ALMOST 200 people, made up of Taman Tun Dr Ismail residents and nature lovers from around the city, gathered at Rimba Kiara Park this morning to protest City Hall’s approval for a disputed development.

According to the protestors, they were appalled that City Hall had given the green light for Memang Perkasa Sdn Bhd (MPSB) to continue the development and paved the way by approving the construction of a sales gallery.

The showroom is to showcase and offer to sell eight blocks of high-end apartments by Malton Bhd unit, MPSB, at Rimba Kiara Park.

TTDI Residents Association chairman Hafiz Abu Bakar said Rimba Kiara Park is not only an issue that affected the residents but also nature lovers from other parts of the city.

He said the protest is to prompt authorities to cancel the project as they were enraged that the approval for the proposed development was given on November 6 – three days after a dialogue with Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

“The minister (Tengku Adnan) said he would never ever touch Rimba Kiara Park, but three days later, City Hall approved the showroom.

“It’s very clear they don’t have the public’s sentiment at heart. You don’t just take a public park and turn it to condominiums,” he told the crowd.

On November 6, City Hall had issued another approval to build a property sales gallery on the construction site.

Save Taman Rimba Kiara working group committee coordinator, Leon Koay said Hafiz had written a letter to Tengku Adnan on Nov 6 to seek a meeting with the minister.

“We have gotten no replies. Absolutely none. On top of that, we discovered City Hall approved the construction of a showroom,” Koay told The Malaysian Insight.

On November 3, the federal territories minister met with the residents of TTDI at the first-ever “bicara rakyat” where they brought up various concerns, chief of which was the fate of Taman Rimba Kiara.

Instead of a firm “no”, Tengku Adnan gave vague promises “to look into the matter” and “we want to make you happy”.

Tengku Adnan repeated a few times he would not touch Rimba Kiara Park as it was reserved land.

TTDI resident Boris Chang said City Hall’s approval of the development proved that the authority was not heeding concerns raised by the residents.

“They are just trying to give you a kind of answer with no promises. They are not taking us seriously,” said the 62-year-old.

Chang who has lived in TTDI since 1997 said the protest to save Rimba Kiara Park is not only for the residents but is also for nature.

“This (park) needs to be saved and it’s right in the centre of the city. Where else can you find something like that and how can we allow them to destroy it?” Chang told The Malaysian Insight.

Sixteen-year-old Hannan Akhmal said she disagrees with the development project as there are not a lot of green spaces in the city.

“If you develop something (in green spaces), the generations after us wouldn’t know what this is all about,” said the student.

Last year, TTDI residents discovered a City Hall notice which announced a mammoth development that would obliterate much of Taman Rimba Kiara and on June 14 last year, a RM3 billion project was project was made public.

TTDI’s residents’ association submitted more than 5,000 signatures against the project.

In August last year, residents’ representatives attended a public hearing and found out that in addition to a 29-storey block of an affordable housing flat, and eight blocks of high-end apartments on a 4.86ha land, a six-lane highway has been earmarked to cut through the leafy and affluent TTDI neighbourhood.

On May 7 this year, after its protests fell on deaf ears, the resident’s association announced it would sue City Hall to stop the project.

Residents of TTDI then filed a judicial review against City Hall and the Kuala Lumpur mayor.

Leave had been granted by the High Court on August 23.

The court had fixed December 13 to hear the residents’ application for a stay order to stop the development. – November 26, 2017.