A COALITION of residents’ associations will take its fight against overdevelopment in the capital to Parliament next week.

Save Kuala Lumpur (SKL) chairman Dr Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman said it was time the coalition made its voice heard by those in power.

 “We now have to go to a higher level to protest City Hall’s refusal to gazette the local plan.

“This is an attempt to get all the MPs in Kuala Lumpur to work together to demand what is acquired by law,” Aziz told The Malaysian Insight during a meeting with the capital’s lawmakers in Bangsar, tonight.

Only seven of the 11 MPs who were invited showed up for the meeting and they were all from the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan.

They were Teresa Kok (Seputeh), Tian Chua (Batu), Lim Lip Eng (Segambut), Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang), Tan Kee Kwong (Wangsa Maju), Tan Kok Wai (Cheras) and PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil who represented Nurul Izzah Anwar (Lembah Pantai).

A broader structure plan and a local plan must be drafted and gazetted under the Federal Territory (Planning) Act 1982.

The two plans define land use for the development of the city.

However, the local plan, the KL City Plan 2020, has not been gazetted even though it was launched in 2008.

“It is a shameful thing for KL which is the capital of Malaysia and a well-known city, not to have a local plan.

“It’s an insult to all of us and that is why we are now pursuing this, (in the hope that) the authorities will realise (this) and get it gazetted,” he said, adding that the coalition hoped to bring the matter up with Prime Minister Najib Razak.

SKL deputy chairman M. Ali said the coalition would present the manifesto to Parliament on Monday, around noon.

“If we are not allowed to enter, we will give the manifesto to the MPs and hope they will be able to pass it to the prime minister,” he said.

The manifesto includes four key platforms to ensure sustainable growth of the city via democratisation of the local councils, effective community participation, and protection of green and public spaces,  and gazetting and enforcing a local plan.

Tian Chua said the move was to pressure the government to act.

“We’ll see how it goes from there. They want to see the prime minister but if he (Najib) refuses then we will have to keep trying,” he said.

Last month, SKL urged lawmakers in the capital to wake up and do something about the approvals for surplus development in the city.

It held a protest at the World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and handed over a memorandum to City Hall. – March 6, 2018.