‘Say No to Kidex’ (SNTK) and ‘Say No to Dash’ (SNTD) yesterday held a rally at Dataran Petaling Jaya to express our displeasure and disappointment with the federal and Selangor governments over the proposed Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) and the Damansara-Shah Alam Highway (Dash).
Close to 800 people attended the rally, and all these individuals filled out forms objecting to the highways and their inclusion in the Selangor State Structural Plan Exploratory Report. These are in addition to the 3,000 signatures against Kidex and 5,000 signatures against Dash.
We wish to thank all the speakers who attended and spoke passionately about the nature of the highways - that these were conceived without public consultation or due process.
These highways were, in fact, a means to an end - to make money for those who obtained the concessionaire agreement.
Interestingly, shortly before the event began, the Malay Mail Online broke the story that Putrajaya had given the final greenlight for the Dash highway, citing developer Prolintas as having met the condition precedent - even though Damansara Perdana residents were not consulted at any stage of the process.
Special thanks is given to former law minister Zaid Ibrahim who graced us not only by attending and speaking, but also by offering to advise us in a legal capacity as well as to foot the legal services required for the lawsuit.
It is an honourable man who is willing to stand up for his beliefs and to have the courage of conviction of putting his money where his mouth is, and we - the residents of Petaling Jaya - applaud him. The SNTK and SNTD committee will revert to him and liaise on the best means of proceeding.
We also note an undertone of unhappiness in certain quarters with regard to the fact that Pakatan representatives present were not given allocated speaking times.
No contribution from elected reps
Let us set the record straight on this. We had a programme and a list of speakers who had confirmed ahead of time that they would speak at the event, and none of those who confirmed were from Pakatan Rakyat.
Firstly, we have been actively campaigning and promoting this rally and seeking donations from the public for several weeks now. The elected representatives (i.e. MPs, assemblypersons, etc) were all invited by text message, but none of them had the courtesy to respond stating their intent to attend.
The residents of Petaling Jaya had donated wholeheartedly and we thank you for this. However, we did not receive any financial contribution from our elected representatives for this rally.
Even non-financial contribution (i.e. assistance in securing a venue, getting the venue fees waived, permits, promoting the rally in any shape or form, etc) would have shown some intent on their part to support the movement. In short, no help was provided.
We did not even get a reply from them when we asked them to sponsor us. Despite this, we persisted for the people of PJ. We organised a peaceful rally with a set list of speakers, and concluded the session with a photo shoot which ran according to schedule. Rental of the field only ran up to 12pm and we concluded the event on time.
For the record, we did not bar these representatives from speaking. This was evidenced by the fact that they had a lengthy discussion with the media.
Despite speaking to the media for over 20 minutes, there was no mention to why they were against the project (i.e. the obvious health hazards, proximity to residential area, etc), rather, they continued to declare that they wanted to “set the record straight”.
In fact, SNTK committee member Helen Chong offered Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua a banner upon his arrival to declare his stance against the project for the photo shoot. He declined, saying that he could not carry it.
Assemblypersons R Rajiv and Yeo Bee Yin also did not have any banners in hand. However, we are grateful to note that Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo had carried his banner of protest proudly.
We would like to point out to everyone reading this, that while our elected representatives stated quite clearly that they are against the project, none of them have at any stage clearly stated what they intend to do about it.
Gobind was yesterday quoted as saying in the Malay Mail Online that they have met with Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali, and that his (Gobind’s) position is that “the MB should come up with an official statement soon.”
This crystallises our point. Requesting the MB to issue a statement is not nearly enough. Not by a long shot. What do you (Tony Pua, Gobind Singh Deo, R Rajiv, Yeo Bee Yin, R Sivasara) intend to do to fix this problem as the representatives of the people?
Blasé attitudes
One of our speakers today said it best when he quoted Martin Luther King, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
Why was it even necessary for SNTK and SNTD to conduct a rally to evoke a response from our duly elected representatives? In its own way, this was a test to see how our representatives acted, and what they intend to do to correct this injustice against the people.
Those of you who have been aware of this project know all too well that this blasé attitude by our representatives has been going on for quite some time now. By what measure then did they feel they had a right to speak yesterday, when they have done nothing to support the rally or address the underlying issue.
Additionally, Kidex Sdn Bhd today also issued a statement saying that they would be willing to disclose the concessionaire agreement, but only to the Selangor MB and state legal advisers.
Tony Pua then took this his Facebook page and posted the following message: “Kidex said no to publicly disclosing the Federal Government Concession Agreement. Great. Then the Selangor government's job is as easy as ABC. We don't even need to 'consider', much less approve the project.”
We are adding this to our press statement as a means of ensuring accountability.
Your message to the public also serves to provide us with a unique perspective - should Kidex reveal the concessionaire, and that the Selangor government will be “willing to consider” the project - which goes directly against the ‘Buku Jingga’ Manifesto against tolled roads.
In sum, SNTK and SNTD will continue to keep the people of Petaling Jaya apprised and thank you heartily for your support.
