MPPJ councilors/officials, or to use the expressive but completely apt outburst of crusader Citizen-Nades – “the high-handedness of officials who believe it is their God-given right to shove everything down the throats of ratepayers”.

Secondly, the full list and consequences of the illegalities committed by the MTES under the chairmanship of Selangor Mentri Besar, Mohd Khir Toyo.

It is the first question that I took up with Mustapha, as to how to get the MPPJ councilors/officials to be fully responsible for the damages, expected to be in millions of ringgit. Mustapha advised the MPPJ ratepayers to refer the matter to the PCB. When I asked whether he would personally look into the matter if the PCB proved to be impotent, he agreed.