LAST Saturday’s townhall meeting at the local DAP office in the town of Bekok, Johor, was similar to the many others like it held prior to the 14th general election, with one exception – the complainants now expect the newly elected ruling party to act on their grouses.

Dozens of land owners were present to meet their assemblyman and Johor exco Dr S. Ramakrishnan to seek compensation for giving up parts of their estates for the government to build a new access road.

A new road has to be built because the current one, owned by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), would be sealed once work on the double-tracking project begins next month.

Ng Siok See was upset that she would be forced to allocate part of her estate to the access road without receiving any compensation.

“This is an old project (first suggested in 2008) but the Barisan Nasional government has never consulted us on how to handle the road issues after it decided to go ahead with the project. This mess is theirs.

“We are not blaming the new government, but there’s no harm for him (Ramakrishnan) to ask for compensation,” said Ng, who has oil palm and rubber trees on her 6.1ha of plantation land inherited from her father.

The 55-year-old acknowledged that while their situation was not caused by the Pakatan Harapan government, she hoped it would help the landowners.

“This is what we have to endure from the BN government,” she said.

The proposed double-tracking line from Gemas to Johor Bahru would cut across several estates. Bekok is one of 11 proposed stops in the RM9.4 billion project.

Another landowner Wong said he expects DAP and PH to show that they are concerned about the plight of their constituents and step in to compensate them.

“You are government now. So, this can be done quickly.”

New pressures

Go Chin Chuan, a veteran DAP volunteer present at the meeting, said being elected into government has certainly placed more pressure on the party.

“Previously, the town people were more sympathetic when we said our hands are tied. But now, it’s harder as Pakatan is the government of the day,” said the 45-year-old.

Go, however, said it was a “good problem” to have.

“At least, we know we can do something now.

“If we had not won, I am not sure if the contractors would even offer to construct this road for free,” he said, referring to YTL Corp’s agreement to build the road, which would cut travel time by more than half from the estates to Bekok town.

“This is only the first meeting. There will have to be more as Bekok has many rivers and the project will cut through more estates,” he said.

After the meeting, Ng emerged with her husband and the consent form and hoped the other owners would agree to allocate some land for the road.

Ng said while he voters were happy to have gotten rid of the old government, she expected DAP and PH to step up.

“But they have to clean up all this mess for now. We understand that these are legacy issues but we will continue to pressure the new government,” she added.

Johor was one of five states (Kedah, Perak, Malacca and Negri Sembilan) that fell to PH in the last elections. This is the first time Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Johor have voted BN out at the state level.

In the elections, PH won 18 out of 26 federal seats and 36 out of 56 state seats in the BN stronghold.

In 2013, then Pakatan Rakyat held five federal and 18 state seats. – August 16, 2018.