The decision by the Federal Court on 18 April, 2023 upholding a ruling by the Court of Appeal quashing a development order by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) for Taman Awam Bukit Kiara (previously known as Taman Rimba Kiara) in Taman Tun Dr Ismail is not just a victory for the residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail but for all ordinary rakyat.
Hopefully, this is the spark or the catalyst for a trend that will prompt the ordinary rakyat to translate their disgust and frustration into meaningful action by taking legal actions to keep the authorities and businesses in the country accountable.
It is a pivotal initiative against corrupt politicians and civil servants working in collaboration with greedy businessmen.
In the event those in the civil service or the politicians or greedy businessmen still don’t get it, the message from the decision by the Federal Court reaffirming the ruling of the Court of Appeal is don’t take the people for granted.
The ordinary rakyat are no longer those gullible people of yesteryears who are led by their nose by scrupulous civil servants, politicians and greedy businessmen.
There are just too many land grabs and pattern of secretly-traded land that ends up with the ordinary rakyat and the country on the losing end.
The government and local authorities should be held accountable to the ordinary rakyat for their actions.
Enough is enough.
It was the ordinary rakyat’s resolve and collective efforts that yielded the results.
They did it without the help of any politicians, be it from the ruling government or the opposition, who joined the cause solely for their own political posturing.
Unlike the days where the ordinary rakyat are told to complain to their elected representatives or the local council or state executives if they found something was amiss or the government failed to provide a service or not followed correct procedures, which in reality always yield zero response, this case taken by the residents collectively, will hopefully, set off a precedent in the future, where a collective group of ordinary rakyat can challenge actions taken by civil servants or politicians that are not beneficial to the environment or the country as a whole.
Before this, rarely we get a collective group of ordinary rakyat willing to pursue this route.
The first question which everyone would be asking was should they sue, are there grounds for them to sue moreso when it is against the government or the local authorities, who should be the plaintiffs and who will bear the legal fees, which could be costly and exorbitant especially if the matter is litigated until the Federal Court level.
Even though residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail are categorized as affluent as compared to other suburbs, they have shown that with collective resolve and will, meaningful action can be initiated.
And they have shown that through crowd funding and a little bit of luck where some of the lawyers representing them offered to take up the case on a pro bono basis, it yield results.
The TTDI residents association has been trying to stop the project, including objecting to it legally, since 2016.
The above case began in late 2017 when 10 applicants, consisting of the Residents’ Association (“RA”), a few Management Corporations (“MC”), a Joint Management Body (“JMB”) and 3 individuals in Tmn Tun Dr Ismail in Kuala Lumpur, to quash a Development Order dated 13.07.2017 (“DO”) issued by the Datuk Bandar Kuala Lumpur (“DBKL”), filed a judicial review application against DBKL to quash the development order it granted in respect of the project.
The Taman Tun Dr Ismail Residents’ Association (TTDI RA) and Taman Rimba Kiara Working Group then sought donations from the public to raise funds for the case in Dec 2017.
On Nov 28, 2018, the High Court dismissed the application and the applicants appealed to the Court of Appeal, which allowed the appeal.
DBKL then sought leave to appeal to the Federal Court and was granted it in September 2022.
In January 2023, the Federal Court stated that it had fixed April 22 and 28 to hear the appeal.
This decision by the Federal Courts is only the start of another slew of issues which probably could mean more public funds will be utilized unnecessarily.
If those politicians who claimed to support the cause of the residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail are sincere, they can redeem themselves by initiating and pursuing the present government to initiate actions to seek accountability on this matter such as the financial aftermath that will hit these agencies soon pursuant to decision by the Federal Courts.
On March 22, 2022, a news portal reported that DBKL allegedly spent more than RM1.1 million of public funds in this case to oppose the public i.e the tax payers that are paying for their salaries. And this amount was before taking into consideration the costs to appeal to the Federal Courts.
These public funds could have been used for many other needs, including housing, infrastructure improvement, repairs of roads around the city, among others.
The developer, a subsidiary of a listed company made an announcement to Bursa Malaysia on the same day i.e 18 April 2023 with regard to the Federal Court decision saying they are consulting with their lawyers for the next course of action.
Apparently, they have paid RM115.4 million of which RM84.4 million was paid to DBKL and to the Land and Mines Office Wilayah Persekutuan (PTG WP) for development charges and land premium and RM26 million in joint venture payments to Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP) for their joint venture with YWP in the project.
It is obvious they will try to seek a refund of the monies paid to the agencies above.
Government agencies and employees provide important services to the public every day.
When things go wrong and people get hurt because of the negligence or wrongdoing by federal, state or local officials or agencies, the residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail in KL has shown to the rest of the ordinary rakyat that it is possible and that they can sue those responsible in the government.
Instead of just being vocal about illegal logging and deforestation in the country, maybe the Association for the Protection of the Natural Heritage of Malaysia (PEKA), should in the future, just like that the residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail did, explore crowd funding and donations from the public to fund the legal costs, and initiate legal actions against state authorities and local councils.
Pity those orang asli whose ancestral land was taken away from them by greedy politicians, civil servants with the connivance of greedy businessmen.
Until they have the resources or the collective efforts to do what the residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail, their rights will continue to be trampled on.
And finally bravo and congrats to the residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
Hopefully your collective and continued resolve and perseverance and doggedness in this matter will inspire more Malaysians and generations in the future to take and hold politicians and civil servants accountable for their actions.
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