|
By Ex 'Metro' Reporter
I hope the new Opposition Members of Parliament will take up this matter in Parliament.
Today's Star has an interesting story about another really stupid DBKL project. See the article at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/29/central/21071533&sec=central
This is a RM5 million 'YB Project'. 'YB Project' means it is a useless contract awarded to some YB at super inflated prices. My own estimate of the project cost is not more than RM1.5 Million. It is a sort of wide 'pedestrian bridge' over the Klang River right beside the Masjid Jamek LRT Stations (both the Putra and STAR LRTs) in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. Pedestrian means it is meant for people only. Hmm..betul ke ni?
Whoever built these two LRT stations forgot to make a simple RM10,000 covered walkway to connect the two stations which are only about 20 metres apart. So now ten years later they have to build a RM5 million pedestrian bridge that covers the whole Klang River to connect these two LRT stations. Look at the pictures in the Star article . The new pedestrian bridge is huge.
But read the article in The Star. They say that the new RM5 million bridge still does not provide cover for pedestrians walking from the STAR LRT to the Putra and vice versa! The gap between the two stations is still not closed. People will still get wet in the rain if they go from one station to the other. Please look at the next picture which clearly shows a large gap between the STAR LRT station and the new pedestrian bridge.
Then why build such a huge pedestrian bridge (easily 40 feet wide and spanning the width of the Klang River)? The answer is because it is not about pedestrians, LRTs or the weather that is of concern. It is all money, money, money. And the buaya that is involved is the most corrupt Gomen Department in Malaysia ie the Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur.
And the DBKL is fully protected by the ineptitude of the Anti Corruption Agency. Despite the Police and the ACA receiving the greatest number of complaints from the public about the DBKL, the arrests and convictions of DBKL crooks by the ACA are minimal. The permanent excuse : no evidence provided, no evidence available, no laporan rasmi.
Actually there is a huge scam going on that has been put in place by UMNO Federal Territory. This scam started about eight years ago. Now it is moving into fifth gear. This RM5 million 'pedestrian bridge' is part of this ramping up to fifth gear. There is a very great demand by the illegal hawkers to set up their stalls in this very busy area. Almost all of these hawkers are Indonesians. There are some locals but very few.
The Jabatan Keselamatan & Penguatkuasaan of the DBKL (the Enforcement boys) soon got wind of the situation. They started collecting bribes from the illegal Indon hawkers and 'closed one eye' while the hawkers went about setting up their illegal stalls. Soon the money collected became big. This is when the 'persatuan' boys got involved. The 'persatuan' boys are those who set up unregistered, registered, illegal, legal, semi legal, quasi legal 'persatuan' so that they can have more muscle.
Names like Mathalan Takmaju (Javanese, not his real name) and Haji Bahalol (not his real name) were prime movers. What these 'persatuan' do is help organise things. First they ask their cronies to become members. Almost all are UMNO FT members.
Then the persatuan go and see the Jabatan Pembangunan & Pengurusan Peniaga Kecil of the DBKL. They also see Tengku Adnan when he was FT Minister, Isa Samad when he was FT Minister and now Zulhasnan Rafique when he is FT Minister. And it goes on. They cry and plead for 'hawker permits'. These permits are then issued by the Jabatan Peniaga Kecil, Jabatan Pelesenan etc of the DBKL. This involves big money.
The biggest fights start around Deepavali and Bulan Puasa where hundreds of hawker permits are issued. So the crony 'persatuan' corner the hawker permits. Then these hawker permits are sold or rented out to the Indons and the others who really do the business. This has been going on for over eight years.
What are the prices paid? Well it only costs about RM150 to get the official license from the DBKL, if you are lucky to get it. But you cannot get it unless you are a member of one of the 'persatuan'. Once the licenses are issued they quickly change hands. Bulan Puasa permits for hawker stalls change hands from RM7000 to RM15,000 for one month of Bulan Puasa! Last year there were 450 hawker permits. 450 x say RM8,000 = RM3.6 Million collection for one month. Not bad. This is killing money, meaning they are prepared to kill to safeguard this pot of honey.
When the money gets this big, the UMNO boys start salivating. Then about five years ago the salivating UMNO boys and the 'persatuan' cronies got really greedy. They thought up a scam whereby they could set up a permanent cash cow from the illegal and unlicensed hawkers - they wanted to make money all year round.
They decided to shut down the main road in the area and convert it into one huge illegal hawker paradise where they could milk the unlicensed and illegal hawkers on a permanent basis. This they have done very succesfully. First they came up with a really stupid YB Project called the Bazaar - to build an open air Bazaar over Jalan Melayu, Jalan Masjid India to Jalan Bunus. This means that these roads would be closed to traffic and only open for pedestrians. Phase 1 of the project cost RM10 million and was completed over four years ago.
It has since become a hawker slum housing 165 illegal and unlicensed hawkers. You can see the pictures here. As soon as they closed the main road to build the Bazaar most of the long time businesses in the area suffered losses or shut down. The thirty year old Restoran Waspada closed and so did many old established names in the area. But the DBKL did not care about them.
The Bazaar building however is an illegal structure. It has been built over the main road Jalan Masjid India which is a gazetted road. This means the Bazaar building does not sit on a land title. It has no land title. If other members of the public try to build any structure over a gazetted road, the DBKL will shut you down. But this is the law of the jungle. The DBKL can do whatever they want.
The steel support columns of the Bazaar are planted right into the drains that were beside the road. The drains were filled in - no more drains. This is also illegal. If others try to plant any support columns into the drain reserves beside the road, you will be shut down by the DBKL.
The Bazaar also does not have a Certificate of Fitness. It cannot because there is no land title on which the Bazaar was built. The roof is made of flammable plastic hence the Bazaar has not been approved by the Jabatan Bomba. The Bazaar is a permanent fire hazard. Without Bomba approval, there can be no Certificate of Fitness. If any member of the public decided to build a building that did not get an approval from the Jabatan Bomba, then the building will not be allowed to operate.
Then despite being a public building the Bazaar does not have any public toilet - thus failing DBKL's own requirements for public buildings. DBKL makes it a condition that all public buildings must have public toilets - except for this Bazaar project of theirs.
Without a Certificate of Fitness the Bazaar could not operate legally. Until today it is an illegal building. So how do the 165 hawkers there operate under an illegal building? We dont know. This is the question that must be raised in Parliament.
Since the Bazaar does not have a Certificate of Fitness the 165 hawkers who operate under the Bazaar technically cannot pay rent to the DBKL, the owner of the Bazaar. This is what they say too - secara rasmi they do not pay any rent. Yet traders say that each of the 165 hawkers pays a monthly rental of RM1,500 to RM2,500 per hawker stall. That is about RM330,000 PER MONTH or RM3.96 Million PER YEAR. Over the past four years about RM12 Million in illegal rentals has already been collected.
But no DBKL resits have been issued over the past four years. There are no records in the accounts of the DBKL that these rentals have been collected from the 165 hawkers under this Bazaar. So who is collecting this RM12 million in rentals from these illegal and unlicensed hawkers? This is the huge scam that is going on within the DBKL. It is believed that UMNO FT has a stake in this permanent cash cow that they have set up in this area.
RM10 million of taxpayers money has been used to build an illegal Bazaar project that has not been issued a Certificate of Fitness and RM12 million of rental has been collected by God knows who over the past four years.
Before we conclude there are a few more things. Until today the DBKL and the persatuan boys have got this whole area completely rounded up. You will see here another picture of a cobbler doing his business by the roadside. There are a few cobblers in this area. They all have to pay 'protection' money to the DBKL on a daily basis. Before the DBKL Enforcement boys will collect cash everyday (RM10 weekdays, RM20 weekends) from each cobbler. Now the 'persatuan' boys do the collection on behalf of the DBKL.
Every aspect of this part of town is tightly controlled by the DBKL and UMNO FT. See the other two pictures of two units of five storey shophouse located at the entrance to Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman 5. The shop selling clothes on the ground floor has no signboard or name. This building was built by a Chinaman but he could not get DBKL to issue a Certificate of Fitness. The persatuan boys intervened again in the person of Mathalan Takmaju - a Javanese. Encik Mathalan Takmaju 'kau thim' with the Chinaman and the DBKL as follows. The Chinaman would rent the two shops to Mathalan for RM20,000. Mathalan then would sub let the two buildings to the clothes retailer for RM40,000 which is the market rental rate. Mathalan Takmaju therefore makes a clean RM20,000 for nothing. This money is also split with the DBKL boys and UMNO FT. In return the DBKL would allow the clothes retailer to operate his business. However he cannot put up any signboards because the building does not have a certificate of Fitness. Everything is set up.
But the illegal and unlicensed hawkers in this area are evolving. In yesterday's Harian Metro there was a long article about the illegal and legal hawkers in this area. Some of these 'illegal hawkers' under the plastic roofed Bazaar are actually becoming fronts. They may sell spectatcles, belts made in China, fake watches etc but in fact some of them are selling drugs. Some of the drink stalls in this area are also suspected to be seling drugs on the side. In business terminology this is called diversification.
Now we go back to the beginning of this story. Why did they build a RM5.0 million pedestrian bridge that is 40 feet wide yet does not serve the purpose of sheltering LRT commuters from the rain? The answer is simple. The DBKL intends to place more illegal and unlicensed hawkers on the pedestrian bridge. It is estimated that this huge pedestrian bride can accomodate at least 40 hawker stalls - usually Indonesians. The same scheme or scam of the 'persatuan' will be used to get the hawkers and collect illegal rentals from them that will never find its way to the DBKL. If every hawker pays about RM1,500 per month, that is already RM60,000 per month or another RM720,000 per year.
This is what the DBKL is doing. 
 |
The Blogs 
licensed gangsters!
One guy who use to drive around KL in a big Mercedes collect millions and millions from these illegal outlets!
Just imagine, legal businesses has to pay rental and utilities whereas just right opposite in the DBKL land, you find illegal hawkers trading in these empty land. They pay the rent to the DBKL enforcement officers and of course end up in their bosses drawer la! Double standards!
Malaysia Boleh!