when I read the article in the Sun, I immediately felt it was wrong. I have been in your blog for a few years now and I know what sort of person you are.

The Sun owes it to you and the public your side of event. In the next post I commented that you did your job objectively and well by giving both side the space to air their opinion. The Sun should published your article here and let the public be the judge.

the 2 journalists missed out the other guilty party – people who purchased such houses.

YB, please don’t be discouraged. Please carry on with your good deeds.

Im theSun 15 Aug 2008 page 6, this paper quoted Ronnie Liu as saying “Just because it is hillside develooment, everyone feels strongly about it, but let the developers have their say. They want to explain how engineering designs, soil tests and proper environment assessment can make such development sustainable”. To be honest, I feel strongly about it too and I am appalled with any development on hill slopes. To be honest, developers can claim that they have the best designs, tests and assessment in place but in the end, if there is a landslide who will take the blame? The developer usually will say they have got approval from the local council blah blah blah all their plans have been scrutinised and approved by local councils, and they might just wash off their hands. The local council is under the Pakatan Rakyat govt, so the rakyat will blame the Pakatan Rakyat govt. And who bears the brunt most? Of course the rakyat.

The developer said they they bought the hillslope but they must surely know that we’ve got a national land code usage in that there shouldn’t be any development on some steep hillslope grade 3 and 4. Nobody thought that Pakatan Rakyat could win Sgor state, so the developers also bought the hillslope and thought they could develop them as business as usual under BN.

Please don’t be influenced by developers when they compare with Taiwan, HK or China because in Malaysia we have this “phenomenon” called torrential rain. If you go around around areas in Puchong, the areas surrounding the Air Itam forest reserve, the Equine Jaya Jusco go further in to the Air Itam forest reserve, and further south (after LDP south toll) on the way to Cyberjaya and Taman Equine, open your eyes look left and right and see how these developers cut the terrain. The areas left and right are used to be hilly terrain – see how these developers cut and flatten the hill brazenly for the so-called development. Also ask yourself where do these developers take the soil to? What do they do with these soil that they cut and flatten from the hills? When it rains torrentially, just go and ask one of the locals there how much top soil is being washed away as a result of the cut and flattenning of hills. The gist is that most developers in context of Msia can give 101 reasons that they got the best design, soil tests, assessements but in the end how effectively and vigorusly can the local council monitor and enforce the stringent environmenal law with regard to hillslope development? Giving to much leeway to developers regarding allowing them to develop hillslope will be a double-edged sword – it cuts two ways. Rakyat suffer and blame the Pakatan Rakyat reps and developers usually get away scott-free because all the necessary approvals have been obtained from local councils!!!!!!!

Nadeswaran and Terence’s article in the Sun might sound very rude but I feel they are reminding elected reps to be careful when dealing with developers. I feel Nadeswaran and Terence have had their fair share of horror stories to tell of their dealings with developers. It would be better if you write to the Sun to respond their article to echo Temenggong’s suggestion that you have arranged the meeting for all parties to present their views, and that developers are not an enenmy to be avoided.

Also please would you consider these points:
1) Please always have rakyat in mind first rather than these developers.
2) When something goes wrong with hillslope development for example a nasty landslide happens again, the onus is on the local council and state government. This will be a very bad public relations for Pakatan Rakyat. The MSM will have their field day “attacking” Pakatan Rakyat for siding with developers.
3) Remember that the developer always setup a sister company to develop any land. Once completed, this sister company can be closed down. It is quite impossible to nab the parent company for the wrongdoing of sister company. Remember for example the abandoned housing projects in Puchong? The directors of these abandoned housing projects are still living in huge villas and driven around in chauffeur-driven Benz..

4) Developer permit is issued by our BN Local and Housing Ministry. A director can setup a sister company and obtain permit to develop hillslope. When something goes wrong like landslide occurs with the hillslope development, the director is not impacted i guess. Can the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor state govn go after this sister company where its developer permit is issued by BN local and housing ministry?

I guess perhaps the art of commenting to the press is rather hard to master…

That’s the question posed by REHDA.
I think that it is very surprising for this body to ask such a question!!
The answer is very, very simple.
In those countries a rocky hill or mountain contains a complete structure made up entirely of rocks.
In Malaysia, such terrian is made up of mud with huge boulders inside.
So, any structures built on steep slopes will be endangered if the mud is washed away by water, e.g. during heavy rain.
Building retaining walls are very often useless because what can the walls do when a huge boulder crash against it?
So, it’s a matter of pure common sense that no structures can be built on steep slopes in this country.
Perhaps our developers are blinded by greed but no responsible government will allow them to proceed because lives are involved! The lives of their customers!!

On a separate note, please take a holiday break. Go to P. Pauh and help Anwar campaign. Camp for a week there. Every help counts as the fight will be tough.

With you biggest margin win, you are a household name among chinese and people will recognise you. Get all the non malays to vote for Pakatan. Reach out to the malays too.

The holiday and experience will give you a wider exposure and perspective.

Thank you.

Please do not let this pass.

Write to the Sun expressing that, ‘you are upset with the disgusting distortion of your arranging the meeting between the MB and Rehda in the article by Nades and Terence, that gave an impression that you or the PR govt is siding with the developer.’ Mention that you arranged the meeting for all parties to present their views, and that developers are not an enenmy to be avoided.

Nip it in the bud before the trend of misreporting carries on. Sometimes journalists get carried away in their investigative reporting, and think there is no one to correct them or expose their faults.