Kampung Tasik Permai located in Ampang won’t strike someone as being a typical poverty- stricken area. The ridge, about a 15-minute drive away from the Ampang LRT station in Kuala Lumpur, is dotted with modern homes, some with fashionable wooden extensions.

Some houses are clustered together without fences while others have fancy fencing culminating in gates in black with gold-coloured trappings. Many rooftops are studded Astro’s grey satellite dish.

So it comes as a shock to see a grim-looking shack, occupying a 20 by 12 meter wide plot of land, located right smack in the middle of this middle-class neighbourhood.