Six squatter families comprising 30 men, women and children, including a seven-month-old baby girl, in Petanak, Kuching have been putting up in make-shift huts next to the demolished site for the last four days and nights.

They say they will not move away from the car-parking lots at the back on the Petanak's new shophouses until the authorities offer them land lots to resettle.

"Where can we go to when we have no where else to go? This has been our homes for the last two to three decades," Aminah binte Junaidi,61, who originally hails from Sarikei, told malaysiakini.

She and her husband Dollah Dahlan, 72, and her son Mohd Rapi, now 34, moved from Sarikei to Kuching 30 years ago in search of a better livelihood.

They ended up like many other families from rural areas squatting on state land in what was once obscure areas in the then fringes of the old Kuching.

Now the demolished site is only a stone-throw away from a high-rise condominium by the side of Sarawak River in a rapidly-growing commercial area.

Malays and Ibans

"The site was once isolated, and now surrounded by a much-changed environment so they are in a hurry to get rid of us," Dollah said, pointing to their former homes which enforcement officers from the Land & Survey Department demolished on Tuesday on a government's directive.

The six families comprising Malays and Ibans are part of a larger group of 17 families affected by the demolition.

The land which could accommodate 100 houses lies between the Petanak's new shophouses (opposite Petanak Market) and a few blocks of four-storey shophouses now under construction.

According to Kuching social activist Dominique Ng, who was at the site yesterday afternoon to hand over food to the families, it is believed that the land is being alienated to a state government agency involved in commercial land development.

The Buddhist Tzu-Chi volunteers also came to give the children a medical check-up, looking out especially for acute cases. They also distributed used clothing and mattresses.

"On the whole they are okay, except for one young boy with some skin problems," one medical volunteer said.

Shopowners appear to be sympathetic with their plight too. They tolerate their presence under those conditions and even allow them to collect piped water from one of the shops.

The rest of the families from the larger group of 17 have moved to stay temporarily with relatives and friends or have gone back to their kampungs.

They originally formed part of a big squatter colony comprising more than 100 families. The government started to resettle them in 1997.

Ng said most of them had either been allocated low-cost houses or given land lots.

"But the present group belongs to the hardcore poor and cannot even afford low cost houses which are not cheap. The working men and women earn on average RM300 to RM400 a month which does not even qualify them to buy low-cost houses costing somewhere around RM50,000 now," he said.

According to Ng, eight squatter families in an earlier group were offered some momentary incentives by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

But the amount was so negligible that they refused to consider until a higher sum was offered as they had to cover some legal fees as well, he added.

"I am not charging them fees. How could I when they can barely survive on what they earn," said Ng who is also a lawyer.