OWNERS of shop-lots in Ampang Park shopping complex, led by Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs Association of Malaysia (Ikhlas) president Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, demonstrated on Thursday against the demolition of the building to make way for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station at the DBKL building on Jalan Raja Laut.
When asked if it was compensation they were after, Mohd Ridzuan said no.
He stressed that the group was fighting to protect the livelihood of people who had, over the years, carved a living by trading in the shopping complex.
Three owners who joined in the protest said they were angry to lose their freehold titles.
One strata owner David Ting said he had invested his life savings to purchase a shop unit at the shopping centre. To own the property, Ting fought an eight-year legal battle to have the title transferred to his name.
“We don’t want the building to be broken down because we have seen from the plan, the required construction area will only take up a small part of the ground floor,” said Ampang Jaya Traders Committee vice chairman Datuk Nik Md Salleh Nik Jaffar.
He feels it does not make economic sense for the authorities to spend taxpayer’s money to compensate every unit owner when only a small part of the building is affected. Nik Md said it was wasteful to tear a whole building down when it could be closed temporarily and reopened again after MRT Corp had completed construction.
Back in 2015 when the same subject was brought up, MRT Corp commercial and land management director Datuk Haris Fadzilah Hassan said the demolition of the shopping centre was necessary and that it was not possible to save any part of the building, even though construction of the station would only take two-thirds of the area underground.
Harris said construction work would involve a 44m excavation at the site, and this would destabilise the structure. As such, there was a need to tear the building down.
In a desperate attempt to have their plight heard, they handed a letter of appeal over to Federal Territories Minister Datuk Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. The letter was received by a DBKL officer who will only identify himself as Fairuz.
In the letter, premise owners made suggestions on alternatives that would allow the construction of the MRT line without the building having to be demolished, including the realignment of the pedestrian walkway for the MRT.
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