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Issue No. 34                       October 7 - 13,  2001                          Quezon City, Philippines

Tales of Petronas, the World's Tallest Towers

Hardly touched by the Malaysian press is the continuing threat of eviction on 'urban pioneers' - the term used by NGO activists to describe urban poor families - from communities which they have inhabited for decades. One such case is the eviction of families who used to occupy the Kuala Lumpur land where the world's tallest building --- the Petronas Towers --- now stands. All over the country, similar demolitions have taken place, community workers said, without proper resettlement.

BY ANANEZA ABAN
Bulatlat.com

RAWANG, SELANGOR, Malaysia --- Several kilometers away from Petronas Towers, the world's tallest building which stands spectacularly in the center of highly-urbanized Kuala Lumpur, lie the lowly rumah panjang (temporary longhouses) of Malaysia's poor who for years have waited for a decent place called home.

Occupants of these rumah panjang make up the an untold story behind the Petronas skyscraper - high-tech and world-class but distinctively of Asian architecture with geometric patterns influenced by Islamic art and built using vision glass and stainless steel. The story talks about a broken promise and how a community cannot even take a glimpse of the towers that have since taken over their land.

As told by veteran community organizer James Arunasalam of the urban poor movement PERMAS (Community Relations Association), the land where the twin towers now stand used to be occupied by the Kuala Lumpur race course along with hundreds of the horse handlers, workers and their families.

Petronas, the state-owned gas and petroleum company, took over the land to build what it envisioned as the world's tallest building. (At 1,483 feet, the towers are higher by 33 feet than the United States' Sears Tower in Chicago and were built at a cost of $1.2 billion.) In doing so, however, it relocated the land's residents to the rumah panjang at the fringe of the city. For six years now, the families still dream of a permanent and decent place to live.

Demolished

The relocation site where the jockeys and their families were resettled also shelters some 200 families who came from a kampung (village) called  Sungai Buluk, Selangor. The village was destroyed by the police and demolition teams to make way for a train station.

Relocation to the Rawang rumah panjang, a rural area in Selangor, was a bitter experience especially for women like Mageswary, a single mother and a respected leader in the community.

Rawang rumah panjang has 39 blocks of housing units made of wood, concrete flooring and asbestos. The site lacks basic facilities and this is a major problem to the dwellers. Pipe water is accessible but there is always a water shortage.

Structures are sub-standard. Hospitals are distant. The drainage is a big nuisance, which adds to the already hazardous environment due largely to the presence of a cement factory.

Although provided by government, the longhouses do not have "Certificates of Fitness," the dwellers said. These units are usually built in remote rural areas sometimes near a dump, cement factories and huge gutters.

Everyday, Mageswary said, her daughter must clean up the open and filthy drainage in their backyard to avoid clogging that causes lung illness among children.

Most of the Tamil-speaking Indians who are predominant in this community work in the nearby small factories, semi-processing shops and the cement factory.

Stories

Women who have lived at the site since 1992 have many stories to tell. Such tales tell of men uprooted from their work, of domestic violence and child labor.

Some women and children were forced to work in the factories to earn a living. In some cases, men refused to find a job after being resettled there forcing their wives to toil both in the workplace as a wage-earner and at home.

Bearing the brunt of the suffering are the children who, rather than going to school, are also forced to work in order to augment their mothers' income. One of these children is James, Mageswary's son, who stopped schooling and now works in a small shop in Rawang.

"We're so poor because my income is not enough for the whole family," said Mageswary.

The most disturbing scene inside these longhouses is the frequent beating of women by their husbands who, after refusing to work, became alcohol-dependent.

To address their economic and domestic programs, women at Rawang rumah pajang organized themselves with Mageswary as head. The formation of the group was also made possible through the organizing efforts of PERMAS.

Before long, the women were holding sessions where they talked about the need to strengthen their sector in order to protect their rights as partners of men in development and in the fight to own a land.

A woman who had suffered maltreatment from her Indian husband stood to her feet and said that despite racial differences they must act to end all forms of violence against them.

"I am frequently beaten by my husband," she said. "There was never peace after the transfer in rumah panjang but, we must struggle in order to end abuses."

When asked what development means to them, the women replied in one voice that leaving rumah panjang is a step towards a better life. Peace will only be possible, they said, if government finally gives them the land it had promised to them.

Unfulfilled promise

Amid protests, the settlers recalled, they grudgingly allowed themselves to be relocated after government authorities promised a 96-acre land within Rawang to be allocated as their permanent shelter. The rumah panjang, authorities said, was just a temporary resettlement site.

Later, however, they were told that government will instead build them so-called low-cost houses. It turns out that the houses cost more than they could afford. The people began to question the sincerity of the government especially so when more and more housing projects began to rise.

This showed, the settlers now believe, government deceived them and that the promise about land ownership is just an empty talk. The settlers have taken to launching mobilizations and protests.

Forced evictions

The Kuala Lumpur-based Urban Resource Unit (URU), a non-government organization documenting eviction cases in Malaysia, stated that forced evictions is common in every state in the country.

Involved in the evictions are private developers, district and land offices, the police and the Forced Rescue Units. More dangerously, URU said, goons and high authorities are also involved.

A report by URU revealed that last year alone 2,896 families were evicted in the name of real estate development and infrastructure projects. And demolitions are continuing not only in Kuala Lumpur but also elsewhere.

And yet whatever development has been seen in Kuala Lumpur and other urban centers, government owes a lot to the urban poor dwellers. They were the so-called "urban pioneers" - people who, during the 1970s-1980s, were recruited into the labor force in order to help develop the urban centers and industries. To entice them to stay in the cities and hence to help sustain urban development and the industries, they were offered some amenities.

Today, no such thing is happening. Instead of guaranteeing the urban poor families' employment, they are considered a pain to government planners. To remedy this, Malaysian authorities have targeted a "zero" squatter status by 2005. No permanent relocation for those to be evicted is in sight, URU said. Bulatlat.com

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