Malaysiakini, 16 Feb 2010
Barely 48 hours after the Federal Court had affirmed Zambry Abd Kadir as Perak menteri besar on Feb 9, a demolition team from the Land Office of Larut Matang and Selama descended on a 15-hectare plot farmed by squatters in the Air Kuning area, on the southern rim of Taiping.
Air Kuning falls under Changkat Jering which is one of three state wards in the parliamentary constituency of Bukit Gantang, presently held by deposed Menteri Besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS.
The state seat was won by Mohd Osman Jailu, formerly of PKR but from February last year, a BN-supporting independent.
Armed with hammers, axes and chainsaws, the demolition squad took three hours to level two wooden shacks that served as dwelling places for workers and employers of a 10-person cooperative who had developed the former mining land the past 12 years.
They cleared undergrowth and shrubs, cultivated vegetable plots, reared fish in ponds, raised cows, goats and poultry, and cultivated fruit trees.
But within a matter of three hours on the morning of Feb 11, two days after the apex court's decision affirming Zambry as menteri besar, a demolition squad arrived at the plot which is located behind the Taman Kuning Sari housing estate.
The demolition squad, from the Land Office of Larut Matang and Selama, were backed up by the Federal Reserve Unit, police from the Taiping contingent of the force, JKR Taiping, and tractors from Gamuda, the developers of the double-tracking system connecting Ipoh with the north.
The four accused are Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) national coordinator K Kunasekaran (far left in photo), Kuala Kuang Anti-Stench Action committee chairman Chai Sing Chong (second left in photo) and his two committee members Tan Kin Siah (second right in photo) and Chong Min Tow (far right in photo).
For the past year, Liew Chin Nam (right), 65, was in a dilemma when he was ordered both by the Kinta district land office and KTMB to vacate the railway land in Kanthan, Chemor, Perak where his family had been making the joss sticks for half a century.
The memorandum from 183 residents of Kampung Meru Tin was received by Zambry's personal secretary when they had actually wanted the menteri besar ,who had promised them that he would look into their grievances personally, to receive the document.