MCA so-called fight for Chinese but cannot even fight for 'Little China' town?!

MRT the death knell for Chinatown?

Patrick Lee | August 11, 2011

Thirty-four shoplots in Chinatown have been acquired for the Jalan Sultan underground station and many feel that this will be the beginning of the end of Chinatown.

KUALA LUMPUR: Property owners in Petaling Street say that building an underground station and tracks in their area is akin to sounding the death knell for Chinatown.

Chinatown’s Hotel Lok Ann co-owner Judy Lam said the Klang Valley My Rapid Transit (KVMRT) project builders have said some property owners will be forced to make sacrifices.

“But tearing down Petaling Street is like tearing down the Chinese community. The sacrifice of development does not mean destroying our heritage.”

“If you are going to tear down Chinatown, you might as well tear down Little India,” she said.

Prasarana Project Development division group director Zulkifli Mohd Yusoff had a public briefing today over the acquisition of the Chinatown lots for the project.

About 50 business owners in Petaling Street affected by the KVMRT project turned up for the briefing. But Prasarana’s explanation on why the station had to be built in their area did not appease them.

“The Jalan Sultan (MRT station) is not the only place (to be developed). To make way for development, there are sacrifices that we have to make,” Zulkifli told the owners.

He pointed out that many people were affected by the Putra-LRT (now Kelana Jaya RapidKL line) development in the 1990s.

“When we built the 5km Putra tunnel under Kampung Baru, we had to acquire a lot of land, and people had to move away,” he said.

“We don’t want to purposely acquire the land, the land is for the rakyat,” he added.

Many in the crowd responded negatively to the arguments of Prasarana – a 100% government-owned transport company.

Protest note

DAP Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun, who was also present, submitted a protest note to Prasarana officials.

FMT had reported that 34 shoplots have been served with compulsory acquisition notices to make way for the Jalan Sultan portion of the KVMRT project.

The track alignment, which was approved by the government a few months ago, will run along Jalan Sultan from KL Sentral and cut through the arch that bears the name “Petaling Street”.

The station, along with its tracks, will be built underground, cutting its way through portions of Chinatown.

Zulkifli argued that the MRT project was urgent, warning that if the MRT was not built, Kuala Lumpur would suffer from the same congestion problems plaguing traffic-choked cities such as Jakarta and Bangkok.

Sounding upbeat, he pointed out to the public’s alleged resounding positive feedback to the project.

“We received more than 6,000 feedback from the public, with 91% support,” he said several times throughout the briefing.

Citing the National Land Code 1965 over land acquisitions, Zulkifli also said that the law did not allow underground tunnels to be built without land acquisition.

He said this after responding to questions from the owners who pointed out that this was not the case in other countries, such as London’s underground railway.

“We have had months of discussions with the Attorney-General’s Office and the Land Office on how to do so without land acquisitions… It’s not possible to do it,” he said.

“Because of the tunnels, some buildings will be hit,” he added.

‘We are willing to fight’

But these reasons did not convince the Chinatown proprietors, some of whom claimed to have been in the area for decades.

Hotel City Inn owner Richard Han asked Prasarana why the government had to pick Petaling Street when there was ample government land nearby.

“What about the police station? Isn’t that government land?” he asked.

Other business owners also asked if it was possible to place the track alignment on a nearby parking lot.

Another even suggested moving the Merdeka MRT station, the next stop in the Sungai Buloh-Kajang line after Jalan Sultan.

However, Prasarana was adamant about the track alignment, saying that no changes could be made without massive alignment modifications.

Dr Ooi Lean Hock, a geotechnical expert with MMC-Gamuda – the MRT’s project delivery partner – also argued that Kuala Lumpur stood on “highly unpredictable” karstic limestone soil.

“When you tunnel a hole into the ground, there will be an impact on the building (above)… since the buildings there (in Chinatown) are quite old, it will be difficult to ascertain,” he said, citing safety concerns.

“You will be at risk,” he warned.

Zulkifli also added to this concern, saying that the tunnel construction of the Putra-LRT line in the 1990s encountered no less than “10 sinkholes”.

Lam, along with most of the crowd, did not agree with Prasarana.

“We are not willing to sacrifice our heritage. We are willing to fight to the end. We will even fight right up to the prime minister’s office,” she said.