Residents demand Pakatan's stand on mega-cemetery

For five years, residents of Taman Saujana Puchong have been campaigning against Subang Jaya Municipal Council's (MPSJ) plan to turn part of the Ayer Hitam forest reserve into a cemetery.

Back then, they received the support from then opposition parties DAP, PKR and PAS.

Now that the three parties are governing the Selangor state for a year and a half, residents are wondering if the parties - which are under the Pakatan Rakyat banner - are turning their backs on them.

During a dialogue session with state government officials over the controversial project in June 22, the residents were promised by state housing, building management and squatters' committee chairperson Iskandar Abdul Samad that a solution would be found in three months.

But now that the Sept 22 deadline has passed without any word from the authorities, the ad-hoc committee opposing the cemetery - dubbed the Signature Campaign Teamwork (SCT) - has written to Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim for an explanation.

"They used to stand beside us before they became the government. We hope they would quickly decide on the matter soon. We want to live in peace and not have to worry about the cemetery," said spokesperson Lau Seng You (left).

The proposed 55-hectare public cemetery (see map below) which includes a crematorium - touted as the biggest in the country - will occupy a sizeable portion of the forest reserve presently owned by Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) and now being used for research purposes.

Wanting an out-of-court settlement

According to the residents, the 3,000 hectare reserve is among the few green lungs in the area and the few remaining lowland forests in the country. It is also home to an orang asli community.

Some 1,500 residents in the area are worried about devaluing property prices and environmental pollution caused by the proposed crematorium.

SCT's representative had filed for a judicial review in 2006 but the case has been postponed several times.

Residents today brought the press to the edge of the forest reserve for a group photo, posing with a banner made in 2007, the content of which was ironically suggested to them by Iskandar, who is a PAS politician.

Lau said that though the suit was pending and the trial has yet to begin, the SCT prefers an amicable out-of-court solution.