The Malaysian Insight

JOGGERS start trickling into Taman Rimba Kiara just before dawn.

“There are always a lot of them in the mornings,” said Dewa, a 33-year-old from the neighbouring Bukit Kiara longhouse settlement who mans the guardhouse.

To visitors, the 9.7ha park looks innocuous. However, it is at the centre of a legal battle between residents on one side, and the government and a developer on the other since 2014.

Taman Tun Dr Ismail residents are awaiting a crucial hearing at the Court of Appeal on January 15 that will determine their judicial review application to challenge the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL)-approved development at Taman Rimba Kiara.

Residents want a court order to quash the development of a 2014 joint venture undertaken by property developer Malton Bhd with DBKL’s Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP), a foundation chaired by the Federal Territories minister, who is now Khalid Abdul Samad.

Malton’s controlling shareholder is property tycoon Desmond Lim Siew Choon, who was closely associated with former prime minister Najib Razak.

TTDI residents filed an application for a judicial review at the high court in 2016 to invalidate DBKL’s development order for the project, saying it could lead to the destruction of Taman Rimba Kiara. The court denied the application the following year.  

Thrown into the mix are 100 families from the Bukit Kiara longhouse settlement who were promised a resettlement plan by YWP in 2015, whereby DBKL approved and issued a development order involving 4.8ha.

The development encompassed a 29-storey apartment with 350 units of affordable housing, as well as eight blocks of serviced apartments and eight storeys of parking facilities.

The development area has since been reduced to about 3ha, but residents want to hear none of it. They believe the needs of low-income residents, including the preservation of the Sri Maha Muniswarar Kaliamman temple, can be met without sacrificing any of the park.

In the meantime, they have found their champion in Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh, who has said residents want all development confined within the 1.8ha longhouse area.

In May, the Segambut MP lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over the development, including the involvement of former Federal Territories minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. The Umno man is currently on trial for a separate corruption case.

All construction at Taman Rimba Kiara was suspended in January.

A visit by The Malaysian Insight over the weekend showed little by way of construction, other than a pile of rubble near the entrance.

“We just want affordable housing,” said Venga, a Bukit Kiara longhouse resident.

Venga, who operates a roll-on, roll-off bin business, said most longhouse residents earn minimum wage.

“We would like a townhouse apartment. That’s enough,” he said, adding that most residents recognise the fact that should development be allowed to proceed in full, the entire park may be destroyed.

“If they build the condos, this will be gone.”

Khalid had negotiated for a scaled-down plan, comprising four blocks of serviced apartments and 204 affordable housing units, which most TTDI residents rejected.

Increasing the intrigue is the recent hire of prominent lawyer Gopal Sri Ram by DBKL to argue its case in court.

The Federal Territories Ministry recently said Sri Ram offered his services pro bono, a claim that has been ridiculed on residents’ bulletin boards.

“It’s all about money,” said Save Taman Rimba Kiara Group media coordinator Khairudin Rahim, who estimated the value of the development at RM3 billion.

“It’s about greed overcoming sensibility.” – December 1, 2019.