Villagers vow to hound Guan Eng
(NST) BUTTERWORTH: Kampung Lorong Buah Pala villagers have vowed to hound Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng wherever he goes, in a bid to have a meeting with him.
About 20 of them turned up at a function he attended yesterday and staged a protest to get his attention.
The group, consisting of the village residents and a few of their supporters, gathered at Jalan Chain Ferry near here, waiting for Lim to arrive at a Penang Tamil Cultural Association event.
He arrived at 6pm and went straight into the building.
It was raining heavily, but the placard-carrying protesters were undeterred.
They only left 15 minutes later when told to disperse by police.
The village residents association adviser, K. Maran, said they would continue to try to see Lim.
"We will follow him wherever he goes.
"If he goes on his campaigning rounds in Permatang Pasir, he can expect to see us there too," he said.
Earlier at the village, the association's secretary, J. Stephen, said the residents had never been unreasonable in their demands and efforts to save their homes in the Bukit Gelugor village.
He said the situation, as well as reports carried by the media, had caused the people of the village to be much misunderstood.
"What unreasonable demands have we made?
"We wanted to discuss with the state about where we would put up once our houses were demolished and rental payments until the new houses were ready. Is that unreasonable?" he asked.
Stephen was commenting on Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer's statement on Saturday that some of the residents including himself, his assistant secretary C. Tharmaraj and another resident O. Sevaraj had been making unreasonable demands on the state government.
Many of the 24 temporary occupation licence holders at the village had initially rejected developer Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd's double-storey terrace house offer, claiming that the deal had too many loopholes.
Stephen said the residents only wanted to negotiate further with the developer through the state government to improve the deal to safeguard their own well-being.
