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i would call upon the selangor state government to appoint a truly independent and acceptable retired judge to conduct a report to identify those responsible for this tragedy and to punish them if found to have been the result of negligience or worse...

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This tradegy could have been avoided if the former administration have stick to strict rules of not allowing the developers to build houses near slopes that have activities.Becos of massive corruption and approving projects that have question marks,today we are seeing the result of that silly decision.Let this be a lesson for all!

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Condolence to those who have lost loved ones and sadness to those who have no homes.
BolehLand supposedly proud it has no natural disaster to cause misery, death and loss of property and people's hopes, has man made calamity and disasters. We seem to court danger, asking for it to happen and challenging 'mother nature'. And those with money think that their money is as strong as the foundation piling, retaining walls, artificial landscaping, 'man mad' or is it 'mad man' or is it man made structures we erect on contours that defy logic, engineering or plain common sense.see 'slip sliding away attitude' www.jonathan66-my.********.cm

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Dasar Kerajaan BN - Undang2 yang mereka gubal, mereka sendiri yang tidak mematuhinya. Sama seperti cakap tak serupa bikin

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When the world has built a bridge between HONSU and HOKKAIDO(Japan), when the world has gone 1 mile under the sea to dig up tunnels in Europe, when the world has dug thro' mountains to connect cities where is Malaysia with all the Petronas funds when the oil price shot thro the sky, for safe construction systems?

Every structures built didn't have the class grading to yield more corruption in the areas spoken here. The Govt keeps all these grading to fix prices for the highest bidder. They need to oil their palms well!

Look at the Keledang Ranges of Mountains in Ipoh! It are no more there in the name of Samy's highway binges. Lost! where were the Environmental concerns then?

Every structure taken up follows all the physical constants and variables it follows all the Laws of conservation of matter. Its time the ones who speak Englande say in with a greek song from on.
http://sjsandteam.*********.com/

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I think "Mike Tyson"/the Muhammad with 2 Muhammads to his name should be detained under the ISA (re: detention without trials), as he is/was a threat to national security.

During his time as Selangor MB, he did much to develop Selangor, but by doing away with, or cutting down the size of forest reserve & parks, (even after the 1993 Highlands Tower collapse); covering up former mining pools, chopping off/leveling hills, etc

Lots of development is Selangor was good. But as with Bapa Pemodenan M'sia, Mahathir s/o Mohamed Iskandar Kutty's 22-yr premiership that destroyed the "pyche" of the nation laid by the Tunku and some other founding fathers, it came at a very high price, lots of soil erosion, landslides, air pollution, flash floods, etc in the Klang Valley-Selangor.

Had the fellow with two Muhammads to his name developed Selangor by leaving those forest parks & reserves, green lungs alone (which were created by the British "colonial power", the same ones who made sure certain positions in the civil service were strictly for the Malays, and also came up with Malay Reserve Lands; the ones(White Man) who should actually claim to be "Tuan", but this 'inferior" Malay race with "superiority complex" keep talking of Malay Lordship/Supremacy, Malay Master Race instead) - floods, flash floods, land erosions etc would've been much less today.

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Condolences to the victims of this tragedy. May you persevere t=during this tragic time.

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Thanks Ms Elizabeth for your explanation. That's why I voted u & Sivarasa!

For those ppl who bought houses in such precarious hillsides, go back to the developer and demand for an iron-clad guarantee that you will not suffer the fate of landslides.

One thing we notice is, there is no true genuine resolve by the past & present federal govt to prevent such developments. Corruption rule supreme. After Highland towers, you wud think they develop some brains. Of course, equally stupid are those buyers who jumped into the frey. No one alive today can claim ignorance to the Highland towers tragedy.

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TALK (of banning development on high ground) is cheap. Too many developments on treacherous lands had taken place since the talk cock sessions after the Highland Towers incident. Just drive along Jalan Cheras. There are several hilly grounds being cut bare for entice potential victims of land slides. There is one very steep hill (easily 60 degree gradient) opposite the Green Acres Condo at Sungai Long being cut for the last two years or so. Tons of soil and mud thunder down the slopes during heavy rain. Fools (too many) would rush in to take up the houses built thereon.

No. No one will ever learn.
Keep on talking. Mere talk is cheap.

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It is unconscionable for the Federal Court judge to rule that city councils were not responsible for approvals given for development on hill slopes that later turn out to be disasters, namely, the Highland Towers. His rationale was that if they were, then city councils would have to dedicate a hugely disproportionate amount of resources on defending their actions and this would then deprive the people of much needed services. This is definitely flawed logic. If city councils did their job well and controlled and monitored all developments, approving only those they are absolutely certain would not stress the stability of the slopes, then the disasters would not follow and there would be no requirement to divert their resources to defend their decisions. As it stands, city councils are not accountable for sloppy, careless, political motivated, and greedy decisions. With this ruling, we can expect landslides every year. Selangor, you did well to kick out such an uncaring government. Keep them out and show them what a clean government can do. Prosperity does not have to come at the cost of human lives.

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I think the true tragedy here is how humans have such short memories.

We keep pointing our fingers at the developers. True, they're a bunch of greedy immoral pigs who are just out to make money at the expense of our safety. However, we all forget the first and most simple rule of economics - there is no supply without demand.

Immediately following the Highland Towers tragedy, people were fearful of living on and around hillside property. Demand went down. Unfortunately, people forgot and it once again became trendy to live in a home with a nice view.

The only way people remembered about the incident was some vague ghost story regarding a taxi driver picking up a bloody passenger. Yes, what people found more horrifying was an urban legend, and not the fact that a condo collapsed with people still living in it.

Small wonder why the tragedy repeats itself. I fear that the only lesson we'll ever learn from the recent tragedies is ANOTHER silly ghost story. Sigh...

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From the NST:

The geo-technical engineer was at the landslide site to meet with officials from the Public Works Department and Ampang Jaya Municipal Council.

"We can learn from Hong Kong's comprehensive Slope Safety System.

"They even have an inventory of hill slopes. It allows the authorities to systematically screen all of them.

"If there is a slope found to be substandard, the land owner will receive a Dangerous Hillside Order."

ACA also need to copy from Hong Kong. Judicial system??? By the way, we can learn a lot from Singapore too in many areas if the government is sincere. Our leaders are definitely not up to standard when dealing with issues concerning the "rakyat" unless...$$$.

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well..where are Khir Toyo and cronies??? Where are the housing developers?? Whyt didnt they show their face?

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Good Peoples of MT!

Its not enough to just use guidelines from other countries.

We have topography maps hidden in the archives, in the army ordinance units, in dblk's archives, in the Land Office archives.

The Authorities must have access to these - which are the old & real studies done on the environment & topography of KL , Ampang & Selangor (and of course all other places}

Recently, I had to access these evidence. I was "blocked" as I was known.

So a very "innocent" young person, under the guise of tracing her heritage, managed to extract the evidence.

So, from what I have seen{there are much more available}, the Guidelines, that Elizabeth Wong refers to, were based on a proper detailed study of all these evidences.

Whilst we would love to name blame & accuse & critise, can we Good People be a little more positive VIZ: amongst all of us{MT Peoples}, I believe we have a very very powerful pool of knowledge & resources & experience.
Could we pen these down & send it to MT/Elizabeth Wong etc to assist them in their work?

I believe that if we can harness our anger & frustration & tap into our positice energy, we will be able to ensure to a larger extent that the are no more DEJA VU of the Highland Towers/Bukit Antrabangsa.

Chiao!

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Thanks, but I think the Selangor State Govt and MPAJ have failed in their job. I am a resident of Bkt Antarabangsa and stayed just 300m away from the landslide. Thanks GOD, I was not cut off or affected. I need to highlight there are this one developer trying to build bungalows beside hillside on the main road and oppiste the chinese cemetary. A landslide occurred 2 weeks ago. The project has started 3-4 months back, then stop, and continued back and stop again. What I seen is, it started again to build 1 unit, stop and go slowly. Pls cancel the project

Another project that is going on is at the hill separating Bkt Anatarabangsa and Ukay Perdana where it was building high rises (low and medium) which was 40% completion. It was just directly behind the hill which now has been cleared with earth exposing to erosion. Govt & MPAJ, are we waiting for more death?

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Damansara Perdana is under PJ Utara and under Selangor state government. Please re-look into MK Land's future development plan for the entire Damansara Perdana area. A lot of the future development will be on the hill behind the current completed development.

I remember some years back, there was a massive land slide on the Plus highway near Bukit Lajan. Bukit Lajan is only a few km from Damansara Perdana.

Looks like Malaysia mudah lupa. MK Land will just wait for the memory to fade before embarking on their development again.

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Housebuyers also have a choice of buying more stable property on non-slopes/hills or have a choice to place their own lives in hands of developers and authorities who say that they their home-with-a-view on slopes are safe (well, with the proper terrain treatment, they are).
Greedy developers and corrupt authorities can convince people black is white and white is black, innocent people may pay with their lives, and we are so sorry for the victims.

The moral of the story is - look before you leap, if there is no demand there is no supply.

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