KOTA KINABALU, Dec 23 — Residents of the Tanjung Aru low-cost flats are pleading to the Sabah Housing and Urban Development Board (LPPB) to cease their plans to fence up the housing area.

In a press conference at the flats on Monday, Tanjung Aru assemblyman Datuk Junz Wong said the plan is unnecessary and akin to intimidating the rakyat, considering the residents have already agreed to move out by March next year once they are given the appropriate alternative housings as previously promised by the former State Local Government and Housing Minister.

Junz said residents noticed fence posts put up around the compound a couple of days ago and possibly zinc roofs soon, expressing his concern that it would not only restrict airflow in the area, but also make it difficult for the Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) to collect trash or State Works Department (JKR) to carry out pipe maintenance due to the placement of the posts.

"There is no need to fence up the area because there is already an agreement that the residents would move out by March on the condition that LPPB offers them alternative housings.

"So just fulfil the promise to give them alternative houses and stop the fencing. If they still go through with it, I urge the residents to lodge a police report as it would be false imprisonment.

"It is almost the festive season. How are the residents going to celebrate Christmas and New Year? Please be a proactive and rakyat-oriented government,” he said.

Junz added 95 heads of households are still living in the flats and of the figure, 27 have applied for alternative houses and are waiting for LPPB’s reply, ten are planning to find their own houses, three are waiting for their self-built houses to complete, while other applications include 15 household heads for the Kibabaig People’s Housing Project (PPR), seven for PPR Taman Serigai and 12 for PPR Kionsom.

He said 18 household heads have had their applications approved by LPPB, but the problem is that the houses that they were offered were not in liveable conditions, as the residents claimed various defects and damages such as broken sinks, walls, doors and wiring, with one resident further claiming that when he raised the issue to LPPB, he was told to repair the damages out of his own pocket if he wanted to move there.

"So it’s not that they don’t want to move, it’s that if you want them to move, at least give them a liveable place. Plus, only 18 out of 95 household heads have been offered alternative housings.

"I believe those who are still living here have no relatives to turn to and basically nowhere else to go, so if you insist on forcing them to leave without providing proper alternatives, these people will end up on the streets,” he said.

Junz asserted that the residents have been promised alternative housings by former State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun during a 2022 State Assembly sitting, stressing that the vow made in the sacred assembly should not go unfulfilled, or the appropriate punishments should be meted out.

"To lie in the sacred State Assembly is punishable by the Privileges Committee, so I hope that promises made in it are taken seriously by those who made them.

"Hence, I will meet the concerned minister so that the promise made to the Tanjung Aru low-cost flats residents is kept.

"There is Standing Order in our State Assembly, so don’t make me refer to the hansard and bring this to the Privileges Committee,” he said.

Junz, who is also Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) vice president, also questioned the government on what is the planned development after the flats are inevitably demolished, fearing that it could be another high-end mixed-development project like the one in Marketplace 88, Kepayan.

He reminded that LPPB was established to help build low-cost housing for the less fortunate in Sabah and not to profit off luxurious developments while sidelining the rakyat, reiterating that the government should have empathy and provide the Tanjung Aru falts residents with liveable alternative housings as well as cease their plans to fence the area by the agreed March deadline. — The Borneo Post